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Vegetarian Feasting at DGTL

What? Has one of the most popular techno festivals in the Netherlands, held every year over Easter weekend, turned into a hippie affair? DGTL has gone vegetarian, and the festival’s ecological footprint must be kept as small as possible this year. Will everyone now be partying with green juices in hand? FavorFlav had to find out more.

Foto van culinair journalist Nora van den Heuvel

door Nora van den Heuvel

DGTL is an annual techno festival in Amsterdam where major techno and electro DJs perform. This year, the focus is not only on music, but also on sustainability. The organization wants to produce less waste, consume less energy, limit carbon dioxide emissions, promote urban farming and, of course, sell vegetarian, organic food. A green revolution.

DGTL’s goal is to save 14 million liters of water and emit 53,000 fewer kilos of carbon dioxide than usual during the two meat-free days at the festival. Altogether, that is approximately equivalent to 350 return flights from Amsterdam to Paris.

Convincing partying, drinking carnivores that vegetarian food is just as delicious as a thick, juicy hamburger seems like a difficult task.

Urban farmers & urban farming

But how can you provide vegetables for such a large audience? Stadsboeren, a non-profit organization that makes use of vacant land in cities by creating mobile gardens, helped DGTL by organizing workshops. These workshops explained, among other things, what urban farming (gardening in a vegetable garden in the city) involves, which vegetables you can grow during the Dutch winter (spinach, purslane, garlic and endive), and how to garden.

Stadsboeren went into the garden together with the festival organizers to actually grow vegetables. The harvest is nowhere near enough for 40,000 people, but Stadsboeren will use the vegetables for small bites that will be handed out during the festival. At the festival itself, the farmers will share information about urban farming.

Food line-up

Convincing partying, drinking carnivores that vegetarian food is just as delicious as a thick, juicy hamburger seems like a difficult task. Still, the food line-up looks promising, with veggie burgers from Burgermeester, snacks from the Vegetarische Slager, fresh pasta from Pastaiola, fries from Pomms, and nachos, pizzas and poffertjes. Perfect fuel for dancing all weekend.