DC VegFest

My first time at VegFest was 2015. From friends, I hear 2014 had a better turnout but probably because 2015 was a rainy day. It was also very cold. But I had been so excited about going that I wasn’t going to let the weather ruin my experience.
Parking is a pain, so metro is highly recommended. Right next to the metro and easy to find with all the vendor booths and tents in plain view.
No charge to get into the festival — a total win.
A lot of great vendors, mostly local and a couple from PA and NY that I really love. I was a little bummed though not to see more vendors from the East come out. I thought more vendors would have traveled within PA, NJ, and especially NY — but no dice.
The first 1000 people got goodie bags — but unfortunately I didn’t make it in time!
There were speakers, performances and so forth which I only actually got to see a few, but I loved that they provided sign language interpreters for my Deaf mom and friends. Love that I am seeing more and more of that, especially in the DC area where we have a huge Deaf community.
I’m looking forward to next year and seeing what new vendors pop up! Hopefully the weather will be much better!

Fantastic fun for vegetarians. Come very early if you want to ensure that vendors don’t start to run out of food/​products and to beat long lines. First 1000 guests get a complimentary bag with goodies. Metro is highly recommended.

This is an awesome free event. It’s fun to wander around, try samples, and enjoy the atmosphere.
I’m a person who eats lunch at 11:30am to avoid the noon lunch rush during the work week, but I felt waiting in line for an hour for Vegan Treats was worth it.

Wish there had been more free samples, but we got there about an hour before closing up. We did, however, get a chance to drink from green coconuts, and that made the whole trip into DC worthwhile. And the vegan tacos from one of the food trucks really hit the spot! I’d go again next year, but I’d go as soon as it opened to score more goodies!

I really enjoyed the VegFest and if you love samples and food, you’d love this one! No ticket nonsense, just pay vendors with cash. The more popular vendors do have some lines, but overall the festival wasn’t crowded. I suspect it was because of the h street festival and the dc state fair going on at the same time, but that suited me just fine. I loved Sticky Fingers and was introduced to Vegan Treats (which had the longest line), an award winning bakery that came from PA. Come early or u will find some of their items sold out by 2 pm! Both places made really delicious treats. I also enjoyed the combo platter from khepra’s. My stomach was bursting by the end of the festival. I liked the location and the fact that the festival maps were everywhere, so you could find vendors easily. I’ll return to this festival next year!

My first massive vegan collective event and it was grrreeaatt! The arrangement of all the vendors was nice and I liked the variety. There was representation of restaurants, environmental groups, animal rights, food trucks, manufacturers, and speakers galore!
My only suggestion would be to have bags available for everyone and not just the first 1000 (which were gone twenty minutes after the doors opened I was told). There’s so much useful information available and great foods to sample and purchase that had I not have brought my big purse and sandwich bags (I comes prepared honey!), I would have had a lot to juggle in my hands.
Baltimore is having its first annual Vegan Fest on October 25^th so I hope to see some of the great folks I saw Saturday here in Baltimore next month!

DC VegFest presents a reminder of something odd that we tend to forget when we’re not in large groups: vegetarians are not a homogenous bloc, not by a long shot. Indeed, Eastern cultures have a religious take, whereas in America the ethical case for vegetarianism has a secular, if not downright atheist slant. And even within groups, there are degrees; vegetarians and vegans are quite different. You’ve got the animal rights crowd and the dog owners. You’ve got fanatics and flexitarians. You’ve got the Rastafarians and people who cut their hair regularly. Yet somehow, at the festival it all works.
They moved to a larger lot for 2014, and I dare say it still wasn’t big enough. Getting there an hour early was sufficient to get in line for a free tote bag with goodies, but I wouldn’t chance arriving much later as the line ballooned behind me. A wide range of veg*n restaurants are always there, but the various grocery stores and bakeries are good to visit as well. Activist groups aplenty, and some artists and clothing vendors round out the booths. Stages cater to those wanting to listen to evangelistic speakers or Woodstock-​ian music. Me, I’m in it for the food sampling and the free giveaways. There’s plenty of both.
This year’s biggest hits were So Delicious’ free non-​dairy ice cream (I got a popsicle and came back for an ice cream sandwich, both of which matched up fine against supermarket dairy products by my reckoning) and Vegan Treats Bakery, which had a line a hundred people long for the entire length of the festival (because they are not from around DC so this is our only chance, and presumably because they are good).
As packed as it is, there remain some bizarre omissions. I wish Conscious Corner would send reps for all their shops (not just Roots but Nest, Great Sage, Bark). It amazes me that no one sells vegan belts or the like at this event; they’d make a killing (uh, figuratively speaking). And it’s also odd that of the area’s many vegetarian or veg-​friendly Chinese restaurants (Yuan Fu, Sunflower, Harmony), the only one here was Vegetable Garden, and all they had was sushi. Not much in the way of Vietnamese or Thai either. Thus, I reached this bizarre conclusion: I wanted to get a nice tofu dish, and I couldn’t find one. At a vegetarian festival! I couldn’t find tofu! Fortunately, a barrage of other cuisines answered my hunger. Falafel never fails.
Besides being packed to the brim on the vendor side and for patrons, the venue for some reason closed sharply at 6:00, and people were actively clearing us out as it approached that time. Which is lame. Some of the food vendors were already closed (largely sold out), but the festival could have petered on a while. So at the end of the day, VegFest is a holiday for the Washington-​area vegetarian, but they still need to look to upgrade the venue again for next year.

