John Davis
January 18, 2012
In October 2012 the 40th IVU World Veg Congress will join with the Vegsource Healthy Lifestyle Expo in Los Angeles, California.
We'll still be in San Francisco as well, the SF Veg Festival is the previous weekend -October 6-7 for that one, then a short flight down to LA for the weekend of Oct. 12-14 for those that want to go to both. We also expect both events to have some extra days, maybe more talks and workshops, visits to local animal sanctuaries, and other sightseeing trips.
Here's Jeff and Sabrina, who set it all up in LA, and the 2011 Expo in full swing:
The link between IVU and Vegsource goes back to 1998, when we were looking for somewhere to put the IVU website. Jeff and Sabrina offered us free space on their Vegsource.com server, and we've been there ever since. Along the way we've also been able to provide space for some of the smaller local groups that are members of IVU, and Vegsource has hosted a whole bunch of other veg groups and individuals.
The International Vegetarian Union was already 90 years old in 1998, and Vegsource was still in its infancy but, as so often happens, the youth are more up
A few years later the first Vegsource Health Expo was held in Los Angeles, and as the IVU Congresses rotate around the world, we soon started talking about combining them for one year. We even talked about moving both of them over the border to Mexico at one time, but never quite seemed to be able to tie it down. Until this year.
When we realised the Expo would be the weekend after the San Francisco Festival it was a no-brainer. We're on our way!
A couple of years ago Hazel and I managed to get over to LA to stay with Jeff and Sabrina for a few days, then took the short flight up to San Francisco. We stayed there with Jeff's parents, an amazing couple, and met up with everyone from the SF Vegsoc.
That's Hazel about to walk all over Duke Ellington on Hollywood Boulevard....
We went over to Santa Barbara for a day, just along the coast, to meet up with our friend Gabriel from England. Below is the Mission, the oldest building in the city, where were did the tour and sat in on part of a Mass:
We also went down to Venice Beach one day, where we met up with Eric from Happycow.net - that's Hazel and Eric on the beach below, looking towards the hills of Malibu:
There are plenty of other attractions in the Los Angeles area of course, anything from Disneyland to a wolf sanctuary - rescued from being shot in Alaska apparently. We should have some visits to all kinds of places.
And don't forget about San Francisco the previous weekend - the SF VegSoc's World Veg Festival is on the weekend of October 6/7 and we'll be there too.
The details for California so far = both San Francisco and Los Angeles - are at: www.ivu.org/congress/2012 - more to come soon...
And if that's not enough... the IVU Congress/Vegfest is now an annual event, and for 2013 we'll be joining with the Asian Veg Union for their 6th regional Congress.
This one will be in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - I stopped there for a few days in 2010 and took the photo of the famous twin towers on the right - now the world's 3rd tallest building since Dubai and Shanghai went higher...
And there will be optional extras in Penang (Malaysia), Phuket (Thailand, for the huge Vegetarian Festival), and Bali (Indonesia, for any who didn't make it in 2010, or just want to go back again). Do come and join us!
For the latest details of everything follow the: IVU Facebook page - www.facebook.com/InternationalVegUnion
