EVENT REVIEW: Exceeded Expectations at the Raw Food Festival

[A selection from Everlasting Life; photos by Carrie Epps]

When New Age guru Marianne Williamson once wrote, "Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure," I'm sure she never dreamed it would apply to a raw vegan food festival in a tiny community center in northwest Washington, D.C., but alas, Saturday's inaugural Raw Food Festival was just that. It was a resounding success. Maybe a little too successful.

When I arrived shortly after the scheduled 4:00 start time, the line to get in was already snaking outside onto the lawn stairs of the Emergence Community Arts Collective community center, a converted detached house situated off of Georgia Avenue, a pebble's toss from Howard University. The event pre-sold 100 tickets, but perhaps passersby, attracted like flies to a freshly baked pie, caught the heady aroma of herbs and spices wafting from the building’s doors and decided to see what smelled so delicious. Besides, the price of entry -- a mere $25 for three plates of food, samples of everything, plus cooking demos and panel discussions -- was too good a deal to pass up.

[Sampler plate from Khepra's Raw Food Juice Bar: red cabbage salad, garlic kale, and spinach sea salad.]

Because, to be clear, the problem was not the food. Everything I ate was absolutely delectable, from the avocado wrap from H St's NE Khepra's Raw Food Juice Bar (at which I've dined before, always to my stomach's delight) to the sweet potato and sea moss pie with its amazing coconut crust from raw live food master chef and “wholistic” wellness consultant Chef Heru, to the raw tacos from 14th St's newly open Press Juice Bar. The cooking demos, too, offered fantastic samples of a sweet-potato energy juice from organic soul chef Madea Allen; a genius tomato, corn and and "nut" meat chili with cashew sour cream from Bowie, Md.-based holistic health coach Nicole Jackson; and a chocolate avocado mousse from raw food chef Jeanette Ramirez which proved that desserts need not have eggs or dairy to be stunning, flavorful, and absolutely luscious.

[Sample plate from Chef Heru]

But, when a vendor runs out of food an hour into the event and starts offering samples of cut fruit and trail mix because he was told to expect a low turnout; when each line for food ran dozens deep throughout the entire event, long and unruly, coming from both sides at one table; when it felt, at times, as though we were packed like sardines in a stiflingly hot tin can; you know there's a huge organizational problem. The planners seemingly came in with (way) lowered expectations and got way more than they were expecting. These hiccups that otherwise marred a great event were preventable.

Should the Raw Food Festival make it into its second year -- and it should -- it must be held in a larger space, with better organization. The interest is obviously there, and given our seemingly endless obsession with juice cleanses, kale salads, and GOOP-esque healthy living, it’s not going away anytime soon.

[Cauliflower from Rakhel's Life Food Restaurant]