Vegandale NYC a.k.a Veggie Fyre Festival
Alright so it wasn't THAT bad, but it was bad. This past weekend's yearly food festival was wrought with long lines, high prices, and a much different vibe than the event previously held.
Heat Stroke and Overwhelmed Security
I’m not exaggerating when I say the organization at this year’s Vegandale was a shit show. When I received my ticket in my email with an 11:30am entry time I thought certainly I was a later entry time, and would be able to get into the venue with 15-30 minutes of waiting. This notion was mind you, based on my knowledge as a previous attendee at both Vegandale ‘23 and ‘22 and while it was clearly a bigger festival at this point I thought my later entry time might prevent some of that early morning wait stress of the previous year. Well boy was I wrong, because not only was I the first entry time but I also arrived at 10:50am to an unbelievably long wrapping line across the entire front pavement of Citi Field. Ill be the first to say I never loved Vegandale’s previous location at Randall’s Island, as a public transportation user the 20 minute walk over the bridge from Harlem was kind of a nightmare, it was hot and next to a highway and the bus was always too crowded to catch a ride. Still, the absolute mess that was Citi Field this year has me feeling nostalgic for the previous experience.
When we arrived and saw the state of the line we were a little panicked, but years of living in this city have prepared me for the worst so I got out my kindle and started queuing. At around the one hour mark, and being almost no closer to the front, is where things really began getting out of hand. First, there was no direction from event organizers and it was clear there were 3-4 lines that began merging and people who had been waiting hours became unhappy to now be surpassed by people who waited 10-15 minutes after getting off the train. There were 6 cops standing off to the side of the line, directing nobody but occasionally answering questions when people went up to ask looking as confused as everyone else. It was unclear if they had been brought out by the city, the event staff, or to guard Citi Stadium but they were effectively useless. One man would occasionally leave the front to yell “no tents no duffel bags” and then meander off again with no concern for the lack of line organizing. At the two hours in line mark all lines dissolved into a fretful clump and people started dropping like flies. There were people with incredibly small children and elders who had clearly not expected music festival lines and what had previously been a simple food festival. After arriving at the event at 10:50am at around 1:35pm we finally passed security to enter the event. The organizers sent out one palette of around 20-30 waters to a crowd of 100+. Once we were at the end of the line it was clear what had been happening, event organizers completely abandoned festival staff and around 6 people were in charge of directing people how to pull out their tickets and enter the festival. Then those six lines diverged into around 4 metal detectors and a few people checking bags. People were pushing, yelling, and it was incredibly chaotic at best and downright dangerous at worst. Barring a really clear game plan about how they would accommodate their newfound crowds this line experience cemented that we would not be attending another Vegandale, but I really wish my complaints with the festival stopped there.
Cost Prohibitive
It’s not unexpected that as a festival grows in popularity that their prices would rise to catch up to the demand. The cost to access the festival has doubled even since last year, and the additions of VIP and the music component have only added to the cost barrier to enter the festival. So attendees might hope that Vegandale would provide some services with all the money they had collected (they didn’t.) Other than a flimsy cloth wristband, and a desperately earned water bottle we received nothing from Vegandale itself. That said, in order to make up for the larger cost percentage cuts that Vegandale took from its vendors many vendors raised their prices (a rumored 30%!). I don’t think I was able to purchase anything less than $15 (and once for only 6 dumplings!) and more often spent $20-$22 on sample sized portions of vegan meals. Veganism has long had a cost problem, eating meat replacements and fake cheese amplifies these prohibitions and Vegandale’s luxury fare is no exception to this rule.
Vibes
This part is just a personal gripe of mine, and I in no way expect anyone to be deterred or affected by the change of vibe at Vegandale but I certainly was. The people in front of us in our miserable line experience loudly joked about going home to eat a steak afterword, and its expected that as a festival becomes more popular casual veg curious people are bound to start coming out. So how disappointing is it that these people now associate veganism with this capitalist hellscape instead of what is a simple and earnest desire to not murder for sustenance. Their decision to add music was disappointing to me, but this was clearly a successful business decision and veganism and music have been linked for decades so I understand the ethos. On a personal basis, my music taste and the music acts of the festival aren’t similar and I was fine with these things existing simultaneously but separated. If only the entire festival hadn’t been outfitted with the largest most unbearable loud speakers that made the music component inescapable. One of the vendors who had the misfortune of being placed directly by the loud speaker covered one ear as she took my order (that I had to scream at her) and I can only imagine how much pain she was in having to stand there for hours. Vegandale’s desperation to engage influencers and party culture is driving away their core base- actual vegans and vegetarians. The music festival goers and people looking for a good time have hundreds of other options and Vegandale is never going to consistently win the competition. People who want a vegan food festival? Much easier and reliable attendees to entice.
