Sydney Vegan Festival
Vegan festivals aren’t a new concept but it’s so wicked to see new ones popping up as veganism grows in popularity. The newest kid on the block is the Sydney Vegan Festival and I went along on Saturday, 29th March to see just how SVF stacks up against the other festivals around.
Some of the food stalls.
A departure from the typical vegan festival setting, The Factory Theatre played host to Sydney Vegan Festival this year. This for me had several benefits; it was a gloomy day so being inside was handy, you were able to hear cooking demos a lot clearer and even though it was a small space, you could have two stages operating at once. The only real negative I could see was that because the main events were happening in two different spaces, it was easy not to venture out and explore all there was to offer.
Another difference was that this event wasn’t free like most other vegan festivals out there. Tickets were around fifty bucks which I thought was pretty reasonable but I can understand the frustration of those who perhaps wanted to go but weren’t able to justify the cost.
In terms of the food on offer there were some fantastic options but not as many as you would see at say, Cruelty Free Festival but there were some I hadn’t seen before! I wanted my friend to have her first Funky Pies experience however by the time we were ready to eat they had sold out (which I guess is a good sign). Instead we settled for dosa from In Lak’ech and dumplings from a mystery stall that in my hunger craze I forgot to write down.
Masala dosa and mystery dumplings.
Like other events, there were other stallholders too! Divine Infusions and Macbeth were there plus some animal charities like Sea Shepherd, Animal Liberation NSW and Animals Australia. There were also a bunch of musical acts like Brendan Maclean, Metcalfe and Chance Waters.
I think where Sydney Vegan Festival excelled over other vegan festivals was the calibre of speakers and artists. Not only did we have some bitchin’ Aussie presenters like Megan Young from Veggies and Me and Maz from Sadhana Kitchen but some of the most famous vegan chefs in the world like Black Metal Vegan Chef, Terry Hope Romero and Isa Chandra Moskowitz. The three top-billed presenters were all amazing, bringing enthusiasm and personality to the stage while they whipped up dishes that showed why they are so popular in the vegan world. They were wandering around the event too; having chats to fans, signing books and posing for photos. Some real legendary stuff right there. One criticism of the demos was that it would have been cool to have someone filming the cooking itself and projecting it onto a large screen so the audience could see what was being done.
Black Metal Vegan Chef growling up a storm.
Terry Hope Romero getting sassy.
Isa Chandra Moskowitz getting passionate about mac n cheese.
All in all, for the inaugural event, I think the Sydney Vegan Festival was a success. I really look forward to seeing what they do with it next year; I would love to see more stalls, especially more food and perhaps a better layout for the event. I really don’t know how they can top the presenters but it would be cool to get Black Metal Vegan Chef, Terry and Isa back on board on a yearly basis but getting more Aussies on board would be awesome too!