Salem's only vegan festival, Cherry City VegFest, returns for 2022

The only vegan festival in Salem, the Cherry City VegFest, is returning for its second run on June 18. After its inaugural debut in 2019, the organizing committee of Salem's VegFest are eager to bring the free vegan-centric event back for 2022.

Cherry City VegFest is an event as well as a nonprofit established by Lisa Ryan in 2018, when she and some other passionate vegan acquaintances wanted to bring a vegan-centric festival to Salem. They were inspired by participation in Northwest VEG, a non-profit organization in Portland dedicated to bringing awareness on transitioning to and sustaining a plant-based, vegan lifestyle.

The one-day festival is organized to bring folks who are interested in -- or already live -- a plant-based lifestyle to a place where they can learn more about it and connect with organizations and businesses in related spheres. Folks who are involved in vegan cooking, animal law, animal sanctuaries, food empowerment, farming and more will be tabling or giving talks at the event.

The VegFest will take place from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. at Pringle Park Community Hall, with presentations starting around noon. In addition to presentations, folks can check out various tabling vendors and organizations, buy food and swagbags plus participate in a raffle. Presentations include a talk by Dr. Janice Stranger, a nutrition educator, and a food demo by chef Sarah El Ebiary, certified vegan and vegetarian nutritionist plus founder of vegan catering company Yumcore.

"Interest in plant-based lifestyle has been growing a lot in the last few years," Ryan said. "This is my way of helping with outreach in one space in one localized event space where people can come and learn about… all these aspects of people who live culturally vegan lifestyles, ideology or are curious about how to follow a plant-based diet. which are all important to veganism."

This year, Portland VegFest is not returning for 2022, which meant to Ryan it was more important to be able to put on Cherry City VegFest.

Growing a crowd

If the name "VegFest" sounds familiar, you may have heard about similar festivals in other bigger cities. The name acts as an umbrella name for the vegan festival, as other cities both domestically and internationally have created events and nonprofits in its name, Ryan said. The folks who take part in the grassroots activities of the VegFest are in general agreement about what it is, stands for and looks like across the "organization," she said.

This year, Ryan is the lead organizer of the event. She said initially the idea to hold a VegFest was proposed by someone she knew, but Ryan eventually took the reins over and then established the nonprofit.

Since then, she admitted she was shocked at the turnout of the inital 2019 event, where almost 2,000 visitors came and the food vendors sold out of everything. She added that everything "went smoothly" with everybody "seeming to have positive feedback" despite a lack of volunteers.

"This time will be interesting," Ryan said. "I've done everything almost by myself (this year)… but I think it'll be good."

Ryan shared some remorse at seeing some businesses and organizations that supported the first year's event "didn't survive COVID" as well as some who are still active but didn't have enough staff to spare for the event.

For those concerned about COVID precautions, Ryan said that folks who enter the Community Hall will be required to show their vaccination card or wear a mask if they are not vaccinated. Since most of the event will be outdoors, she said it'll hopefully put folks at ease.

"I hope a lot of people come out," she said. "It'll be fun and happy to be getting out together after so much isolation."

To keep up with other announcements about Cherry City VegFest, you can check out their website, cherrycityvegfest.org or follow their Facebook page.

Em Chan covers food and dining at the Statesman Journal. You can reach her at echan@statesmanjournal.com, follow her on Twitter @catchuptoemily or see what she's eating on Instagram @sikfanmei.ah.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Salem's only vegan festival, Cherry City VegFest, returns