08/23/12 IFEEL Vegan
Animal Friends and IFEEL call for sustainable diet, healthy life and a positive point of view
- Fitness Bootcamp trainer and hip-hop artist IFEEL on ads announcing the ZeGeVege Festival
Hip-hop artist IFEEL creates music to give his voice to the voiceless beings we call animals. His intention is to help express the inner life of animals, to help unveil and end their misery.
For many years, IFEEL ran a music therapy program for abused and neglected children in order to help them express their deep emotional suffering through music. This experience had later greatly helped him show the emotional suffering of animals through hip-hop music. Most of IFEEL's songs are written from the perspective of animals.
"I am outraged by the way we humans treat animals. Most of them have been reduced to a number on a production line. The ways in which they are exploited and abused are incredibly cruel. It's horrible. By degrading these wonderful creatures we devalue life itself, denying and suppressing and our own animal nature instead of accepting and respecting it," IFEEL explains.
On his upcoming studio album, IFEEL brings forth a colorful collection of stories: an emotional letter to his dog Flash, abuse of animals in factory farming, appreciation of animals for people who respect and nurture them, dog fights, animal testing.
On the ZeGeVege Festival, IFEEL will perform his latest song "Ja sam Rea" for the first time. This is a song he wrote in response to the killing of healthy dogs and cats in June 2012 by veterinary inspectors in and around Zagreb, and in memory of all the victims and their families.
The ads "IFEEL VEGAN", featuring the rapper who has already performed twice at the ZeGeVege Festival, will appear on August 23, 2012 in Zagreb, Samobor, Zapresic and Velika Gorica as the official announcement for this year's ZeGeVege Festival. Their positive message is that to be vegan means to be fit, healthy, positive and compassionate!
The photo for the ad was taken by Krume Ivanovski, Nives Spajic was in charge of makeup, while Maja Zaklan of Design Studio Zale designed the ad.
Dragan Surlan, whose stage name is IFEEL, has earned his degree in psychology in the United States. In addition to working in his profession, he acquired valuable experience and thorough knowledge of the functioning and strengthening of the body as a trainer at 24 Hour Fitness, a leading fitness center in Los Angeles, and then as a personal trainer. In his work, he devoted a special attention to the holistic approach to body. He was the first fitness trainer to start Fitness Bootcamp in Croatia – a comprehensive, effective way to "awaken" and strengthen the body. Along with a unique exercise program, a healthy diet and powerful motivation, the program includes: discovering and maintaining motivation, holistic body care approach, elimination of toxins from food and the environment, exercises for stress reduction, rewarding the body and various talks about adopting and maintaining habits that improve the overall quality of life.
The healthiest diet is a diet based on fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes, without products of animal origin. As IFEEL says himself, "A vegan diet gives me enough strength, health and energy for a physically active lifestyle. It feels good to be fit, healthy and compassionate," he adds: "I invite you to the ZeGeVege Festival 2012. See you there!"
The project is supported by the Zagreb City Office for Agriculture and Forestry, Arto, Europlakat, Print Grupa and FARM – Farm Animal Rights Movement.