Coinciding with Valentine’s Day, the 3rd Viennese Vegan Ball was celebrated at Arcotel Kaiserwasser last night, hosted by the Vegan Society of Austria. It had actually been Mr A’s idea to attend, since I wouldn’t have brought it to his attention, and he invited me to go as a gift to my first vegan birthday.
Neither of us knew what to expect (since we don’t know any other vegans, nor people potentially interested in vegan balls) so we just dressed up and took the U-Bahn out to Kaisermühlen/ VIC.
We had opted for the seated dinner by gourmet chef Johann Schwarz which didn’t disappoint. Well, the entrée was somewhat average (cold seitan anyone?) but it steadily improved from there: The spicy pumpkin soup was tasty with just the right amount of ginger, the Schlipfkrapfen were tender, with a deliciously soft filling and the tonka bean panna cotta for dessert was the perfect treat to give us the sugar high needed for hitting the dance floor.
On the dance floor, they had organised three „taxi dancers“: young men (brilliant dancers) one could and ask for a dance, no strings attached. These taxi dancers would also walk around and offer women standing alone a dance – they did so to myself whenever Mr A was out of sight, so I got to waltz and jive with persons other than Mr A too.
We tried the disco as well but had only just made it inside when we quickly retreated. Not our kind of music, so back to the ballroom to more waltzing and cha cha cha.
We enjoyed the Falco-themed midnight special by a dance troupe and watched most of the quadrille but then sleep got the better of us and we made our way home – by U-Bahn again and not, as anticipated, by taxi. The money we saved by using our Wiener Linien annual pass will not go to waste though as it will be invested in another feast at Schillinger’s Swing Kitchen soon.
Overall, we were positively surprised at how unpretentious the whole event was. There were no posers, just a bunch of dressed-up people having a good time. No drunks, no inappropriately dressed persons, no “I’m so much better/ more vegan” than you-kind of persons. The atmosphere was very „formal informal“, with the obvious formality (aka dress code) not keeping anyone from having a good time.
Oh, and there was a gift bag as well:
Were you at Vegan Ball as well? How did you like it? Had you been to last year’s ball or was it a first for you also?
Header photo from Wiener Vegan Ball 2015
yeay! I’ve never been there, so it’s good to have an experience report 😀 the food looks very delicious, especially the schlipfkrapfen and the tonka bean panna cotta! I love gift bags when they are filled with vegan goodies ^.^ so it sounds like you two had a lovely evening 🙂
We did have a lovely evening indeed, Bianca.
The Schlipfkrapfen were divine, the panna cotta could have had even more of a “tonka beany” taste, but I LOVED the almond brittle. And to be sent off with gift bags filled with stuff you are actually going to use (i.e. eat) was an additional, nice gesture.