GhentHalf of the food stalls at the Gentse Feesten are vegetarian, which provokes reactions. Night mayor Edmond Cocquyt and Nicolas Marichal van ‘t Botramkot do not understand why the sale of meat is suddenly looked down upon. “We do it locally, with uufflakke from pigs from the Flemish Ardennes and mustard from the Groentemarkt. That is only ‘sustainable’.”
“The Festivities will never become vegetarian”, say Edmond Cocquyt and Nicolas Marichal combatively, “because there are botrams with them on the Vlasmarkt. That’s tradition, that’s culture. Uufflakke, which is made of pig’s heads, ears, nose and cheeks. Grease, you need that to really party. You cannot go out all night on a head of lettuce. Anyone who does that takes drugs, and we are against drugs at the Vlasmarkt and at Trefpunt. We also work locally. Our pigs come from the Flemish Ardennes, the Filliers from our Druppelkot from Deinze, and the mustard and bread from the Groentemarkt. That’s such a short chain that we don’t even need a velo to go around it, we can just go on foot. So we really save on CO2.
“And as far as veggie is concerned, I would like to see who will sign up for that, 3.5 months before the Festivities, at those veggie food stands. Because the Gentse Feesten are partly paid for by the proceeds of the stand money from those stalls. In 2017, that brought in 625,800 euros. And it may be the ideal image that everyone becomes vegetarian, but that is not realistic. If people are tired of the Vlasmarkt, they need meat to continue. That’s why we have that artisanal food stand, with uufflakke. It is now as if people who still sell meat are looked down upon, which is very bizarre. We are no less than anyone else. And that’s why, this year, an extra leak of mustard on every botram uufflakke.”
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