Welcome to the 2007 Phuket Vegetarian Festival!

The town of Phuket in southern Thailand annually hosts the world's largest and longest running vegetarian festival. For more than nine days, nearly the entire city goes vegetarian, and thousands of locals and tourists celebrate with parades, food, music, dancing, fireworks and more from morning to night. The festival has strong religious roots in Chinese Buddhist and Taoism, but since I couldn't possibly cover it all, my photos focus on the food and fun! Here's a view of the banner overlooking a kilometer or two of vegetarian and vegan food sellers. Bon appetit!