Vegetarian Culinary Festival in Poznań, Poland, 2019
Vegetarian and vegan festivals are held around the world to promote veganism and/or vegetarianism among the public and to support and link individuals and organizations that practice, promote or endorse veganism or vegetarianism. Many of these events are also food festivals and/or music festivals and can also contain edutainment.
List
This is a list of notable vegetarian or vegan festivals.
In addition to these, many vegetarian or vegan festivals may call themselves 'VegFest', but these do not appear to have any international ties to each other.
Vienna (twice a year).[3] The 2014 Vienna edition built the biggest vegan fried egg in the world.[4]
Canada
Edmonton, Alberta. The first Edmonton VegFest was held on 30 September 2018, at the Ritchie Community League Hall and Outdoor Park. Admission was free. The nonprofit organization coordinating and hosting this annual event was Vegans and Vegetarians of Alberta.[5]
Wiesbaden (2011–2020). 10 editions of VeggieWorld have been held in Wiesbaden from 2011 to 2020, with the last attracting 13,000 visitors.[21] The next edition is scheduled to take place in 2021 in Frankfurt.[21]
Other festivals:
The Vegan Summerfest (German: Veganes Sommerfest) is a three-day vegan food festival that takes place on the Alexanderplatz in Berlin, co-organised by ProVeg International, Berlin Vegan and the Albert Schweitzer Foundation. The 2019 edition featured around 100 information and selling stands.[22]
Veganmania in Poland has been held in eight major cities, with the 2019 Łódź edition attracting over 3,000 visitors.[32]
Aside from these, there was also a Vegetarian Culinary Festival in Poznań in 2019.
Serbia
BeGeVege Festival - the first vegan festival in Serbia takes place annually since 2015 on Nikola Pašić square, one of the biggest squares in the centre of Belgrade. The festival is organised by the animal rights association "Sloboda za životinje" (Freedom for animals").
Switzerland
A tour around the 2016 edition of Veganmania in Aarau
Aarau. Veganmania in Switzerland has been organised by Swissveg since 2011. The 2016 edition attracted 5,000 visitors, making it the largest of all vegan festivals in Switzerland. Previous editions were held in Winterthur, but due to a lack of space to accommodate the attendees, the organisation chose to move the festival to Aarau.[35][36]
Gossau, St. Gallen. The Gossau Veganmania, organised by Swissveg, was held first in 2017, then featuring 60 stands.[37]
Detroit, Michigan. V313, Detroit's Vegan Celebration, was held on 3 March 2018 in Detroit. It was organized and sponsored by the Plant-Based Nutrition Support Group (PBNSG), VegMichigan, and VegSpeedDate, and featured speakers such as Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn of Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Joel Kahn, Dr. Milton Mills of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and Dr. Kerrie Saunders (a.k.a. Dr. Food) and "plant-powered musicians" such as 'Rosie and the Fellas' and 'Once United'.[43][44][45]
Long Beach, California. The annual Long Beach Vegan Food & Music Festival, co-organized by Edward Yniguez and Kawani Brownwas, was first held in 2016.[47] Because the first year's event was free, reportedly between 8,500 and 10,000 people showed up throughout the day.[47]
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia VegFest or Philly VegFest, is held annually Bainbridge Green in Philadelphia. There was a two-year hiatus between the 2014 and 2017 editions.[54][55]
Portland, Maine. The Maine Animal Coalition's Maine VegFest was held on 2 June 2018 in Portland.[56]
San Diego, California. The Vegan Street Fair San Diego Nights was held 12 May 2018, at Anthem Vegan in San Diego.[57]
Twin Cities Veg Fest is the largest[58][59][60] free plant-based festival in the Midwest. Organized by nonprofit Compassionate Action for Animals. TCVF is held yearly since 2012, the next festival will be at Harriet Island Regional Park in Saint Paul Minnesota on September 18, 2022, from 10am-4pm.