The 20th Anniversary of the Charlottesville Vegetarian Festival kicks off at 11AM at its NEW LOCATION: IX ART PARK on Saturday, September 24th!!

Celebrate the C’ville Veggie Fest’s 20th Birthday!! It’ll be great fun for the whole family. Dine on some of Charlottesville’s best vegetarian and vegan food. Listen to favorite local bands. Get in on our awesome raffles, and don’t miss our engaging cooking demos and speaker presentations.

Music Day and Night

At 11AM we’ll kick off the tunes with Jonah Kane-West on keys and Matt Wyatt on drums who will perform soulful sounds to delight the family. At 12:30 Madeline and Berto of Beleza will thrill us with their lively tunes. Finally, the Ragged Mountain String Band will close out the afternoon with some infectious old time at 2PM.

The Veggie Fest is partnering with WTJU and IX Art Park to extend the festival into the evening. A select number of exhibitors and food vendors will stick around as part of the Levitt Amp Charlottesville Concert featuring New Boss and Eternal Summers that night. The night time concert kicks off around 5PM.

Food Adventures

Food vendors will craft up delicious dishes for an animal free culinary adventure. You don’t have to be a vegetarian or a vegan to enjoy this awesome event. We encourage all to come out and try the amazing menus our food vendors will have prepared and see how delicious and easy it is to choose animal free options.

Amp Up Your Knowledge and Cooking Skills

The festival goal is to create awareness about the personal and planetary benefits of a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle. These benefits extend way beyond just what you eat, and beyond yourself. The planet thanks you for your choice to consume less, or no meat or animal products at all.

As part of the festival’s education and awareness initiatives there will be speaker presentations from engaging local and regional speakers. Dr. Dave Madow will be returning to enlighten us with 10 Ways to Supercharge Your Life. Wendy Vigdor-Hess will explore how “eating healthy” is much more than the food you choose with her talk Bringing Conscious Consumption to the Present Moment. C’ville Foodscapes will offer insights about raw and wild food during their presentation, Seasonally Foraged Foods: Paw Paws, Autumn Olives and Others. UVA Sustainability will speak on the importance of understanding your nitrogen footprint and introduce a new Nitrogen Footprint Tool.

The festival will also feature cooking demos from local chefs and individuals to give you real world experience about vegetarian and vegan cooking. Chris and Darlene, local vegan food bloggers of Veganscratch, will showcase their Vegan Butternut Squase Waffles recipe. A chef from our cooking demo table presenting sponsor, Whole Foods, will inspire you to think beyond tofu for your vegan entrees, and Mahabuba will show you how to craft a classic vegan Indian comfort dish.

Connect to Your Community That Cares

With over 60 exhibitor booths, it’s a great time to connect with Charlottesville’s organizations and businesses that care about healthy people and a healthy planet. You’ll find booths focused on natural and vegan beauty and clothing, and others simply providing literature, recipes and education about vegetarianism, veganism, those focused on yoga, others supporting animal rights, and local environmental initiatives and organizations.

Fun for Kids & Adopt a New Pet

Our kid’s corner will offer activities focused on food and gardening to help kids connect more with their food and a pet adoption fair will offer you the chance to give a rescued pup its new forever home.

You can learn more about the event, its history and the schedule at www.cvillevegfest.org