Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa hosted the annual Herbivore Festival on Sunday, April 28. The event was hosted by the college’s Department of Kinesiology and Health. The event was filled with lectures revolving around the topics of veganism, spirituality, food demonstrations, and environmentalism. There were also fitness classes and performers. To top it off, the event featured over 200 vendors, with everything from clothing and apparel, to face painting, to freshly prepared food.
Colleen Hinds, professor of Kinesiology and Health and organizer of the event described it as “sheer action and fun and excitement.” The event lasted from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and was bustling throughout. “I’m just thrilled that this many people came out and this many vendors are here, and that everybody’s so supportive of the plant-based movement,” she said.
The goal behind the event is stated to be to educate and empower people to adopt a plant-based diet and provide them with the tools to stick with it. Hinds explains that “I want a whole well-rounded lifestyle and I want to share it with other people. Especially the veganism part. I didn’t know for a lot of years that I was eating animals. I guess I’ve been vegan for fifteen years and vegetarian for nineteen. But I didn’t know I was eating animals and when I came to that realization I was like, I’m not ever going to do that again.”
The problem Hinds has witnessed is transitioning to this plant-based lifestyle. That’s where the Herbivore Festival comes in. Hinds said, “But I didn’t know which resources [were out there], I didn’t know where to eat, what I’m supposed to wear, what cosmetics are safe, so I wanted to put something together so other people could have all the tools at their hands instead of having to find the information from everywhere. So I’ll have all these vendors so people know what they can eat, what kind of cosmetics they can use, what they can buy, and the lectures to tell you how to eat healthy, and then how to garden and grow your own stuff, and then obviously spirituality is a big part of a healthy lifestyle.”
The event had a successful turnout, both in terms of vendors and guests. Despite all the excitement found within the festival, Hinds says “I am most excited that we have people here that are supportive of [the event]. Everybody is just nice and friendly and happy and here to have a good time.”
Lectures included health reasons for adopting a plant-based diet and catered to those interested in a vegan diet or new information for those who had already transitioned to a vegan diet. There were twelve lifestyle lectures of this sort that sought to inform audiences on the health benefits of a vegan diet.
Another twelve lectures were held throughout the course of the day, focusing on spirituality. These lectures ranged from everything from channelings and meditations, to lectures from doctors, to the healing properties of biomagnetic therapy.
Food demos were held throughout the day featuring tips on preparing a plant-based meal. Some demos focused on the easiness of preparing a plant-based diet, such as the quinoa taco salad, while others focused on the health benefits of a plant-based diet, such as drinking the ancient tea of immortality, otherwise known as kombucha.
Connie Pearson, vendor for the Save Movement and Direct Action Everywhere group said, “It’s so exciting so many animal rights groups have been springing up in the last few years. I’ve been an animal rights activist for almost forty years and I’ve seen the most change in the last five years. There’s just so much more awareness. There’s just a shift in consciousness that’s happened in the last five years that’s just incredible.”