Review of Vegan Camp Out UK 2023

Article written by Hayley Cooper, COO of Vegan Hospitality

Photos by Ben Young

I was lucky enough to attend Vegan Camp Out in the UK last month. This was actually my second time at the festival but the last time I attended was 5 years ago when I was a brand new vegan! In fact, my partner who came with me, wasn’t vegan back then, but by the end of the three days he had decided he would never consume any animal products ever again after he watched a screening of Dominion. I noticed this year from some of the conversations I had that there were a lot of people attending with others this year who also weren’t vegan – yet! Which is amazing to see.

I was excited to go again and the lead up to the festival on social media was excellent with the event organisers sharing snippets of information on the food vendors, music line up and the talks that would be happening to really build on the excitement.

I went alone and was travelling all the way from South Africa, so I was pleased when I saw they had partnered with a company that pitched tents, so I just had to turn up and my tent, sleeping bag, camping chair and mat was all ready and waiting for me – what a pleasure! They did offer Glamping style tents too for if you needed a bit more comfort and space but ultimately, I was only in my tent for a few hours to sleep and found it ideal for my needs.

I arrived at exactly 12 o’clock as they opened the “gates’’ and was taken straight to my tent. When I arrived there were a few other people also at their tents, so we got to chatting and before I knew it I was no longer on my own as I had seven new vegan best friends. We created a WhatsApp group to look out for each other, hang out, go to the talks together and of course sample the delicious food on offer – more on that later! But meeting these like-minded people was definitely the highlight of the festival for me and throughout the entire few days absolutely everyone was friendly, and the vibes were great.

I also managed to meet up with a group of vegan businesses owners from Vegan Business Tribe and it was really nice to meet people in person that I had previously only ever spoken to via zoom calls.

The first time I had attended, my only negative experience had been the long lines for food. This time around they made sure they had more than enough food venders and really the only time I saw people waiting in line was in the morning for a coffee fix – lucky for me I don’t actually like coffee so although I did enjoy a hot chocolate it was during quieter times of the day. I really could choose where I wanted to eat for each meal with ease and there were a lot of options. Everything I ate was amazing.

Food options included…

Sushi, burgers, hot dogs, curries, roasts, pastas, tacos, sandwiches, salads, fruit, smoothies, doughnuts, cakes, brownies, cookies, ice cream, waffles, pancakes to name just a few! I think the average person at the festival ate at least four times a day if not more. I think the best thing I ate was a white chocolate doughnut with pink frosting from a company called “Project D’’.

They had two areas for talks, one was an education tent which centred mostly around the different methods of activism and then the main stage had talks from some very well-known organizations such as Viva, a UK based charity.

The talk that was most impactful for me was by an animal rights activist who spoke with such passion but also sadness for the cruelty animals endure as part of our food system, and this really resonated with me.

There also were two areas playing different styles of music and a wellness area. I participated in two yoga classes, one of which was meant to be yin yoga, but they changed it last minute to acro-yoga and, before I knew it, I was in the air being lifted up by someone! It was lots of fun, and I also tried Zumba for the first time which has become my new favourite form of exercise.

There were some tattoo artists and, apart from the coffee, this was the second longest line and a few of the people I was with had vegan tattoos.

The stall selling vegan related goods were also great. I brought a cute jersey to support the work at Viva which says ‘“I’d rather be saving animals’’ – very me! And you could purchase things like soy candles, vegan leather shoes, crystals, vegan perfume and so much more.

They even had after parties in the evening! Before one of these parties, Romesh Ranganathan, a British-Sri Lankan actor, did standup comedy and he was hilarious – a great way to end the festival with an after party presented by BOSH that night.

I am honestly still buzzing from the whole experience and if you are considering attending next year then my advice is – DO IT! You won’t regret it. If you are vegan, be sure to bring along a couple of non-vegan friends for them to experience the magic of veganism.

To contact Hayley, email her at hayley@veganhospitality.com

To learn more about Vegan Camp Out, CLICK HERE