The One Voice for Veggies stand at Womad 2005 was over after months of planning and involvement from all. How did it go?

The Womad festival organisers chose us again over hundreds of other charity applicants. The pitch has cost £300, but the Vegetarian Society and Veggie Snow have helped to cover that and the cost of a durable new marquee, as it is so worth it.

The stall was a vegetarian and vegan information point representing the Vegetarian Society, the Vegan Society andViva. It speaks to all people and aims to inform and inspire, not to judge.

As in 2004, we touched hundreds of people wanting to be more veggie and vegan, and gave leaflets to thousands. There are few such opportunities in life, especially in such a great atmosphere as at Womad. This time we had some specific campaigns for people to get their teeth into, which proved very popular.

It was a real co-operative effort with many many people being involved in all the stages along the way, and manning the stand. Thank you all so much!

It looked really good - thanks to Jane and Andy for their fantastic displays, Ket for help setting up & taking down, Ziggy for the new display boards, VegSoc and Oxford Veggies for use of their boards, Ginny's dad-in-law for the stocks , and Veggie Snow for the funds to buy a proper canopy. We've got details of what One Voice for Veggies stands are like for further info. Animal face masks drew good attention to leafletting and Emily's fantastic fish costume which appeared on Sunday was so well appreciated that a vegan passer by got in it and gave out leaflets for over an hour!

Thanks so much to VegSoc for funding the plot at Womad too.

The VegSoc legal campaign combined with the stocks, chef's costume, judge (thanks Joe!), crime descriptions, water and sponges drew great attention, and we got all 300 odd postcards to people's MPs filled in - including many by non-veggies. All want vegetarian and vegan labelling to be defined legally. This is a superb campaign which has involvement from several organisations, which we hope to follow through as it develops. Follow this up yourself by asking your MP to support the Early Day Motion EDM594, and find out the latest on the veggie political campaign to see what else can be done.

Yet again, the Why Vegan leaflet proved the most popular, though many people took a wide range of leaflets, particularly on recipes, pregnancy & parenting. The free prize draws were also popular with all who discovered them - thanks so much to Redwoods, Bourgeois Boheme & Vegan Himalayan Holidays.

Key leaflets placed with permission on the many veggie food stalls all got picked up as well, so much so it was hard work keeping them stocked up. This is something that could be done at any such festival very successfully, with or without an information stand. Why Vegan was the most popular leaflet to be picked up in these locations too.

Liz Cook's nutrition charts were again a big seller, only to be competed with by bottled water. Books were less popular - except the soon to be replaced Animal Free Shopper - which was very popular for free/donation. Thanks to the Vegan Society for all those back copies and those of the Vegan Magazine - which also went well. Ziggy's taster massage and reflexology sessions were a big hit and lovely too - she raised £35 by this alone, even though only available on Friday.

We talked to many people keen to go more veggie, and it was great to give them a positive boost, encouragement and the information they wanted. Having several people available at any time to cover all activities made it possible to nearly always have someone available for people to have a good chat to about their veggie interests.

We have full photos in the 2005 gallery - so take a look!

Thank you everyone for all your enthusiasm and hard work. And especial thanks to Stephen for all your back up, wise advice, and manhandling abilities!

With best wishes for a happy campaigning to you all.

Sophie