Vegan Camp Out is an annual camping festival in the UK featuring music, comedy, talks, health & wellbeing activities, and various workshops. Launched in 2016, Vegan Camp Out has been held at various venues in the UK, and an additional festival also ran in Australia in 2023.[1]
The festival focuses on veganism, animal rights and environmentalism. Most performers are publicly vegan, typically including influencers, activists, comedians, and musicians.
History
The festival was founded in 2016 by Jordan Martin.[2] Martin previously co-organised the festival with artist Kate Louise Powell from 2016 to 2019,[3] then vegan influencer Claire Michalski in 2020[4] and most recently with his sister Ellis Goodridge since 2021.[5]
The festival has received sponsorship from Viva! since 2017.[6] The festival has changed locations multiple times, sometimes following criticism after hosting at venues with links to industries such as farming and hunting.[7]
2016
The festival took place on 16–17 July 2016 at the Riddings Wood Caravan and Camping Park, Derbyshire.[8]
The first Vegan Camp Out event. Around 400 people attended. Entertainment was provided by a DJ, and one food vendor was present.[9]
Main festival: Originally scheduled: 21–23 August at the Newark Showground, Nottinghamshire.[17]
'Back to Basics': Originally scheduled: 25–26 September – Riddings Wood Caravan and Camping Park, Derbyshire.[17]
Festival organisers initially held off from cancelling the 2020 festival despite the COVID-19 lockdown regulations, due to speculation within the events industry that restrictions might be eased by the time the festival was due to take place. The event was eventually cancelled on 8 June 2020.[18] Following the cancellation of the main event, organisers announced they would be holding a smaller version of the festival, 'Back to Basics', with a lower attendance capacity of 1,000 and without stages for live entertainment.[17] After coming under public scrutiny, the licence application was subsequently withdrawn under pressure after around 50 objections were raised by local residents of the Amber Valley area, including Derbyshire County Council's public health advisor.[17] The council then used emergency powers to block the application from being resubmitted.[19]
2021
The festival took place on 20–22 August 2021 at the Newark Showground, Nottinghamshire.[2] 12,000 people attended.[20]
The festival took place during a heatwave (reaching 36°C (97°F) on the final day)[23] and a lack of water supply became an issue throughout the weekend, for which the organisers apologised on their official Facebook page.
Some criticism was received after reports of vandalism in the local area – specifically, graffiti with the words 'go vegan' appearing in multiple places around Bicester.[6]
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