Our Presenters
St. Louis VegFest 2021 promises to be fun-filled, inspiring, and delicious! We are planning a program of cooking demonstrations, speakers, and more. See below for times and more details.
Caryn Dugan and Dr. Jim Loomis
Time: 11:00 am
Location: World's Fair Pavilion
We are excited to welcome STLVegGirl (Caryn Dugan) and Dr. Jim Loomis back to VegFest for a cooking demo/lecture collaboration!
Caryn Dugan, aka STLVegGirl, is a plant-based nutrition and culinary lifestyle educator. She is a Food For Life program certified instructor, providing cooking instruction, personal cheffing, and more. Caryn has executed several Plant-based Nutrition events in the St. Louis area. She has teamed up with Forks Over Knives to create an FOK Community Program. You can learn about the program at her Center for Plant-Based Living.
Dr. Jim Loomis, from Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, is a St. Louis native, who has served as team internist for the St. Louis Rams football team and the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, as well as tour physician for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Before joining the Barnard Medical Center, he practiced internal medicine at St. Luke’s Hospital in St. Louis, where he was also the Director of Prevention and Wellness, and he was on the clinical faculty of the Department of Internal Medicine, at Washington University School of Medicine.
Come see their presentation, ”Culinary Medicine," in the Speaker Area, and give them a warm welcome on Sunday, October 24.
Musical Performance: Saucier
Time: 1:00 pm
Location: World's Fair Pavilion
We are excited to announce the band Saucier performing at Vegfest!
Saucier is a four piece Indie Rock/Pop band with two vocalists, two guitarists, one drummer and one bass. They all have similar interests as the main vocalists carries a personal connection with Veganism and the movement.
The band wants to involve everyone into an atmosphere of love, acceptance, and positivity as they perform their own original music.
Renee King-Sonnen, Rowdy Girl Sanctuary & Rancher Advocacy Program
Time: 2:00 pm
Location: World's Fair Pavilion
We are pleased to present Renee King-Sonnen, from Rowdy Girl Sanctuary & Rancher Advocacy Program, in our speaker lineup.
Renee, a native Houstonian, is the President and Founder of Rowdy Girl Sanctuary in Waelder, Texas. She remarried her husband Tommy Sonnen, a multi-generational cattle rancher in 2009 and moved to their former ranch in Angleton, Texas. She fell in love with farm animals, having no idea her life was about to transform. After witnessing time and again the baby calves going to the sale barn, she became extremely depressed. In October 2014, she went vegan as a result and began researching factory farming and the compassionate alternative, farm sanctuaries. She desperately consulted with leaders in the vegan movement, determined to do whatever she could to create sanctuary out of what was once a beef cattle operation in the heart of cattle country. As a result, the Rancher Advocacy Program was developed to give cattle ranchers and other animal farmers a way to transition into other ways of farming without animal cruelty. Transitioning out of animal agriculture requires a lot of skill, effort, and people to help. RAP is dedicated to finding the resources and the way to give farmers a way around farming animals. Renee speaks to farmers all the time and a few have converted to vegan, like 6th generation Texas cattle ranchers Cindy and Richard Traylor.
A sidenote about Renee King-Sonnen aka Sangita - She has studied yoga sciences and Ayurveda for 35 years - she is a teacher of hatha yoga and kundalini yoga. She has a dedicated yoga practice and meditates every day. Her guru is Swami Satchidananda - Namaste
To learn more about Rowdy Girl Sanctuary, visit: https://rowdygirlsanctuary.org/rowdygirl-story/
SGT VEGAN
Time: 3:00 pm
Location: World's Fair Pavilion
Bill Muir aka SGT VEGAN is a former US Army Paratrooper. Vegan since 1992 SGT VEGAN knows hands on what it’s like to maintain a plant-based diet under the most fatiguing circumstances (Army boot camp, Ranger training, deployment of Afghanistan) and not only survive but to thrive. SGT VEGANs mission is to help save lives by advocating for healthy, plant-based environmentally friendly living. Find out more about SGT Vegan at his Facebook page or website.
DJ Services: Utopia Studios
For the third year, we are pleased to announce that Utopia Studios will be providing music for Vegfest! They will be DJing all day and spinning all vinyl sets. Utopia Sound System is a music studio spread across refurbished tobacco factories in the Botanical Gardens neighborhood of St. Louis, the owners are even vegan themselves! Utopia offers 70 studio recording/rehearsing spaces for musicians, bands, dance, and theater groups, artists, video photographers, DJs and more! Thank you Utopia for once again bringing awesome jams to our event!
Yoga
Sol Asar
Times: 10:00 am and 11:30 am
Hanna Wyland
Times: 1:00 pm and 2:30 pm
