Food & Drink
The Northern Vegan Festival. Image credits: Victoria Bryceson

‘Non-vegans are interested to learn more’: The Northern Vegan Festival returns to Manchester for 10th year

The Northern Vegan Festival is returning to Manchester for its 10th year later this month.

Held at Sugden Sports centre on 23 November, this year’s Northern Vegan Festival is set to host 120 stalls, with traders ranging from unique vegan food vendors to clothing, makeup, and even vegan cleaning products. 

This World Vegan Day, MM spoke to the festival’s co-organiser, Victoria Bryceson, about how both veganism and the festival itself have changed over the last 10 years.

Victoria, who has been vegan since she was only nine years old, said she was driven to create the festival back in 2014 to educate people on what veganism was.

She said: “I really wanted to raise more awareness for veganism, because when I started doing these events, veganism was still not really openly spoken about that much and people weren’t really educated on it.

“People would say, ‘Oh that’s weird. What do you eat, salad?’ and there weren’t really that many vegan food options in shops.”

However, 10 years on, veganism has seen a massive boom in popularity.

Earlier this year, a Statista study estimated the number of vegans in Great Britain to be 2.5 million, with another two million planning to follow a vegan diet in the future.

Victoria has seen this changing demographic first hand.

She said: “When we started off, it was very much only vegans who were coming.

“But now it’s literally 50/50 because you get a vegan person bringing along a non-vegan friend or family member because they’re actually interested to learn more.

“They aren’t getting dragged along now.”

She has also noticed more and more people going vegan because of its potential health benefits and its environmental impact.

She said: “I think people are waking up a bit more now about the state of the environment and some people are realising that going vegan is something that they could do relatively easily, and it would make a difference.”

study published last year in Nature Food journal indicated that shifting away from eating animal-based foods can aid in reducing the UK’s environmental footprint, as low-meat, vegetarian and vegan diets have significantly lower impacts on greenhouse gas emissions,  water pollution and land use.

Among the organisations and individuals giving talks at 2024’s Northern Vegan Festival is Vegan Organic Network, which is due to give a talk about the environmental crisis and how going vegan can have a positive environmental impact.

The proceeds from ticket sales go directly to animal rights charity Miracle’s Mission, which works with sick, injured and disabled animals across the world. 

Other animal welfare charities, including Ivy Dene Rabbit Rescue, Tiny Paws Manchester, Plant Based Councils, and Viva! will also be on hand during the day to chat to visitors and recruit volunteers.

Looking to the future, Victoria aims to create a welcoming and educational environment which has a lasting impact on non-vegans.

She said: “Obviously we want vegans to come, but my hope is that every year, we get more and more non-vegans as well.

“My hope is that we normalise veganism.”

Featured image: Northern Vegan Festival by Victoria Bryceson.

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