On November 16th & 17th I attended the very first North East Vegan Festival, and I must say, it was quite a success! The festival was located at the Stadium of Lights in Sunderland and filled up several banquet type rooms.
On the night of the 16th there was a music event held with some amazing vegan acoustic artists. I had the honour to see: Jonny Gill, Powered by Tofu, Chrissy Barnacle, and ONSIND! The Stadium of Lights even created a vegan dinner menu and served only vegan drinks!
The Festival was organized by Farplace Animal Rescue which is an amazing organization in the North East. They also have a new charity shop (second-hand store for you non-UKers) at 122 Station Road, Wallsend.
The festival was stocked with various food vendors, info booths, and workshops. There was even stall doing tattoos with vegan ink!
Some highlights of the festival were:
Vegusto
I tried so many samples of Vegusto cheese that I felt a little sick. They are so amazing. Vegusto cheeses are the first vegan cheeses I’ve tried that are completely delicious served raw, and even better on crackers. They also offer many amazing flavours, including the amazing Piquant and creamy Classic (Blue Cheese). I even had a dream about eating this cheese, it’s that good! Vegusto also makes delicious sausages, but their cheese is the true prize.
Koko
Deliciously creamy Koko (coconut) milk was a nice surprise at the Festival. The chocolate and strawberry flavours are delicious, but the original was so smooth and light that it is the most authentic non-dairy milk that I have tried.
Vegan Cross
Vegan Cross is a vegan shop in London which is also the headquarters for the SSOV. And they brought pastries. Delicious, cheap, mouthwatering pastries.
Will’s Vegan Shoes
Will makes some fine shoes. They are also relatively inexpensive and super stylish.
And, of course, there were cupcakes.