Vegan Club: London Animal Free Festival

A couple of weeks back I trotted off to London Animal Free Festival with my veggie friend and frequent partner-in-crime, Bel.

I’d been looking forward to the event since I first heard about it all the way back in February! It didn’t disappoint – I met some lovely people, discovered some new favourite stalls and more than anything, I ate my weight in free samples…

I’d say the stalls were about 70% food and the rest a mixture of accessories, clothing, jewellery, cosmetics, and charities or campaigns. A good variety! We arrived about 30 minutes after doors opened and a couple of stalls had already sold out of certain products – although at least we managed to get in. By the time we left in the early afternoon the door staff had adopted a one-in, one-out policy and there was a queue stretching round the corner of the building!

Nearly all of the stallholders we chatted to were vegan but judging from the snippets of conversations we heard, the actual attendees ran the full spectrum from hardcore vegans (hollah) to curious meat-eaters. I think a big concern for a lot of people is replacing certain foods, and the festival catered really well to this : we saw multiple stalls dedicated to cheese and chocolate. I came home with about five cakes, some Vegusto burgers and some amazing Greek cheese, as well as the tote bag and badges below as a little present for CB – but oh my word I could have come with a LOT more if there hadn’t been some serious discipline going on! It’s V Fest in a few weeks so I’m sure I’ll have ample opportunity to destroy all my savings again…