Bliss Fest

Healthy Living An Active Choice

This weekend, English Landing Park will be full of bliss. The 2nd Annual Bliss Fest Conscious Lifestyle Celebration (formerly known as the KC Raw Bliss Festival), held Saturday, July 25 from noon to 7 PM, features national speakers addressing topics about healthy living, live reggae music, a yoga pavilion, raw food, and much more.

Festival coordinator Maureen Veto-Slater, who is active in Kansas City’s raw food community, explains why the festival’s name changed this year. “The word ‘raw’ is too narrow and I have a much broader vision than one group,” she says. “Most raw foodists are not 100% raw in their lifestyle. The objective for most people is the understanding that the more whole living foods one plans as part of their diet, the stronger their immune system. The idea of the Bliss Fest is to open to a wide range of like-minded [people] and have a blast while we’re at it!”

While no hard statistics are available about people practicing a raw food lifestyle, numerous raw food chefs, products, and vendors are popping up locally to serve this niche market has grown in the past few years. Veto-Slater believes there are definite reasons why people are adopting a healthier lifestyle.

“People are getting smarter and realizing that the food in the grocery store is not really food at all. Heart disease, obesity, diabetes, something is not right,” she says. “There are movers and shakers getting the word out through independent films and community activism. Personal testimonies of those that once were bed-ridden and regained vibrant health with…food, period. Who wouldn’t be interested in that? People spend their entire life working toward gaining financial independence, and then the rest of their life, they spend that money to try to get their health back. The answer is simple, and cheap. Stay away from the chemical ‘food’ in the grocery store aisles.”

Eating healthy is only one aspect of the “healthy living” approach. Conscious living is another term used to describe people making active choices about their consumption and lifestyle.

“Many people walk through life like sheep,” says Veto-Slater. “More and more are waking up and asking themselves, what am I doing? Who said my personal life has to be dictated by you. ‘You’ could be anyone or entity. From that point on, after one becomes enlightened (different for different folk) then everything is different. Awareness becomes natural. One sort of takes a step back and asks, ‘Do I really want to eat that? Do I really want to be angry all the time? Do I really want to be stressed out all the time? Do I really want to be around these negative people?’ It’s liberating really. By giving oneself permission to stop, and move in a different direction. That is Raw Liberation. It’s freedom.”

This year’s event features several national and international speakers. Long distance runner Tim VanOrden, recently crowned the New England Master’s Mountain Running Champion, is an advocate for raw and vegan food.

“He’s passionate about educating others on a simple diet, and how powerful it can be,” says Veto-Slater. “You are what you eat, think, and speak. He gets people’s attention by using himself as an example. He’s a world-class athlete in his 40s and competes with people in their 20s.

Speaker Angela Stokes from the United Kingdom recovered from morbid obesity with a raw diet. Matt has been a raw vegan for a decade. “While working for MTV in New York, someone gave him a raw book to read,” says Veto-Slater. “He want 100% raw overnight, and hit the road around the world, talking about the benefits of living a stress free raw dominated life.”

Jane Van Benthusen

Many of the people at this year’s Bliss Festival have their own testimonials about living a health-conscious lifestyle by eating a raw, vegan, and/or vegetarian diet. Local cancer survivor Jane VanBenthusen is another featured speaker at the festival. She refused chemotherapy and radiation as treatment and turned to a raw food diet as part of her strategy for regaining her health.

Veto-Slater has her own story. “My personal experience with raw is balance. Once a health ‘nut’ in the 90’s, fit and trim. I took a corporate job as director of advertising and promotions. Stress, lack of sleep, took a toll on my health. Eventually bedridden from the side effects of prescription drugs, organs shutting down (again from drugs), and using a catheter to pee, I said, ‘Enough!’ From that day on, I went through an entire transformation using a natural and common sense approach. I didn’t know about the raw lifestyle, I just did what made sense. I quit all the pharmaceuticals, ate whole foods, and began to move around. In just six months, I was back to a fit and vibrant existence. I’m 52-years-old and healthier than your average 32-year-old.”

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Learn more about raw food and conscious living alternatives at the festival. Visit www.rawliberation.com for details. Featured music includes reggae act Seed Love, DJJabberock, and hip hop funk DJ Miss Conception. Attractions include food demonstrations, a farmers market, yoga pavilion, and numerous food vendors, chefs such as celebrity chef Heidi VanPelt, owner of SOLFüD; and health-related booths. Bring a lawn chair, yoga mat or blanket. Tickets are $5. Free admission for children under 12.