Its getting closer to the big day, our first winter vegan festival is just around the corner (19th November 10:30am) to be precise. As with all our festivals we have a great line up of speakers and workshops for you guys to enjoy.

Fiona Oakes – Nominated as one of the inspirational women in the UK by the Daily Mail, Fiona is without doubt the most impressive, inspirational and selfless people I have ever met, and I would encourage anyone regardless if they are vegan, non-vegans, runners or non runners to take time to listen to Fiona’s talk.

The below extract was taken from the about page of The Fiona Oakes Foundation website (http://fionaoakesfoundation.co.uk/about/)

Fiona holds five marathon course records – The North Pole Marathon, The Antarctic Ice Marathon, the Ruska Marathon, The Dartmoor Vale Marathon and the Essex Championship Marathon at Halstead. She has completed over 50 marathons and a personal best of 2 hours 38 minutes. In 2013 she became the fastest women in the history of the World to run a marathon on all 7 continents in terms of the total number of hours taken. She is also the fastest woman to run a marathon on all 7 Continents Plus the North Pole – both in terms of the aggregate time and the elapsed days – an incredible achievement but made quite extraordinary given her disability.

Vegan Choc Workshop – Dark chocolate tasting workshop with Pacari Chocolates. Participate in an interactive workshop about the truth behind chocolate and learn new facts about the origin and history of cacao while getting the chance to taste 4 different award winning Pacari organic dark chocolate bars.

Andy Hainey The Veganologist -The Pillars Of Veganism. Discussing the repercussions animal agriculture has on health, the environment, and animal welfare. What community means and how to change the world for the better.

Alexis Fleming from Maggie Fleming animal hospice , “Georgia’s Story: Born With An Expiry Date”. It is about the genetic burden of egg-laying hens which is not widely known or understood. I would talk about what the genetic burden is, the work I am doing to raise awareness (including something that no one else is doing; commissioning autopsies of liberated hens to establish cause of death), the end-of-life care I give to liberated egg-laying hens at the Hospice, and the story of Georgia, an egg-laying hen who was liberated and died in my arms 23 days after she was freed.