First Veggie Pride Parade in America, Greenwich Village, New York City, May 18, 2008

The First Veggie Pride Parade in America will take place in Greenwich Village,
New York City, on May 18, 2008. The procession will begin at 12 Noon in the Old Meat District (where 9th Ave., Gansevoort St., Greenwich St., and Little West 12th St. intersect). It will culminate in Washington Square Park (Eastern end), where a festival of rock music, speakers and exhibitors will take place.

Parade participants are encouraged to dress up in costumes and to wear sign boards announcing their pride in their vegetarian lifestyle. Local restaurants will represent themselves with banners. They may be animal-rights activists, environmentalists, or just concerned with their health. But on May 18, 2008, all will come together with one voice, one expression, of veggie pride.

At 2 p.m. on stage at the post-parade rally in Washington Square Park, the winners of a costume and poster-slogan contest in various categories will be announced.

At 4 p.m., also on stage, a 7-foot-tall human pea pod, Penelo Pea Pod (long-time mascot of parade sponsor VivaVegie Society) will be married in an open wedding ceremony. The lucky guy (ur, animal? vegetable?) has yet to be identified...or to come forth. More to come on that soon!

There is a special page within the Veggie Pride Parade Web site outlining how restaurants can get involved, and how both individuals and businesses can place a sponsorship ad in the official program/ad booklet. Contingents from all walks of life are encouraged to get involved.

The parade is fashioned after and will take place the same weekend as the Veggie Pride Parade in Paris. The Parisian parade was the first of its kind ever to take place in the world and has been going on annually since 2001.

Visit http://www.veggieprideparade.org/ for more information about volunteering and sponsorship.

Post a poster for the parade, PDF now available

The Veggie Pride Parade has a ready-made poster for you to publicize the event. Click HERE or on the image to download a printable PDF. Make multiple copies to post everywhere you go—your campus, your favorite veggie restaurants, your local grocery store bulletin board, just for example.

You can make multiple copies two ways. The best is to bring or send the pdf file to your local copy shop. Many places can make copies right from the file.

If you make one copy from your own printer to later make photocopies from it, make sure you choose grayscale settings in both cases.

Thank you for helping to make the Veggie Pride Parade a success.

Remember: Posting flyers can win you volunteer points.

To be or not to be, commercial that is

The park permit (Washington Square Park) for the post-parade rally held by the VivaVegie Society, the sponsoring nonprofit organization of the FIRST VEGGIE PRIDE PARADE IN AMERICA, May 18, 2008, Greenwich Village, New York City, has so far been designated as "GENERAL." This means NOTHING COMMERCIAL (or only minimally so) can go on at the rally.

In order for commercial activities to take place, the city would need to be paid a minimum fee of $11,000. The organizers have not ruled out going for the commercial option. The veg'n lifestyle is, of course, essentially a comsumer choice. Those companies from whom veg'ns purchase their veggie consumer products should probably have a presence at the post-parade park rally. The rally will present commercial vendors invaluable opportunities to promote their products and services if the organizers choose to cover the city's big fee.

It is entirely possible that the money can be found. In exchange for funds, the rally can provide banner space up in the front of the stage. If you are interested in becoming such a sponsor, click HERE (pamela@vivavegie.org) to contact account manager Pamela Rice.

We want people in costumes and wearing sign boards

It's not too early to begin thinking about the theme you want to project in the parade. Do you have a slogan you'd be proud to carry written on a sign board? Do you want to dress up like a vegetable? Here's your chance to let the vegetarian in you find full flower. And you may win a prize (such as dinner for two at a popular New York City vegetarian restaurant)! Visit the contest page in the Veggie Pride Parade Web site. Click HERE.

We have our permit for Washington Square Park

We'll be posting more on this, but for the moment, VivaVegie Society has a permit from the City of New York for the use of Washington Square Park on May 18, 2008. This is far and away the most important of the permits we are currently seeking. The park is the final destination for our parade.

We do not anticipate any problems getting a parade route permit (yet to be approved) for the same day. The route we get may not be exactly what is now proposed (see map posted at

http://www.veggieprideparade.org/ ). But it will roughly follow the pathway shown on the map.

In any case, at this point, we're legitimate! Soon we will have a rate schedule for booths/tables at the event. We'll also be offering special sponsorship situations for friends of the parade.

Stay tuned, and feel free to call 212-242-0011 for more information.

Veggie Pride told to wait

The Veggie Pride Parade steering committee has submitted permit requests with the 6th precinct in New York City -- in the Greenwich Village area -- for the first Veggie Pride Parade in the United States. It has been told that it must wait until the beginning of the year (January 2008) to get final approval.

This delay has become a burden for the committee. The Veggie Pride Parade steering committee was hoping to be able to plan for speakers, vendors, and, of course, marchers.