A brand new Vegan Festival is joining the already bustling market scene in Newcastle-Under-Lyme and the organiser Vicky is thrilled by the buzz circulating online around the event.
Opening its stalls from 10am on Sunday 25th July, the Vegan Festival, who’s roots come from vegan fayres held in the Guildhall almost 30 years ago is sure to be a hit within the already active Vegan community in Staffordshire.
The past couple of years have seen a huge rise in veganism in the UK, and signs ups to Veganuary, a campaign where hundreds of thousands of brits sign up and pledge to embrace a plant based diet for a month, have only proved its growing popularity as a lifestyle choice.
Vicky saw the opportunity of bringing together the community after being inspired by the positive experiences of Gemma at Green Flamingo Food, who’s business is a regular at Newcastle Market on a Friday. With an already established reach within the Vegan community as part of Stoke-on-Trent Animal Rights, Vicky decided that a Vegan event would be a wonderful addition the current offerings within the town centre.
“There is such a community feel around all the market traders which has made it a really enjoyable event to organise.”
With support and advice from Nick and Jake, the father and son team behind the monthly Castle Artisan Market , Vicky was delighted to be met with an influx of independent local businesses wanting to showcase their products, all of which will be vegan only.
There are 45 traders due to set up stall from 10am-3pm, selling an array of products including food, artwork, jewellery, crafts and natural beauty and skincare products.
“There is a lovely children’s book seller, the best grown mushrooms ever from Sherbrook Mushrooms and of course chocolate and sweets! We have a local Stoke shop selling a range of clothes and other items, vegan honey and grains, dipping sauces and seasoning dust. There is even a stall for dogs who will be selling healthy treats, a zero waste refill stall where people can bring containers to fill with cleaning products, shampoo etc.”
There’ll be a number of traders serving a selection of street food including Indian, pizza, toasty dogs and graze boxes as well as hot and cold drinks from Stones regular, Piccolocco and hand crafted, natural alcoholic drinks which can be bought by the glass or bottle.
The festival is an event for all the family with a dedicated area for children including free colouring sheets and activities as well as a face painter and live music from talented locals to entertain the crowd and create a happy, positive vibe around the event which they’re hoping will extend into the rest of the town.
There’ll be a number of organisations in attendance at the festival to raise awareness and hopefully raise much needed funds for groups such as the Woodland Trust and Footprints Animal Sanctuary.
“The public reaction to the festival has been extremely positive and we’ve been astounded by the power of social media when it comes to advertising the event. We’ve received so much support from businesses within the town who have been more than happy to advertise in their establishments.”
Although there are no current plans to make the festival a regular occasion, Vicky hinted that there may be another Vegan Market in the works for Christmas.
You can find more details about the event on Facebook and don’t forget to tag us in your pictures #LoveNuL
