Today we’d like to introduce you to Drew Wilson.
Drew, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Each year we organize New England VegFest, an annual vegetarian food festival. We had a humble beginning back in 2010. Over the past 9 years, our all-volunteer team of organizers has grown this festival into one of the largest food festivals in our region and a top vegetarian event in North America.
Each year over 15 thousand people come out to our festival to sample vegan foods, check out restaurants, catch a cooking class and have a fun day with their family. 2018 New England VegFest is coming up in the Spring on Sunday, April 29 at the DCU Center in Worcester, MA. You can check out more about the festival here: https://NewEnglandVegFest.com
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We started as a ragtag group of people who just wanted to celebrate vegetarian food in a city that we love. The first year our goal was to get 500 attendees and we were BLOWN AWAY when over 2000 walked through the doors that first year. That’s when we knew we were onto something. The next year we got more vendors and slightly bigger space, but it was packed again.
Over the next 5 years it grew and grew and grew and we were always playing catch up and trying to get a big enough space. Now we host New England VegFest at the largest venue in Worcester and fill it up every time. It’s great that there’s so much demand for this but it’s always tricky to meet that demand with enough space!
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about VegFest – what should we know?
VegFest is a nonprofit organization run primarily by volunteers. Our goal is to show how easy and tasty it is to eat a plant-based diet. We organize educational events about vegetarian eating and the ecological cost of raising animals for food. New England VegFest is our signature event–it’s a vegetarian food festival with over 100 restaurants and businesses showing off their best vegan foods.
Each year about 15k people come out to the festival to catch a workshop, cooking demo, try some food, eat lunch, hang out, rock out, eat stuff and have fun
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
We’re passionate about showing people that eating vegetarian is easy, smart, fun, tasty, and there are lots of vegan options in our area.
For many of us, we’re motivated by the cruelty and ecological devastation caused by the meat industry–we want to encourage our friends and community members to eat veg more often for animals and the planet. But what’s most important for our success? Fun. Our annual food festival is fun and welcoming and there’s tons of great food at it. That’s what’s most important to us
Contact Info:
- Website: https://NewEnglandVegFest.com
- Email: info@vegfest.org
- Instagram: vegworcester
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/vegworcester
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/vegworcester
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