First Veggie Pride Parade in America - March 18th NYC

FIRST VEGGIE PRIDE PARADE IN AMERICA

May 18, 2008 Greenwich Village

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). The parade 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. And otherwise, contingents from all walks of life are encouraged to get involved. Participants may be animal-rights activists, environmentalists, or people simply concerned with their health. They may be bricklayers who just so happen to also be vegetarians (just one example).

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. Stay tuned. The secret will soon be out. 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 the Parisian roots of the parade as well as the genesis for the New York spin-off. Also at http://www.veggieprideparade.org , find buttons to click to get involved through volunteering and sponsorship. Find maps with start location and parade route as well. Click at http://www.veggieprideparade.org for the official Veggie Pride Parade (USA) blog, calendar, volunteers' listserve, and costume page. And so much more...

For immediate release Contact: PAMELA RICE, 212-242-0011