AI and the introduction of Influencer Culture
One of the largest disappointments at this year’s Vegandale Festival was the sad analog to an abandoned children’s playground that was their photo area. From a distance, most things appeared as usual with the heavy handed “say no to meat” taglines that vegans have been seeing since the 80’s. Large farm animal cut outs and a fake animal derby urged passerby’s to choose more ethical food consumption paths. But upon closer examination, the true horrors were revealed. Mangled mouths and half faces quickly clue the onlooker onto the fact that these ostentatious cutouts had clearly been assembled by AI, and a poorly trained one at that. How can a festival so blatant in its ask to choose ethical eating ignore the equally important ethics of fair work, artistic theft, and capitalist exploitation? Using AI art in their displays was not a surprising choice by a festival that so clearly prioritizes capital gains over the supposed vegan values it claims to espouse. By condemning factory animal slaughter in one hand and then propping up a tool poised to put thousands out of jobs in the other Vegandale cemented that its mission statement is as flexible as its organization and planning. At least I got an opportunity to capture my mug in front of these corporate art style animal cut outs I guess.
Locality
In my opinion the one driving factor to going to an event like this instead of just eating at my local and much closer vegan restaurants is to try new things. I love the idea of branching out and one day of the year trying fake seafood from Orlando (was really heartbroken Oh My Cod wasn’t there this year..) or hitting up the L.A. fried chicken truck (the line to Lettuce Fest was once again impenetrable) and finally trying some too far to consistently visit favorites (no Peach & Pine this year either! I’d certainly drag my ass to Patchouge more often if I had a car.) So it was interesting to find that Vegandale this year was the most local it had ever been, small businesses from NYC, LI, & NJ were in high attendance this year. My actual local favorites all bowed out due the ridiculous cut Vegandale took and it appears BlackRicanVegan is working on her brick & mortar so this loss was felt as well. My consistent favorite at Vegandale was actually BStrow who often attend Queens Night Market but with a sadly not vegan friendly menu, but I didn’t see them this year and desperately missed my faux Taiwanese chicken. I can’t help but feel a little disappointed that most of the places I saw were the same exact places I see every week at Prospect Park Smorgasburg that I can walk to for free from my apartment. It was always the drive of the out of town restaurants that kept me going back and those were mainly not in attendance this year. In another vein I’m glad that so many up and coming spots I might be able to actually visit were able to show off their stuff.
The Positives
On the bright side, for the most part the food was banging (if not always worth the price) and I did have fun getting some free stuff from the businesses that were there. Cat Fight Coffee from New Jersey served me the most delicious Jack-O-Latte and even had cold brew that tasted like blueberries! My boyfriend loved their Mastodon themed brew and couldn’t resist buying a bag of beans. I finally got to try the Perros Locos Mexican Street Dog after an equally miserable failed attempt at going to the Central Park Vegan Night Market last year. Best Day Brewing is making an absolutely delicious and very authentic Non-Alcoholic kölsch. Dumpling N’ Dips served me the most perfectly fried dumplings I’ve ever had, Massaman Curry is my favorite flavor of anything and paired perfectly with their chili lime dip. After years of searching I finally found a Vegan Halo Halo to try at Just for Keyks! There were more Eastern European spots than usual and that’s always fun for me since I love my cultural food. It also cannot be understated just how freeing it is to go to a food festival and not have to do investigative journalism just to figure out if I can try a dish. With its new Citi Field location I was able to make a rare trip to Flushing after and enjoyed a nice walk in Corona Meadows Park. At least if this is my last Vegandale, I ate well and have an interesting story to tell warding off those who may attend in the future.