The Vegan Street Fair, known for its North Hollywood, California annual festival that garners 40,000 attendees from all around the world, according to organizers, has set its sights on eight new markets in a mission to continue making veganism mainstream for the masses. The Bronx is its first stop on the tour. Taking place on May 20, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., at 1055 Jerome Ave in the Highbridge section of the borough, the Fair boasts free entry and family friendly fun for vegans and non-vegans alike.

 

Dubbed “the largest vegan event in the world,” the Fair’s mission is to raise awareness of health conscious, alternative eating and lifestyles that are more planet-friendly in the hometown in founder Jessica Cruz’s hometown of The Bronx. When deciding on a place to host the Fair, the team said they knew The Bronx needed this the most. Cruz said of the event, “This nationwide expansion was a major undertaking for a small team of four people. While the Fair has the look and feel of an organization run by investors or a corporation, it is truly a labor of love that we knew we had to embark upon.”

According to organizers, the Fair features local and out-of-town vendors, many of them fan favorites as well as several new-comers to the vegan market. They said the Fair helps to incubate and nurture veteran and newer vendors who are making their mark on the vegan pop-up scene, while introducing as many people as possible to veganism and the plant-based lifestyle through their free events. This year, organizers said the Fair is adding a brand new host in fan favorite John Lewis, aka Bad Ass Vegan who has a glowing reputation of promoting veganism from a non-nonsense yet welcoming approach.

Organizers said patrons can get delicious bite-sized and full-portioned, plant-based eats as well as apparel, cosmetics, and jewelry curated from near and far at the open-to-everyone, free-entry event. The event will feature vegan and vegan-friendly vendors from every corner of the United States, they said. While the Fair is always free entry, attendees are encouraged to get Fast Passes which help skip lines, a prime feature of this popular food and lifestyle festival.

 

Cruz said that when her organization started the Fair in 2015, there were no free vegan festivals in the LA area. “Since we’ve blown up in the SoCal scene, we’ve helped inspire so many other event organizers to start their own festivals and markets in SoCal too,” she said. “There is a vegan event every night of the week in LA. Now that there is a huge bustling vegan scene that we helped grow in SoCal, we know it’s time for us to spread that kind of love and support around the country so that they can have their own vegan renaissance.”

Cruz said because their followers are 80 percent non-vegan, they get the opportunity to usher folks into a renaissance in collaboration with what she said were powerhouse vendors with incredible success. “We are proud of that The Bronx is my hometown,” she said. “I know the stigmas. I know how people look at us, but I’m ready to help change that along with all of the other amazing organizers in The Bronx area, vegan and otherwise.”

 

In the inaugural year, in 2015, the Fair hosted 44 vendors and 10,000 attendees, organizers said. In 2016, Vegan Street Fair LA boasted 100 vendors and welcomed 20,000 attendees. Also in 2016, they said the Fair added VSF Nights LA in September, a two-night event that garnered 3,000 attendees over two days.

In 2017, they said the Fair became the largest single-day vegan event in the world with over 30,000 attendees. They said Vegan Street Fair also brought the popular event to New York City in 2017 for a one-time event, hitting an attendance of over 10,000, organizers said. In 2018, they said LA Fair focused on returning to its roots to bringing in over 34,000 attendees.

In 2019, organizers said the Fair went from a one-day festival to two days and saw its biggest year to date with over 200 vendors and the largest attendance thus far with 60,000 attendees over the course of two days. In 2022, the Fair welcomed 40,000 attendees over two days. In 2023, they said 40,000 attendees joined the Fair’s one-day festival begging for a second day which will happen in 2024.

The organizers said that Fair’s focus has always been to make vegan food accessible to all people while focusing its efforts on the local area where it all began, hence making its way to The Bronx, home of Hip Hop and so much culture and diversity. The Fair incubates hundreds of new and upcoming vendors to the vegan and plant-based scene and helps them get their feet in the door with many other vegan events who see these vendors, and also give them a chance once they appear at Vegan Street Fair, they said.

Organizers said the Fair has single-handedly helped hundreds of vegan, vegan-friendly, and plant-based brands grow from small pop-ups to large ones, often moving into food trucks or brick-and-mortar establishments, and even traveling around the country making a name for themselves, thanks to the initial push from what they said is a wildly successful event.

 

Cruz, who is originally from New York, was inspired to create the event based on street fairs that are popular in her hometown of The Bronx.  Since Los Angeles is so vegan-friendly, the average person may never be able to try all the delicious vegan offerings, she said, so Vegan Street Fair brings them to the people, and now the expansion aims to add that same sense of explosive growth to eight new cities that are “prime for vegan magic.”

 

Additional information, including a full list of vendors can be found at www.veganstreetfair.com.

To connect with Vegan Street Fair via social media, visit the brand’s Facebook page and Instagram.