Great outdoor venue with booths of food, merchandise, information and services. For those who want to learn more to those who want to reaffirm their interests and/​or activism, everyone who comes here will find something! They have speakers and music, if you’re into that.
It’s a lot of fun if the weather is in agreement. There are plenty of samples, but I felt that the samples weren’t as plentiful as I had hoped. If I tried really hard and elbowed people out of the way and grabbed greedily, ok, my appetite would’ve been satiated… But, at the price of feeling like a jerk! So, better idea is to bring $ 10 and a pocket full of patience.
The longest lines were for Vegan Treats, Vegetable Garden, Khepra’s, a taco truck and Amsterdam Falafel. The best free food was probably So Delicious ice cream bars and sandwiches!!! Also good samples included vegan cheeses, chocolate bars and chickpeas (Two Armadillos).
Other food options: Sunrise Caribbean, Loving Hut, the Randy Radish, Everlasting Life, BakeShop, Woodlands, Sweet and Natural, Sticky Fingers and even Roots had their baked goods!
All the big animal welfare and vegan groups were there from HSUS to PETA to COK to Sea Shepherd to PCRM and all the smaller ones that fight just as hard to spread the word and fight the good fight. So many!
There were groups representing veg athletics and training, companion animal health, veg health, and the like. There were artists for painted art, jewelry, henna for your body, tshirt art, bags/​totes/​wallets, etc. although pricy, if it’s your thing, no better place than here to get it if you’re already at Veg Fest. There were some price reductions at the Fest that the merchants and artists offered just for Fest attendees.
An uplifting and inspiring time, but easy to buy too much food and merch since it’s all right there!!!

While the DC VegFest may be a case of preaching to the converted, it’s a very tasty case.
Sure, there may be some flexitarians and omnivores circling the crowd at this once a year festival of fruits, veggies, and grains in Southeast, but I have to think they’re incredibly outnumbered by the vegans. Especially the ones presenting. Now I have no problem with vegans (my lady is one) but the booths here are staffed by true believers. All for different reasons, from Jainists to animal liberation peeps, but all kind of, to put it nicely, hardcore. Even the speakers seemed to be on how to be more vegan than you are now. It’s like everyone was trying to out vegan each other.
But they’re easy to ignore as the creepy carrot mascot and the people in cow suits walking around. And the reward is so much free vegan and vegetarian food, free admission becomes a free meal. And a bag full of veggie themed swag.
Vegetarian food manufacturers I didn’t even know existed (mostly, apparently, because I refuse to shop at Whole Foods) are there giving toothpicks of fake veggie sausages (and brats and hamburger and chicken). Wholesome chip manufacturers give out free bags. And Honest Tea gives out glasses of refreshment to wash it all down (I only wish they had given out sweater flavors — they were a bit too healthy).
And, for those who want to spend money supporting D.C.‘s finest vegetarian restaurants, they’re there in force and all serving entrees in the $ 5 – 10 range. Those people who don’t want to be surrounded by hipsters while they eat healthy, can partake here.
I was glad this year’s festival was a bit cooler than last year. It was more comfortable to explore all the booths and wait in the long lines. Well as comfortable as someone who’s not a vegan can be here.

Doesn’t matter if you eat meat, this place is fun and it gets better each year. The people are friendly, the food is great, and if you want to find out more about being veggie or vegan, they’ve got a bunch of information and recipes for you to try.

We came late, but enjoyed the hour or so we spent walking around. Lots of vendors (more than I was expecting) and many with really good quality products. Husband is vegetarian, I am not, and though I’ve adapted well, I still stand by the idea that faux meat just doesn’t compare. We have made some delicious meals using non-​meat proteins, but I still know in my carnivore heart that I’m not eating animal. The bratwurst alone that we found here is hands-​down the best not-​meat for omnivores we’ve come across, in my opinion. That alone was worth coming out to the festival for. Now if I can only find it in stores!
Sticky Fingers should also be mentioned. I’d have never known that moist delicious chocolate Bourbon cupcake was vegan if someone hadn’t told me. I still have a hard time believing it. (And being there at the end of the day made it easy to get them cheaper than normal!)
I can’t say anything about the speakers as we didn’t hear any, but the covered stage area had a very full audience, so someone must have been interesting,
I’m sure we’ll be back next year.