Last year was the first VegFest for Austin, even though we have been known for our veg-friendly ways for a thousand years. It took a group of people who were prepared to just get shit done to finally make it happen. I’m always amazed by the hard work and dedication that people have. I get overwhelmed organizing my pantry so I don’t know how these folks organize all the vendors, permits, bands, speakers, and god knows what else that goes into making such a huge and successful event. I know one of the most important aspects is that tons of people volunteer to help out and (obviously if you read the title) I am going to ask that you consider helping out too! There are great perks like you get to meet a bunch of awesome people, you get to go to the fest, you get to help the community and the animals, and when people ask you “what did you do over the weekend” you can have a better answer than “I layed around getting caught up on the past week’s general hospital on Hulu”. You get a cute T-shirt too so you can prove that you went to all the naysayers that didn’t believe you.
There are jobs for all skill levels so if you’d rather help with the planning and administration or work with kids, or clean the whole thing up afterwords, you will be able to find a spot.
Right now they are looking for Volunteer Team Leaders, the first volunteer meeting for team leaders is February 9. Team leaders are people who want to head up a group of volunteers on the day of the festival and in some cases in the weeks before for tasks like sending out flyers. They’ll have a more active role than your average volunteer. They can contact esti@texasvegfest.com to sign up.
They will also need volunteers in general to help with speakers, music, booths, entry, kids’ activities, set up, tear down, and general tasks. People can sign up for that on the website here: http://www.texasvegfest.com/volunteer/
So sign up and help make the fest super awesome.