Before Wisdom

DC Vegan is a new web site/blog/forum combo dedicated to the Washington D.C. Metro area that is trying to be to DC what the Super Vegan site is to New York City.

Last Thursday I went to their premier event co-hosted by Compassion Over Killing called DC Vegan Drinks.

“DC Vegan Drinks” was basically a vegan happy hour at the Science Club just a few blocks from the vegan community favorite Java Green

A few weeks before Compassion Over Killing worked with the Science Club to include vegan choices on its food menu. I had their veggie burger, which having eaten many of those, I have to say stood out by virtue of how good it was.

I had a great time at this event.

What I found most amazing was that this event was packed. That would have been impressive by itself on a cold, dreary January weekday evening downtown.

What was more impressive was all of the people from the vegan community who were there that I never even knew who were part of the local vegan community. Even Erica Meir, head of Compassion Over Killing said she met many people who she had never even seen before.

Having organized some vegan events in the area myself, this left me amazed. Turnout of any kind is hard. Getting people to come who never usually come is even more impressive. This is particularly true of the 20 something and 30 something crowd that turned out in numbers for this event. All types of veg*n and animal protection groups try to reach this demographic and rarely succeed.

I asked 3-4 friends their opinion as to why this event was so uncommonly successful in reaching this demographic. They all agreed with me that the hip venue helped. However, the first thing they all mentioned, with emphasis, was
*ALCOHOL*.

Being a life long non-drinker this took me a little bit by surprise, but it made sense when I thought about how social things usually work. My friends told me that many people find it hard to socialize without alcohol and simply will not even try if there is not alcohol at an event.

Other friends mentioned the “fun factor”. They mentioned a number of vegan acquaintances who made it a point to avoid vegan/vegetarian events because they feel that vegans/vegetarians as a group are not fun people. All they usually want to talk about is animal rights politics, nutrition or food.

To this group a potluck party conjures visions of being bored to death while some guy with a Santa Claus beard regales them with descriptions of his new Uncle Earnie’s Cosmic Organic Apple Juice Machine.

I do like my vegan potlucks( & those 3 standard vegan subjects), though I can see where people with this mentality are coming from. I’m good for 1-3 vegan potlucks or restaurant events per year. After that I feel I’ve had enough.

Hopefully some of the veg*n and animal protection organizations in my area will learn from the success of “DC Vegan Drinks” and adapt.

I’m still impressed by the success of the event and I am impressed as to the nearly unified theories of as to why this event was such a success.

DC Vegan and Compassion Over Killing are going to try to have a “DC Vegan Drinks” at least once a month so stay tuned to the COK Upcoming Events Page.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 4:44 am and is filed under Veganism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.