On Saturday, 23rd November, Manchester welcomed a vibrant vegan community as the Northern Vegan Festival drew over 1,200 visitors. Hosted at the Sugden sports centre, the festival was just a stroll away from the university campus. Featuring more than 100 stalls filled with cruelty-free cosmetics, clothing, jewellery, and an incredible variety of vegan food, the festival was a celebration of conscious living, ethical eating, and sustainability.
Staffed entirely by volunteers, the event wasn’t just a festive celebration of veganism but also a fundraiser for Miracle’s Mission, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting sick, injured, and disabled animals. The festival’s profits were donated to the charity, ensuring that every purchase helped make a tangible difference for animal welfare.
For food enthusiasts, the festival was a paradise, offering veganized versions of almost every treat imaginable. Those with a sweet tooth could indulge in pastries, cakes, cookies, tiramisus, trifles, fudge, ice creams, and macarons. For fans of savoury delights, there were vegan cheeses, quiches, scotch eggs, pies, and even Yorkshire puddings—something to satisfy every craving. Personal highlights included a decadent vegan wagon wheel and the indulgent mince pie cinnamon buns from The Tree Rooms.
After walking around the stalls and being overwhelmed for choice, I decided upon buying a few sweet treats from The Tree Room. The first was an indulgent minced pie bun which was a bun filled with typical mince pie fillings of dried fruits and warming spices, coated with icing sugar on top. This was a creative alternative to a typical mince pie, and the shape of the swirl allowed you to get a mouthful of filling in every bite. The showstopper for me was their homemade version of a wagon wheel! This is something that I’ve never seen been veganised – as marshmallow typically contains gelatine this is a novelty for both vegans and vegetarians alike! The wagon wheel had a perfect coating of chocolate, and an equal balance of jam and marshmallow. This treat proved to me that being vegan doesn’t mean you have to miss out on any nostalgic treats.
Food stalls featured well-known Manchester vendors such as Wholesome Junkies, Seitan’s Kebab, House of Habesha, Teatime Collective, and The Vegan Picnic Basket. There were also sellers from across the country, including Brighton’s No Catch (vegan fish and chips), London’s Vegan Sweet Tooth (Italian artisan desserts), and Bristol’s Dark Matters (luxurious brownies).
In addition to the marketplace, the festival hosted live cooking and baking demonstrations, providing attendees with inspiration and techniques to bring plant-based recipes to life in their own kitchens. We went to watch the Nikita Gordon from COOK! with the Vegetarian Society make courgette fries with ranch sauce and afterwards had the chance to give it a try. Aside from being a good way to use up a lonely vegetable from the fridge, the fries work well as a side dish, starter or even a respectable chip alternative.
Gordon used panko breadcrumbs and batter to coat them, providing a satiating crispness to the courgette which can otherwise be a soft and mushy ingredient. The fries alone were too oily from the frying, however, the ranch sauce provided the perfect level of acidity to cut through this. Together the meal was tangy and fresh while also having an indulgent feel. COOK! is a Manchester based organisation that provides lessons for plant-based and vegetarian cuisine, tips and recipes like this can be accessed when you sign up to their newsletter here.
Situated in one corner was Brownins, a family-run Jamaican food stall from Birmingham. Before we had even got there they were already sold of their jerk soya, notorious for being indistinguishable from meat, usually eaten with rice and peas. Fortunately, there were still some patties left, the mixed vegetable had a rich depth of flavours, there was a noticeable kick from its spices but it wasn’t overpowering.
The soft and warm filling was wrapped in a typical patty pastry, making it a “vegan food still needs flavour” situation said Len, who first got into plant-based cooking after his daughter went vegan and now helps run the stall as it travels around the country.
Despite Jamaican food being strongly associated with meat heavy dishes like jerk chicken and curry goat, health foods and vegetarianism is not new to Jamaica. While veganism is a less familiar name, there is a history of abstaining from animal products, influenced by Rastafari dietary practices. While the patties and other treats are only available on location, it is possible to order the jerk soya through the Brownins website.
Among the many stalls selling cakes and pastries, Dark Matters Brownies from South West England stood out. However, while their display caught my eye, their taste didn’t quite live up to expectations. We tried both the salted caramel brownie and the peanut swirl. The moistness of both brownies was their standout feature, but unfortunately, they were a bit too dense, bordering on the heaviness of bread pudding.
There was too much salt in the salted caramel which overpowered any sweetness it had, though the chocolate itself was rich. The peanut swirl was equally disappointing, as it felt more like a regular brownie with whole peanuts scattered on top. There was no real integration of the peanut flavour into the batter itself, it felt like a missed opportunity to take advantage of the nuts and chocolate which are usually a perfect combination.
With its combination of ethical shopping, delicious food, and charitable impact, the Northern Vegan Festival continues to be a cornerstone of the growing vegan movement in the UK.
If you missed this fantastic event, don’t worry. The next Manchester Vegan Festival is already scheduled for April 19, 2025. Other vegan festivals in the north are also planned for York (December 15, 2024), Stockport (February 9, 2025), and Nottingham (March 16, 2025).
