After many months of planning and preparation, Ottawa Veg Fest was held on April 29 and shattered all previously-held Veg Fest records.

More than 3,000 visitors.

101 individuals signed up for the 31-Day Vegan Challenge (coordinator Krista is stunned- she was expecting a dozen).

110 people became NCVA members.

Three successful speaker demonstrations over at Corpus Christi school, with about 150 viewers for each.

Three cooking demos, with triple the audience from previous years.

For a couple hours we had a lineup snaking its way into the street. A line up! Definitely a Veg Fest first.

Mayor Jim Watson made the rounds early.  CBC’s Lucy Van Oldenbarnveld and LiVE 88.5’s David Schellenberg both came and took it all in; sampling the food, speaking with festival-goers, and meeting NCVA volunteers.  We also had reporters on site, reporting about Veg Fest to their followers.  We know for sure that CBC Radio and CFRA covered Veg Fest on the evening news; if you know of others please let us know.

I apologize for the crappy Blackberry photos, but they’re all we’ve got until our official photographer, Joshua McCullough, is finished poring through some 400 photos that he took at the event. We’ll be sure to share those once we have them.

The NCVA is very thankful to all who came out, but especially our wonderful volunteers, the sponors (especially our stalwart, The Table Vegetarian Restaurant), the exhibitors, the speakers and cooking demoers, and those who donated to our silent auction.

There will be more info to come as things are sorted out. Stay tuned.