The biggest vegan festival in the North will take place in Manchester tomorrow.
The Northern Vegan Festival is being held at Sachas Hotel from 10am-6pm and will feature talks, children’s activities, films, cookery demos and entertainment.
There will also be a free entry after-show party from 6pm until late at Manchester’s only vegan pub, The Thirsty Scholar.
Festival organizer Kelly Slade, who organises the event alongside Roddy Hanson, was in high spirits ahead of the festival.
“I hope that people come along and have a good day and that they find out more about veganism,” she said.
She added: “Hopefully people who aren’t vegan go away with a positive feeling –maybe they’ll move towards a more positive diet!
“We’ve got people coming from everywhere. We’ve got stallholders from as far away as Somerset coming up for it and we have visitors coming from London and Scotland.”
Ms. Slade claimed that Manchester’s large, diverse community is why all corners of the country are gathering here throughout tomorrow.
“We chose Manchester because it’s a big city and it’s got a really good vegan scene here already, so we’re hoping that there will be plenty of people interested in veganism who would want to come along and find out some more information,” she said.
The festival will feature 100 stalls offering a wide range of products such as food, footwear, toiletries, make-up and cookery books.
Regional campaign groups like Manchester Vegan Society will be at the festival, as will national groups such as Animal Aid and Vegetarians International Voice for Animals.
Ms. Slade said she hoped to get between 1,500 and 2,000 people to attend the festival.
She added that she intends to start plans in the summer to organise a vegan festival in a different northern city each year.
For more information, visit the Northern Vegan Festival’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/#!/NorthernVeganFestival?fref=ts
