(Montreal) The Montreal Vegan Festival is celebrating its tenth anniversary this weekend. The organization expects to receive thousands of people by the end of the event, which runs until late Sunday afternoon at the Palais des congrès.
In ten years, the president and founder of the event, Louis-Alexandre Gagnon, has seen the place of veganism increase in the metropolis.
“There are a lot more offers, it’s much more popular than before, and we hope that it will continue to increase,” said Mr. Gagnon in an interview.
25 years ago, there was a vegan restaurant in Montreal, now there are around fifty.
Louis-Alexandre Gagnon
Since Saturday, visitors to the festival can attend lectures, including on animal ethics and the health impacts of being vegan, as well as cooking demonstrations. The spokesperson for the event, chef Christian Ventura, owner of Sushi Momo, notably offered a conference on his journey as a vegan entrepreneur.
More than a hundred exhibitors are on site, whereas ten years ago there were only around thirty.
Louis-Alexandre Gagnon had the idea for the Montreal Vegan Festival when he visited the Toronto one in 2000.
“In those years, I founded the Montreal Vegetarian Association, and about ten years later, we had enough volunteers, enough momentum, to create a big event,” he says.
However, the event has not been spared by the pandemic, and since last year, the organization has had to ask visitors to pay for an entrance ticket to the festival, whereas previously they could access it for free. The number of exhibitors had decreased, even though they were the ones financing the festival.
The entrance fee caused a drop in the number of visitors last year, which stood at 3,300. This weekend, however, the Vegan Festival expects to welcome 5,000 people, since they sold more than tickets ahead of the event than last year.
Mr. Gagnon therefore remains optimistic for the future of the event. The professional landscape architect is involved in the festival on a voluntary basis.
“I still have a lot of fun doing it, so I hope that I will continue to have fun doing this, and that there will continue to be more and more vegans in Montreal, and vegetarians. curious people who come to the festival,” he said.