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First Annual San Diego Vegan Festival Is Happening This Month

Attend for free on April 15. 

San Diego skyline
Things To Do
San Diego

Photo by Stephen Leonardi

Attend for free on April 15. 

Mark your calendars! The first annual San Diego Vegan Festival will take place on Saturday, April 15 from 11am to 4pm at the County of San Diego Waterfront Park. With free admission, an estimated 5,000 attendees are expected to come together to celebrate veganism and enjoy a fully vegan experience! The festival, hosted by Vegan in San Diego, will feature 70 vendors offering vegan food, drinks, desserts, apparel, and more!

San Diego Vegan Festival: A Long Time Coming

The San Diego Vegan Festival has been in the works since 2016, when Vegan in San Diego was founded, with the goal of promoting the vegan lifestyle and making it accessible to the community. The first festival was scheduled for 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic. In April, the San Diego Vegan Festival will finally become a reality!

The festival will feature eight nonprofit exhibitors (such as the Beagle Freedom Project
and San Diego House Rabbit Society) and three speaker panels throughout the day, providing attendees with an opportunity to learn more about the vegan lifestyle. Hear speakers talk on the topics “Effective Methods of Vegan Activism,” “Thriving on a Vegan Diet,” and “Life as a Vegan Animal Rescuer” while munching on delicious vegan fare from Mama’s Tamales & Pupusas, Sabor Piri-Piri, Flavors of East Africa, and more! One of the most recognizable vegan event sponsors is Maya’s Cookies, a Black woman-owned vegan business based in San Diego.

variety of Maya's Cookies

Courtesy of Maya’s Cookies

Attend the First Annual San Diego Vegan Festival

Veganism promotes compassionate lifestyle choices through a plant-based diet and a vegan philosophy, and San Diego’s first annual Vegan Festival is the perfect opportunity to be a part of this movement. Come out to the County of San Diego Waterfront Park on April 15 to join the celebration and learn more about how you can make a difference by making conscious choices that do less harm to animals, people, and the planet!

Goat smiling at camera

Courtesy of Farm Animal Refuge

Attendees are encouraged to take public transit, with parking being limited. Service animals are welcome. Full event details can be found at VeganinSanDiego.com/VeganFest2023.

Allison van Tilborgh

Allison van Tilborgh

Allison is a digital media consultant, writer, and aspiring vegan-feminist scholar living in the Orlando, Florida area. She’s the founder of The Sanford Vegan, a vegan media brand, through which she connected with VegOut. As an early reader of VegOut Magazine, she dreamed of one day putting her own writing on the national stage (spoiler alert: that dream came true!). Allison loves experimenting with plant-based cooking and reading up on the latest trends in veganism and animal rights scholarship.

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