Visitor Feedback - Vegfest Free Birmingham Saturday April 25th 2026

Vegfest Free Birmingham Saturday April 25^th 2026 Visitor Feedback

Vegfest Free Birmingham was held on Saturday April 25th 2026 at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, and attracted just over 2,000 attendees for the day, with 2 big halls for traders, 2 talks rooms, an art exhibition and an outside plaza complete with street food traders and stage with live acts & performance throughout the day. Sponsored by main sponsors No Bloat alongside Plamil Foods and One Planet Pizza, and supported by Vegan Accountants, Just Be Kind Dog Food, Plant-Based Health Professionals UK, Mad Promotions PR & Yaoh Hemp Products, the event was a resounding success on many levels and the feedback from visitors & traders alike was the best since pre-covid days, which was a very big step forward for the broader vegan community.

Vegfest Free was a unique event in that not only was it free to the public, thereby ensuring it had a strong vegan outreach element to its remit as well as attracting large numbers of core vegan community, but also free for 60 small charities, CIC’s, animal sanctuaries, authors, artists and selected start-ups, bringing together a whole spectrum from across the broader UK vegan collective and ensuring a really outstanding day out for nearly everyone – as reflected in the event feedback.

In addition to uniting the vegan movement for a celebration of all things vegan whilst attracting hundreds of people new to plant-based lifestyles to the event, Vegfest Free Birmingham generated an impressive 25 media pieces with hundreds more posts across social media platforms advertising the event, plus an interview on BRMB regional radio, showcasing the best of the vegan way of life to a wider audience and portraying veganism as an attractive & positive way of life.

This was reflected in the numbers of people new to the vegan way of life that came to the event, with an estimated 350 people not yet vegan in attendance, and all of them leaving with a positive impression of veganism and many (around 90%) pledging to make changes after visiting the event.

Vegfest Free Birmingham aims to return in 2027 and looks forward to sharing news at a later date. Thankyou to everyone who partook and helped with the show and a special shout out to Heather Mills from No Bloat who provided significant input and support for the event, & whose help has been superlative with a commitment to helping the broader UK vegan community and growing the movement too.

”The combination of free stalls, free entry and an extensive media & promotional campaign has insured not only a really good attendance, but also a number of people new to plant based lifestyles, and with so many pledging to make changes, Vegfest Free Birmingham has already become one of the biggest and most effective vegan outreach events in the UK – if not the biggest – whilst also providing a significant boost for a number of independent traders & charities. This is exceptionally good news for the broader UK vegan community at a time when many are facing significant challenges.’ – Tim Barford, VegfestUK organiser.

”Thankyou everyone who came to Vegfest Free and it was a pleasure to share our new brand No Bloat with so many of you. We’ve worked hard as a team to bring you Vegfest Free and from the feedback it looks like our efforts have been worthwhile. Events like this can really help boost a lot of organisations as well as individuals and the vegan community needs more of that.’ No Bloat

”What a day at Vegfest Free Birmingham! Packed crowds, amazing energy, and such a brilliant atmosphere from start to finish. We’re hugely proud to have sponsored an event that brings so many people together around great food and community – never felt more proud to be vegan!” – Joe Hill – One Planet Pizza

For All Visitors

Average Time at Show as around 3 – 4 hours, above average for our events

Average Spend per person was approx £65 – this is an impressive figure comparing very favourably with previous vegan events

Over half our visitors (53%) were attracted to the event by the overall community vibe, the other half came mainly for the food and the shopping

Nearly half our visitors (42%) enjoyed the overall community vibe as the best part of the show, with 8% citing the talks and entertainment as their favourite part of the show.

96% of visitors said they were likely to return with 61% saying ‘definitely’ & 23% ‘very likely’ to come back next year.

33% of attendees enjoyed the Outside Plaza and entertainment the most, with 42% enjoying ‘all of it’.

An impressive rating for the show from attendees – 38% scoring the show 10 out of 10 and 84% rating the show 8 out of 10 or over.

Non vegan visitors

Approximately 350 attendees weren’t vegan – 17%

Of these, no-one appeared not to enjoy the show – 100% had a positive experience, with 68% ‘loving it’

No-one reported that they didn’t get a good impression of veganism, with 54% saying it was a ‘really good advert for veganism’

18% of our non-vegan visitors have stated they are now going vegan after visiting the event. Whilst being careful not to extrapolate too many figures from a small sample size, this could indicate around 60 visitors to Vegfest Free could now be going vegan following the show.

And a further 50% (175 people) are increasing plant based options substantially, with a further 23% (80 visitors) making changes.

Only 9% of visitors (30 people) people indicated they may not making any changes following their visit to Vegfest Free.

70% of non-vegan visitors said ‘absolutely yes’ when asked if they would be likely to recommend the event to non vegan friends – although one person said ‘absolutely not’.

Feedback from Visitors

Feedback from Visitors was overwhelmingly good – thankyou to everyone who completed the survey, some valid points about sound in the Talks Room, more seating outside and improved signage, plus some other useful pointers for improving the visitor experience which is always welcome – here are some of the very positive comments from visitors.

”Great event and I hope there will be more!”

”Congratulations on an excellent event at the Edgbaston Stadium last weekend. We had a brilliant time as my credit card will testify spending well over £200 on edibles and merchandise amongst other items.”

”Great venue (although I’d suggest a BIG sign showing where the entrance was).”

”Loved the outdoor acoustics in the sunshine, the food, the stands and the talks. A fabulous event, thank you!”

”Great day out and lovely venue.”

”Great experience, I went with my girlfriend who wanted me to open my eyes to plant based alternatives.”

”Amazing event!!”

”Loved it, could’ve done with more outside seating.”

”Awesome dudes”

”Such a fabulous event, so many old vegan friends to catch up with, loved the mix of everything. Great venue too and the sunshine such a bonus. Thank you for all the hard work involved putting this on.”

”We had a lovely time – it was great to be among so many like-minded, kind people. There was a lovely atmosphere. A great venue too. The outside Plaza was a nice touch and the food out there was lovely. Hats off to the vegan gluten-free crepes stand! Upstairs was good too – lots of campaigning for an array of animals. Loved the whole event!”

”Really enjoyed the event and there was a great atmosphere. More seating outside by the food vendors would have been handy. Great event, would go again.”

”Really glad to see VegFest continue with a buzz. Loads of interesting stalls, groups, and products as always. Hard to fault the organisation or event.”

”Lovely atmosphere, friendly people on site to help with any queries, good selection of stalls and talks, great music acts too.”

”Event was so well organised which made everything so easy. It was a lovely vibe, great stalls and products at good prices. So glad we came.”