The China Vegan Society was honored to participate in the Vegan Festival Indonesia and 8th Annual World Vegan Organisation’s International Conference held earlier this month in Jakarta, Indonesia!

Indonesia’s largest vegan event

Offering vegan food courts, food and product exhibitions, a vegan bazaar, documentary screenings, talks, and workshops, Vegan Festival Indonesia is a fun and educational event celebrating local plant-based food, highlighting the environmental and ethical benefits of plant-based lifestyles, and addressing the cultural awareness required for vegan activists to grow the vegan movement in Asia. This year's event was the first to include an ethical section bringing together different international and local animal rights and welfare organizations to educate attendees about effective approaches to promoting compassionate veganism and animal rights issues in Asia.

The event was co-organized by the Indonesian Vegetarian Society (IVS), the Vegan Society of Indonesia (VSI), and the World Vegan Organisation (WVO). The China Vegan Society was invited to present in the ethical section along with many other vegan organizations from around the world.

Mouth-watering local and international vegan food

If you've joined a VegFest or a vegan market before, you know that food stalls offering delicious and innovative vegan snacks are a core part of the experience and an essential crowd-magnet. Vegan Festival Indonesia featured a huge variety of veganized Indonesian dishes, as well as international classics like pizza, cheesecake, and donuts.

Indonesian cuisine has some similar elements to Chinese cuisine, such as noodles, meatballs, and spring rolls. Many dishes are spicy, and are often flavored with curry and cooked with coconut milk for a rich, creamy flavor.

Bakso ngapung is a classic Indonesian street food of meatballs with noodles in spicy broth. The mushroom-based version was a huge hit at the Indonesian Vegan Festival, with many stalls selling their own versions.

The most popular snack at the festival was undoubtedly this khacapuri with mock "egg yolk" made from pumpkin. This dish came with a story, as well—the owner of the stall used to be a local television host, but began creating and selling vegan food after becoming committed to the cause of promoting veganism.

Front-line advocacy sharing and documentary screenings

In addition to the mouth-watering food, the event featured workshops, seminars, film screenings, live cooking competitions, and a variety of local cultural performances. In just two days, there were 12 workshops and 37 film screenings on various topics such as the development of the vegan movement, the impact of a vegan diet on the environment and climate, how to help animals, and how to be a volunteer and vegan advocate. The culmination of the event was the live cooking competition, which showcased the diversity and possibilities of a vegan diet, as well as the uniqueness of the local cuisine!

Vegan advocates came from around the world to share a huge variety of insightful workshops and speeches. Dr. Sailesh Rao of Climate Healers designed a climate change workshop that aimed to raise awareness about climate and the environment to advance the promotion of veganism as a meaningful improvement that people can make for a sustainable future.

The China Vegan Society’s media director Laura Fan presented in the festival’s ethics section on the topic of "Vegan Without Borders: Embracing Diversity and Promoting Vegan Living", sharing the strategies the China Vegan Society uses to promote veganism in China's unique cultural context to achieve the common goal of a healthier, kinder, greener future.

The China Vegan Society would like to thank the organizers and volunteers of the 8th Indonesia Vegan Festival for hosting us at this event. We're already looking forward to the next one!