Festival of life

Citation

(2010), "Festival of life", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 40 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/nfs.2010.01740aab.026

Festival of life

Article Type: Food facts From: Nutrition & Food Science, Volume 40, Issue 1.

A vibrant, jam-packed, holistic event, ran from 10.30 am to 11.30 pm at Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, Holborn, London WC1R 4RL.

The Festival of Life, now a well-established event on the sustainable lifestyle scene, is the biggest living food festival in Europe.

In 2008 it attracted over 1,200 people including visitors from the USA, across Europe, and all over the UK. With a range of activities from music to meditation; feasting to fasting; dancing to chanting; children's edutainment to natural parenting; plus many methods to rejuvenate from the effects of twenty-first century living.

The 2009 theme was: “Creating a Healthy Future – Now !”

The festival welcomed people who are new to living foods and environmentally friendly ways of living, as well as those who are already knowledgeable. It is family-friendly, with facilities and activities being planned for children.

A unique feature of the Festival of Life is its commitment to providing only healthy food and drinks. While organic, raw, live and vegan food has been around since time immemorial, with increasing awareness of the impacts of industrial farming on the environment and animal health, of the importance of healthy nutrition in relation to health, and with innovative chefs experimenting with exotic ingredients and incredible new tastes and textures, such cuisine is more exciting and appealing than ever.

During the day, a huge selection of stalls offered goods, products, services and information for the aspiring health-conscious, eco-minded soul. Additionally, an abundance of inspiring speakers talked on an extensive and eclectic range of holistic subjects.

S-pea-ding ahead

The award-winning Yes Peas! campaign storms into another year.

“This has been a really successful year,” says Tim Mudge, Commercial Manager at PVGA, coordinators with Kenyon Communications of the Yes Peas! campaign, run onbehalf of the pea growers and freezers.

We continue to increase our coverage year after year.

Yet again, we have managed to surpass the previous year's AVE, and in 2008-2009, hit a very satisfying £1.85m worth of coverage with a budget of only £42,000. Not only has pea consumption been increased, but now, they are regarded as an important ingredient in many different cuisines and not just a vegetable on the side of the plate.

The campaign featured in numerous national and regional publications with recipes created by TV chef Rachel Green, now synonymous with the campaign.

More than 70,000 copies of the Yes Peas! recipe booklet were distributed this year, which brings the total number to more than 170,000. The book was also featured on Have I Got News For You, which attracted a great flurry of interest and considerable traffic to the www.peas.org website.

“Plans have now been agreed for 2009-2010,” says Tim Mudge.

There will of course be a new clutch of recipes form Rachel, which forms the core of the activity, and all sorts of other exciting projects. These run from sponsoring the Peasenhall Festival, which celebrates the British love of peas, for the second year running (Peasenhall in Suffolk is reputed to be where the Romans first cultivated peas in Britain), to working with Lincoln University to develop a range of tools and images for our website.