Vegan expo attracts healthy crowd to Monroeville Convention Center
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Empty parking spots were difficult to find outside Monroeville Convention Center’s North Hall on the afternoon of July 16, demonstrating that what Amy Cotrill began in the 1990s has come a long way.
The occasion was the Original Pittsburgh Vegan Expo and Festival, a multicultural showcase for plant-based food and other products, plus plenty of entertainment.
“We started it very small, when it wasn’t really popular yet,” Cottrill said about the concept of avoiding meat and dairy. “I’ve built it up over many years and kept doing small events until eventually, they got bigger and bigger.”
The 2022 event took place at the largest venue yet, with about 100 vendors inside the hall and several food trucks in the lot.
Cottrill, who lives in Mt. Lebanon, changed her eating habits at an early age.
“I had a near-death experience, and I was only 5. So I knew life versus death, and I knew the feeling of not wanting to die,” she said. “I connected that to animals, and I knew that animals didn’t want to die.”
The result was that for quite some time, she was the only vegetarian she knew.
“As I got into high school, I finally met my first vegan friends. They were older than me. They weren’t even in high school. But they were my mentors,” Cottrill said. “And I got really excited to start sharing more with people.”
She was living in Pittsburgh’s Carrick neighborhood when she organized her first event, at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in nearby Mt. Oliver.
“Everybody said, why would you have it there? And I said, because they need it. If you go to the more trendy parts of the city, they already are starting to know what this,” she said. “So I wanted to bring something open-minded to this area. I wanted to introduce them to foods and music and dance from other cultures.”
In fact, she called it the Multiculture Fest.
“And it was all vegan, but I didn’t put the word ‘vegan’ in the title because people wouldn’t even know what it meant,” Cottrill said. “Over the years, I moved to different venues, under different names. I started coming up with different sorts of events and combined them all to make one big event.”
One example was a Remodel Gala, for which artists made costumes for dancers from recycled materials. And the cuisine offered was vegan, of course.
The multicultural aspect of the Original Pittsburgh Vegan Expo and Festival stems from the relative lack of plant-based options available when Cottrill was younger.
“The cultural food was where to find it. For example, Indian food and Thai food, they all had vegan options. Back then, those were the go-tos for this kind of festival,” she said. “And then over the years, I’ve seen it grow into every version of everything. Anything that is usually not vegan, we can have a version of it here that is vegan.”
This year’s event attracted quite a few people who eat plant-based because they have ethical beliefs similar to hers.
“I’ve always loved animals, so that was my main concern,” Castle Shannon resident Valerie Garman said. “And I avoided learning more about it, because I knew that I wasn’t going to like what I found. Then I finally did a deep dive, and I watched some movies. And that was basically the end of it.”
She attended with her friend Amy Andrews of Dormont, whom she introduced to vegan cuisine. They share an affinity for animals, and Garman attempted to share documentaries about food production to Andrews.
“But I was like, I can’t watch it. I don’t want to know. I’m interested, but I just can’t watch it. Then I developed a lot of health problems. And so I had to give up dairy and gluten. So that just made sense,” Andrews said about plant-based eating.
Along with the annual vegan expo and festival, Cottrill organizes numerous events, including monthly haflas — that’s Arabic for “parties” — in Washington County. Belly dancing is the main attraction, and Cottrill, an instructor and performer who goes by Amethyst, leads mini-lessons while encouraging casual performances and an open dance floor.
The next hafla, with vegan food for purchase, is scheduled from 6 to 10 p.m. July 30 at J&D Cellars At The Street At The Meadows, 100 Adios Drive, North Strabane.
Closer to where Cottrill lives, she has scheduled a Vegan Summer Party from 5 to 8 p.m. Aug. 14 at Sound Intuition Wellness Center, 3857 Willow Ave,, Castle Shannon. Food from Jolina’s Mediterranean Cuisine of Brookline will be featured.
For more information about events, visit pittsburghvegan.com.
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