Vegetarian festival offers some greens on a gray day

By Tasha Kates

Published: September 27, 2008

At the corner of a folding table across from Lee Park, Charlottesville resident Lisa Eller gathered a dollop of collard greens with a piece of teff bread.

“We’ve been coming here since it started,” said Eller, who was eating her Ethiopian lunch with her friend and daughter at the 12th annual Charlottesville Vegetarian Festival on Saturday.

Despite intermittent rain, new and old visitors flocked to the park for this year’s event. Hundreds of people milled along the sidewalks, learning about the vegetarian lifestyle while listening to live music.
Eller and Rita Schwartz took a short break from walking around the booths to have lunch. While Eller ate, her 4-year-old daughter Abigael clutched a bag of popcorn. The little girl is not a fan of vegetables, much preferring bread and pasta.

“Children remain children, even at the vegetarian festival,” Schwartz said.
That didn’t mean Abigael didn’t get into the spirit of the event. She clutched a pink metal water bottle bought for her by Schwartz, who said recent research about the effects of bisphenol A in reusable plastic water bottles has inspired her to buy ones made of metal or glass instead.
Making small changes to protect people’s health and the environment was a focus of many of the booths at the festival, some of which sold vegan handbags and offered energy-saving tips.
One booth in particular allowed festival attendees to make a difference immediately in the lives of animals. Placed in the corner of the festival, where parents such as Eller could avoid but couldn’t resist, a few small dogs in cages waited to be taken to a new home.
Toni Gorveatt and her daughter drove to the city from Ashland to adopt Dixie, a terrier mix they had seen on an adoption Web site.

After getting in touch with Karin Straley of Animal Connections, the two talked about adopting the spotted dog. Straley brought the pup to the vegetarian festival, and Gorveatt and her daughter stopped by to pick her up after walking around for a bit.
“We did some browsing here beforehand,” Gorveatt said. “It’s very neat.”
Straley, who organized the adoption on Saturday, was on her toes for most of the event, keeping busy with questions from people interested in adopting dogs or fostering them.

Back at the food court, Manassas residents Karen Gochenour and her daughter, Lauren Saylor, discussed the dogs and the festival. Saylor, who is a vegetarian, said she hasn’t found a similar event in Northern Virginia.
“It seems smaller,” Saylor said of Saturday’s event. “There used to be less pets …”
“… To tempt you,” said Gochenour, laughing, finishing her daughter’s sentence.

“Kinda good, kinda bad,” said Saylor, digging her fork into a pile of fried tofu.