Media Release

For immediate release 07 September 2004

Viva!’s Incredible Veggie Roadshows to tour UK

Campaigning animal welfare group Viva! is set to launch The Incredible Veggie Roadshow, as part of its 10th anniversary celebrations, this October. The first roadshow is taking place in Viva!’s home town of Bristol, where they are joining forces with the Vegan Fayre, which was a sell-out success last year.  This year’s event promises to be even bigger. The roadshow will make appearances in cities all over the UK (see below for full list) in the year ahead before culminating in the massive Incredible Veggie Show at London’s Wembley Conference Centre in November 2005.

Everything you ever wanted to know about going, being or staying veggie/vegan will be on tap at the shows. The Bristol launch takes place at L-Shed, Industrial Museum, Princes Wharf, Wapping Road, on Saturday, October 30, 2004 from 9.30am to 5.30pm. Organised by the two Bristol-based organisations Viva! and Yaoh, entry is free. There will be a variety of delicious free food tastings from vegan food manufacturers, such as Dove’s Farm, Redwood, Plamil and many more, and all the advice you could ever want on changing your diet or improving your health will also be available, free.

The Bristol Roadshow will be a brilliant family day out, with cookery demonstrations, vegan wines, juice bars, cocktail bar, 80 stalls, competitions, beauty products, vegan food products, books, information, campaign news, a café as well as a children’s entertainer.  There will also be talks by Viva!’s Juliet Gellatley and Yaoh’s Tim Barford as well as Gareth Zeal, Nutritional Adviser to Manchester City F.C.; Mike Abrahams, owner of Bristol health store Wild Oats; Hippocrates Health Educator Jill Swyers and Clare Benjamin from the Bristol Cancer Help Centre.

Viva! (Vegetarians International Voice for Animals) is an international animal campaigning group with its HQ in the UK, and offices in the USA and Poland. It carries out undercover investigations to expose animal abuse and successes include ending the sale of ‘exotic’ meats such as kangaroo and crocodile by all big supermarkets, stopping the debeaking of ducks in the UK, slashing the export of Polish ‘meat’ horses to the EU and persuading a US supermarket chain to entirely rewrite its animal welfare codes. Viva!’s most recent victory was this year when it exposed cruelty at a duck supplier to Marks & Spencer.  The store dropped all factory-farmed whole ducks as a result and the supplier went bust. Viva! also produces a wide array of materials on going vegetarian and vegan.

“The roadshows are essentially a fun day out which is a celebration of veggie living”, says Juliet Gellatley, international director of Viva!.  “For the increasing numbers of people who want to find out more about improving their health, saving animals and protecting the environment, these are upbeat events which will entertain and help. And they’re all free of charge!” 

For further information on the roadshows, log on at www.viva.org.uk/roadshows

To find out more about the roadshows, contact:
Angie Greenaway at Viva! on: 0117 944 1000

For broadcast interviews, contact:
Juliet Gellatley, Viva!’s director or Justin Kerswell, Viva!’s campaigner on:
0117 944 1000

www.viva.org.uk/roadshows

The Incredible Veggie Roadshow Itinerary

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