Organic smoothies attractively displayed aside bananas and bamboo, signs reading “Save an Animal, Eat a Vegetable,” and an array of everything from hemp clothing to videos about cruelty in chicken slaughterhouses welcomed festival goers to a popular vegetarian event this past weekend.

On Saturday’s hazy, moist and warm fall morning, droves of people came on foot and bicycle to the San Francisco County Building in green Golden Gate Park. They were there to meet with other like minded individuals as well as learn about vegetarianism and experience the San Francisco Vegetarian Society and In Defense of Animal’s 8th Annual World Veg Festival Weekend.

Tables were filling the building with food demonstrations sampling such fare as “Spirit Water,” an invigorating mix of water with sage and lemon. Over at Juicy Lucy’s Vegan Café, one could order a smoothie entitled “Moroccan Sunset,” with beet, mint, ginger, carrot and orange juices—a selection not only replenishing for the body, but for the soul.

One of the day’s speakers, Howard F. Lyman, is an accomplished author, activist and fourth generation Montana farmer and rancher. Lyman became passionate about advocating against the beef and dairy industries when he narrowly escaped paralysis from a spinal tumor.

“We are destroying the planet one bite at a time,” Lyman said in regards to eating meat and dairy. “Individually you can make a difference in what you do, if we don’t do it within this generation we won’t make a difference- Islands in the South Pacific have learned to live within their environment and have survived for thousands of years.”

Many nonprofit groups lined the aisles, speaking and educating on animal advocacy, including a group called Mercy for Animals. It works on investigations into factory farms and slaughterhouses.

“Employees are getting eggs out of birds vaginal cavities, live birds are being used as punching bags and they are submerging live birds in boiling water,” Nathan Runkle, Executive Director of Mercy for Animals, said.

Runkle hopes to inform a large audience with his website Chooseveg.com, a site that has videos and commercials to view as well as vegan recipes and updates on undercover investigations.

Jen Spredeman, co-owner of Nature’s Candle, featuring natural soy candles was wearing a bright pink t-shirt with bold letters asking people to inquire about why candles are bad to burn in the home, and she told them just that. Paraffin comes from crude oil, and it is composed of the sludge from under the bottom of the barrel of oil, Spredeman said.

“The bottom of the barrel of oil contains 12 known toxins, two of which are carcinogenic,” she said. “Candles are the number one pollutant in the home, it’s the same as smoking in front of your children.”

As she rubbed the warm liquid burn-off from a scented natural soy candle in the shape of a champagne glass on the hand of a client to show how good it is for the hands and nails, Spredeman said: “We’re not out here supporting our oil companies, we’re supporting our local farmers.”

Groups like One Taste, an urban retreat center located in the South of Market district, offers workshops, lectures and yoga for a myriad of topics including communication and sex and sensuality.

“We are all about conscious living, where people are unconscious, there are a lot of problems [eating disorders],” Bob Gower of One Taste, said.

The festival truly aimed to give a broad overview of new and different takes on not just cooking and eating, but holistic and integrative health, which Michael Bedor, a book vendor, attendee and member of a community that eats solely raw food and vegan, agrees with.

“This is for the awakening of the self and the planet—spiritually, physically and ecologically,” Bedor said.