Vegfest comes to the Rogue Valley

Published 11:07 am Friday, June 2, 2023

Hadassah DeJack-Reynolds is opening up her farm animal sanctuary this month to hold the first-ever VegFest in the Rogue Valley.

Southern Oregon VegFest is being held in celebration of plant-based lifestyles but holds out a warm welcome to anyone to come and enjoy food, music and a menagerie of farm animals.

“We want to build community. We would like to bring people together at our sanctuary,” DeJack-Reynolds said.

In that spirit, while donations are appreciated, there is no admission fee for the festival.

“We wanted accessibility, to charge any entrance fee — even just $5, we didn’t want it to exclude anyone,” she said.

The festival, to be held from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, June 11, at 460 Hartley Road, Phoenix, will feature a bounce house and face painting for kids, live music from Rob Hill with the Torpedos, Tristin Moonbow & Friends, Udi Cohen from The Bouray band, and DJ Tuff Shed, while Portal Brewing will provide a beer garden for adults.

Attendees can also expect to find hay rides and 30 vendors on-site offering a variety of plant-based foods, crafts and more.

Sanctuary tours to meet all the animals will also be available from noon to 12:30 p.m. and 2 to 2:30 p.m., DeJack-Reynolds said.

The location of the festival, Tikkun Olam Farm Sanctuary — meaning “heal the world” in Hebrew — is home to an ever-growing number of abused, neglected, unwanted or abandoned farm animals. Festival attendees can expect to see chickens, pigs, mini-donkeys, sheep, cows, ducks, Gandalf the white peacock and a turkey, “rescued from Thanksgiving dinner,” originally assumed to be male and named Clyde, then upon discovery of the misgendering of the fowl, renamed Clydene.

VegFests were held in northern Oregon in the past, DeJack-Reynolds said. Eugene and Portland have each held their own, but neither city has held a VegFest in recent years. Southern Oregon has never had one, something she said she was excited to change with this year’s inaugural festival.

“I feel there’s a need; our community feels fractional — from COVID, from politics, so many things. We wanted to provide something positive to bring the community together,” she said.

VegFests are a tradition dating back to an event held by the Toronto Vegetarian Association in 1985, according to the VegFests page of americanvegan.org. VegFest events promote plant-based lifestyles and ideology, but DeJack-Reynolds was careful to skirt the borders of the festival’s association with the word “vegan.” Southern Oregon VegFest isn’t exclusive to perfect-practice vegans but is open to anyone curious or interested in what the festival or the sanctuary has to offer.

“We had no template. We had a committee, about four people meeting regularly, and it was all based on, ‘What would I want my VegFest to look like?’” she said.

DeJack-Reynolds wanted to center her festival on the mission of the Tikkun Olam Farm Sanctuary — to heal the world through rescuing animals and building community. Most VegFests are held in convention centers, she said. Southern Oregon VegFest is unique in its down-to-earth location at the sanctuary.

“I think we have an unusual mix. We have vendors with jewelry, plants; we have the lavender farm — Chateau DeVal — she’s vegan. We have a physician who’s vegan. She’ll be available for real nutritional advice for if you’re plant-based; it’s vital, but she’s not going to ask you if you’re getting enough protein,” she said.

The sanctuary was one of the things that bloomed in Phoenix after the Almeda Fire, DeJack-Reynolds said. The house on the property burned. The property, previously owned by a woman who inherited the place after her mother had died before the fire, was left with land she didn’t need.

Through mutual friends, DeJack-Reynolds was connected with the owner of the property in her own hour of need. Her sanctuary was previously on a property where it’s use as a farm animal rescue was being contested by neighbors fed up with roosters crowing from the sanctuary.

“We were desperate,. We really needed somewhere to take the animals. She sold it to us for so much less than she could have — she didn’t want it to be a pot farm, and she wanted to honor her mother who loved animals,” DeJack-Reynolds said.

For the past two years, she has been living out of a canvas-walled tent with a wood stove on the property to ensure the many animals in her care have what they need.

Opportunities to support both the festival and the sanctuary will be available at the VegFest — including a raffle and a silent auction of local artists, she said.

To learn more, find Southern Oregon VegFest on Facebook or call 541-864-9952.