The biggest vegan festival in Yorkshire returns to Leeds Town Hall on 16th and 17th June with a wide variety of vegan food, amazing stalls, and great live music and entertainment. This popular bi-annual event includes a feast of mouth wateringly delicious food lined up, over 150 fantastic stalls, world food caterers, exciting cookery demos, inspirational talks, interactive workshops, yoga and children's activities running throughout the day.
The Great Yorkshire Vegan Festival includes a varied and exciting array of plant-based hot and cold dishes, including Asian, Mediterranean, Indian, Greek, Hotdogs, Burgers, Street Food, Raw Food and Gourmet Food! There will also be a huge range of pasties, cakes, chocolates, cookies, doughnuts, sandwiches and salads to take away as well as alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks, juices, smoothies, tea and coffee. Plus there are lots of exciting foods and other products not available in the shops.
On top of this, there will be a great selection of non food stalls, selling a wide variety of items including fashion, footwear, jewellery, beauty and skincare products, candles, crafts, clothing, footwear, homeware, gifts and charity merchandise.
And as well as stalls to look round, there will also be plenty of free food samples to try, live music, inspirational talks, live cookery demonstrations, workshops and children's activities.
The Great Yorkshire Vegan Festival celebrates veganism, and educates that veganism is healthy, affordable and fun. It is a 100% volunteer-run event and all proceeds go to animal welfare charities such as Miracle's Mission that helps to rescue, rehabilitate, neuter and re-home stray and vulnerable animals.
Festival Organiser Victoria Bryceson says, “With the vegan lifestyle really starting to go mainstream there's a massive demand for vegan-friendly events. Our festival is set to be a fantastic week-end out whether you're vegetarian, vegan or simply vegan-curious. The idea behind the festival is to educate and inform everyone about the vegan lifestyle and offer support to anybody who would like it.”
Going vegan has transformed Victoria's life; “I've never felt happier and healthier,” she says. She started the festival with the aim of promoting animal welfare and how to live a more ethical and healthy lifestyle. “There will be several animal welfare charity stalls raising awareness of their causes. For anybody who would like to get involved with volunteering this is an ideal place to talk to lots of different charities and gather information, and all the stall holders are happy to talk to people and answer any questions.”
The festival is run in partnership with animal welfare charities including Miracle's Mission. “It's all about trying new things and opening people's eyes to new possibilities,” continues Victoria. “Cutting out meat and dairy from your diet is easier than you might think and many people are increasingly looking for alternatives as they want to live more healthily and ethically. They want to find out more about the new innovative foods and recipes now available and want to do it affordably. Our festival will educate people on how to do all of this. Join us for a fantastic day full of yummy vegan food, ethical shopping, live entertainment and lots of fun!”
And the festival also helps local homeless people, whilst helping reduce food waste at the same time. Stall holders are asked to donate any surplus food at the end of the festival, and a group of volunteers distributes it to homeless people after the event, providing a hot meal as well as cold dishes.
