The Brighton VegfestUK was held last weekend at the Brighton Centre. The annual event features vegan brands, societies, performers and advocates from all over the country in one giant centre of animal-friendly fun. I headed down with a friend on the Sunday to check it out.
We began our day with lunch in the food hall, which was absolutely heaving with hungry revellers. We couldn’t go past the canape-style treats from Cashew Catering to start and chose a selection of treats from tofu skewers and seitan steaks to ginger chocolate pots.
We then had spicy “cheeze” dosa wraps and vegan hot dogs as our mains, along with fancy eco-water.
Our stomachs significantly expanded, we headed off to visit the rest of the stalls with the idea of picking up something sweet for later. But obviously the revellers had brought their sweet teeth with them as by the time we made it to the Big Fat Vegan Bakery, who sell epic-looking cakes and pastries, they were down to only one tray. Ms Cupcake was sold out. So no sweet treats for us but I did later purchase my weight in chocolate, so that’s probably a good thing.
Here’s a few more shots of the day (nb. For the first time ever, I forgot my camera and had to use my phone instead so please excuse the sub-standard quality):
I finished off the day with a soy latte at a nearby coffee shop before heading back to London with my haul.
Speaking of the haul, it was pretty much vegan chocolate-fest for me… Oops! I stocked up on chocolates from the Animal Aid store, The Raw Chocolate Company, Moo Free, and Coco Caravan (who incidentally, I recently backed on their Kickstarter campaign!).
I also snagged a selection of cider from the Bristol Cider Shop (three for £10 – bargain!), a recycled-paper notebook from Magpie (who donate part of their proceeds to animal charities), a Beauty Without Cruelty waterproof mascara, and an edible-smelling Easter bath bomb from Lush.
All-in-all, it was another great Vegfest event and I came home with some pretty good swag! Now I’m counting down to the London show in October.
Previously:
VegfestUK Brighton 2013
VegfestUK London 2013
Oh how I envy you and the choice there is in the UK! Veganism is slowly taking off here in Germany, but living in a rural area makes it hard to even find vegan chocolate! I think the big cities are different, so I hope the word will spread soon. Thanks for sharing!
Yeah, the UK is certainly quite veg-friendly! I do think it’s more of a “big city” thing, though (Brighton is an exception as it’s a bit of a hippy/alternative town so close to London – I love it!); Berlin was one of the most vegan/vegetarian cities that I have been to. And Vego bars are some of the best chocolate – vegan or otherwise – that I have ever eaten! I too hope the word spreads soon. 🙂
It seems to be the ‘in’ thing in cities like Berlin at the moment, but I wonder how long it will last and hope it at least makes an impact on the production of animal-free alternatives.
It sounds like you had a lovely time there! Have you tried the mascara? Does it work well? I’ve had my problems with more natural brands so far that their staying power was just really not good.
I haven’t used it before (though I have used and liked other products in the BWC range) but I am going to try it tomorrow and let you know! 🙂
So the verdict is in: The mascara goes on really evenly with no clumping, I really like the brush shape for getting into corner lashes, and it withstood a gig the other night so definitely had staying power! The only downside for me is that it doesn’t give as much volume as I would like but I guess that’s more of a personal preference and I think they do have a volumising mascara in their range. Hope this helps! 🙂
Thank you so much for letting me know 🙂 this sounds good!