After a 5 year hiatus, the Roc VegFest rocked the Roc! About 1,000+ people attended the festival on Saturday, August 24th on a hot, beautiful sunny day at Parcel 5 in downtown Rochester.

Vendors local and far came to Rochester offering vegan food, vegan goods and services, crafts, and information about going vegan. Speakers gave talks about the journey to veganism and attendees could also watch food demonstrations.

After competing in the Rochester triathlon the morning of the Vegfest, I couldn’t wait to get the VegFest to eat! I had the All Bahn Mi-self from Grassfed, a local vegan deli and butcher, it was a grilled lemongrass and coriander marinated tofu sandwich with cilantro, cucumber, jalapeno, pickled diakon, and carrot, liquid aminos, vegan mayo, and scallion ginger oil on a Ciabatto roll with a vegan mac salad and it definitely didn’t disappoint!

The food is a big part of VegFest because this is when people can taste plant-based food and see how delicious plant-based meals (and desserts) can be without harming any animals. Attendees also saw food demonstrations from Ali from Spirit & Abundance, Ryan Jennings from Sweet Pea Kitchen, and committee members, Pearl and Bruce. Food demonstrations are a great way to see how easy plant-based cooking can be (and how you can still get your protein)! They also displayed and offered vegan cookbooks for viewing.

Other vegan restaurants in attendance included Sunshine Vegan Eats, a vegan restaurant from Buffalo; Hollycake House, a local vegan bakery, Fat Cake Baking, and Sweet Pea Kitchen, a local plant-based meal service.

Other vendors included the Rochester Area Vegan Society (RAVS), Ask a Vegan Booth, Mockingbird Farm, Monroe County Recycling, The Herbivore Next Door, Julia Jones, graphic designer – who designed our 2024 vegfest shirts!

Attendees learned about what it means to be vegan, how to eat plant-based, how to recycle, how to promote eating plants, as well as the volunteer and community opportunities to get involved with the vegan community. 

As for our speakers, we heard from Dr. Kerry Graff: Veg for Personal Health, Sarina Farb: Veg for the Animals, and Jim Hicks: Veg for the Planet. We learned how we can be vegan for personal health, for the animals, and for the planet.