Don't forget to enter our fundraiser to win a weekend trip to The Stanford Inn. It's easy, click the enter now button below. :)

Vegan Mingle is Sunday

It's time to vote for Raleigh's Best! Triangle Vegfest is up for best annual festival. Incredible Foods is up for best "butcher". Yes, an all vegan business has been nominated. Help us win! Other local favorites are looking for votes too, Pure Vegan Cafe, The Fiction Kitchen, Gaia's Kitchen and Catering, and more. You can vote daily through July 26. Help confirm that all of these businesses (and us) are the best of the best!

Get your tickets before Sunday!! Who wants to Vegan Mingle? On July 21 at noon, our local community is getting together at Pure Vegan Cafe in Durham to eat and play games. This is a fundraiser for us and includes a box lunch prepared by Pure Vegan Cafe. It's $20 and getting tickets is super easy. You'll pick your lunch choice during the registration process. What kind of games? Ice breaker type games, but I am definitely leaning towards adult musical chairs!!

You can still get a shirt! Our cool kid shirt is a fundraiser for Animal Haven of Asheville. Want one? Respond to this email to get yours. $30 each plus shipping.

Want this shirt with your favorite sanctuary name? I can do that and send a donation to them from the sale. We can change the goat to a cow or a pig in the same style. :)

Thanks to our Sponsors & Vendors

Our friends at Piedmont Farm Animal Refuge are ready to bring pigs home to the sanctuary. This has been a work in progress for many years. You have the opportunity to help make this happen. There are many levels of support you can donate. Click here and help make this dream a reality and a sanctuary for the many pigs that will soon call The Refuge home.

The Refuge is our Presenting Sponsor for Triangle Vegfest on September 15 at Durham Central Park. If you haven't saved the date, please do and come out to learn even more about this latest fundraiser for the sanctuary.

Vegfest Expos 5LIVE

I'm live again this week. I will be promoting three more of our vendors between today and Friday, plus I went live on Monday and Tuesday of this week too. You can tune in on our social media at 1pm and/or 5pm. All of these vendors will be at Georgia Vegfest on August 25, but many will be joining us in other cities as well. Almost all of these vendors have the opportunity to purchase online (ahead or after) our festivals.

Akil Taher, MD is amazing. Physician, Speaker, Septuagenarian Athlete, Heart Disease Survivor, Author of OPEN HEART : The Transformational Journey of a Doctor Who, After Bypass Surgery at 61, Ran Marathons and Climbed Mountains. He is another of our amazing educational speakers for Atlanta on August 25.

Gigi the Vegan is joining us in Atlanta as one of our educators. Every topic she suggested was something I wanted for the festival. Gigi will be speaking about sustainable eating and will also be on a panel discussing How to Live a Plant-Based Lifestyle. All our educators will be on the panel. Education is between 11am and 5pm so come for the food and stay to learn!

Speaking of supporting, have you checked out Robert Cheeke's newest book yet? It's called The Impactful Vegan. Robert will be joining us in Atlanta on August 25 where you not only get to meet him, but you get to hear him speak, and you can get a signed copy of his book (or bring your book with you to get signed). He's a great guy and a wonderful advocate for our vegan community. It's another reason to see us in Atlanta!

Georgia Vegfest is Next!

Georgia Vegfest in Atlanta is on August 25. Here's a few reasons to join us:

*$15 Swag and Ticket Combo - Limited to 100!

*Free Face Painting

*Story Time with Debra

*Start the day breath work and meditation at 10am (included with your ticket) hosted by @pause2thinknow

*Educational Speakers - Robert Cheeke, Gigi Jones, Judy Hahn, and Akil Taher, MD - hosted by V Lynn Hawkins!

*Afternoon Dance Class

*360 photo booth

*Vegan Food from some of your favorites

*Vegan Desserts

*DJ spinning the tunes

*MZ Jazzy Entertaining & Hosting Fun Contests

*Shopping our Awesome Vendors

*Supporting our Presenting Sponsor - Full Circle Farm Sanctuary

*Get your VIP/VIP PLUS/Swag Bags/Donate and more!

*We are still looking for Vendors & Volunteers

Vegan Q&A Time

In this new section, I'm open to receiving any questions you have and answering them on a weekly basis. Hit reply and start sending your questions, they can be food related, interpersonal, whatever. If I feel I can do it justice, I'll post it and answer it. It could be serious or it could be jovial. You'll need to scroll down each week to find out.

Send us your Questions!!

• Send me questions you want me to answer.
• It can be on pretty much anything and not just vegan focused.
• If you want me to write about it, ask!
• Hit reply or send an email to vegfestexpos@gmail.com

Weekly News Items

If you're a vendor and are interested in joining us at any of other events, please click here. Interested in volunteering at our events? Visit our website to choose the events you'd like to volunteer for.

We are using a new system for vendors to sign up but it's also a place where attendees can go to see our vendor maps and follow us to stay up to date on all things Vegfest Expos. Click here and please follow us (you can leave a review too). Vendors can see what festivals are open and easily apply to the festivals you wish to join. We always want you to take advantage of our early bird rates! 

We still need volunteers to assist with the festivals. We especially need help at the end of the day and this is even more so in Asheville. Have you ever thought about wanting to learn how we make all of this happen and want to travel and be a part of our vegfest team? We love our core team and if you feel like this is something you'd be interested in, hit reply and let's chat. 

Georgia Vegfest - August 25, 2024 - Atlanta, GA - Open to vendors

Triangle Vegfest - September 15, 2024 - Durham, NC - Open to vendors

Asheville Veganfest - October 6, 2024 - Asheville, NC - Open to vendors

Vegan Food Fest - November 10, 2024 - Knightdale, NC - Open to vendors

TVF Holiday Market - December 1, 2024 - Wake Forest, NC - opening in August

Vegan Mac & Holiday Market Columbia - December 8, 2024 - Columbia, SC

Vegan Mac Cook Off - February 16, 2025 - Durham, NC

Asheville SpringFest - June 22, 2025 - Asheville, NC

Vegfest Expos Local - July 20, 2025 - Durham, NC

Asheville Veganfest - October 5, 2025 - Asheville, NC

Triangle Vegfest Education Day - November 1, 2025 - Durham, NC

Triangle Vegfest Festival Day - November 2, 2025 - Durham, NC

Enter our social media contests this month for a chance to win one of our NINE prizes from our incredible sponsors. If you're not following at least our Vegfest Expos page on Instagram, you need to. The rest of the month, the prizes will be raffled to our VIP/VIP PLUS and to people who buy raffle tickets from our most recent festival(s).

When you win, don't forget to tag us and the company on your social! We want to see your smiling faces. 

Unisoy Jerky is our July Sponsor!

Don't forget to follow our social media and to purchase raffle tickets online for a chance to win awesome prize packs from Fabalish, DoJo Fresh, Terraseed, Burny Wild's Adventure Sauce, Trupo Treats, Kathy Hester Cooking Classes, Bitchin' Sauce, and Hodo Foods. 

Let's Get Cooking with our Recipe of the Week: Vegan Dumplings

Master the art of making dumplings when you prepare this vegan dumpling recipe. Delight your tastebuds by following the recipe for the filling or by coming up with a unique filling from the ingredients in your pantry. Let us know what you make! Get the recipe here. 

Are you going to make this? Let us know what you think and tag us on your social with a picture of the finished product! #vegfestexposrecipes

Thanks to Kathy Hester for the recipe.