Leicester Vegan Fair (November ninety, day 23)

I got up nice and early to be there for the start of the Leicester Vegan Fair, which was being held today at Friends Meeting House on Queens Road. It was a sunny morning and I appreciated not having to go to work for the first Saturday in what seems like a long time (I’ve just looked, and I’ve worked the past five, even if just for a couple of hours).

My reasons for getting in at the start were all entirely selfish. I wished to avoid the crowds (fairs tend to get really rammed around lunchtime, in my experience), swipe any limited supplies of hard-to-find goodies before they went, and bag myself (pun intended) a Morsbag full of freebies, as promised to the first 80 attendees. Done and done.

Even right at the beginning there were plenty of visitors, but it wasn’t too hard to navigate the main stall area.

And being amongst the first 80 arrivals, got some lovely goodies.

The bag contained a serving of Koko coconut drink (which is my favourite non-dairy milk for drinking!) and 30p voucher off next purchase, sour cherry Goody good stuff jelly sweets (not tried this flavour before), a nakd bar, some yogi tea, a sachet of Green People shampoo, some printed info about various products, and of course the bag itself! I do actually have quite a few reusable shopping bags, so I’ll probably offer it to someone next time I’m at a supermarket. Maybe they’ll get curious and check out Morsbags themselves.

I thought the fair had a good variety of stalls. There was a hall with a mix of local groups, charities and businesses as well as ones from further away. The local veg group were running a tombola with a prize every time. I bought two tickets for a pound each, the first won me a tasty energy drink, and the second won me one of the star prizes! A gift set of fruit cordials.

In another room there were food stalls, a sample table and acoustic music courtesy of local entertainers. I was impressed at the amount of different samples on offer, including chocolatey wafer sticks! I haven’t seen vegan ones before and used to love them! That’ll be something to keep an eye out once this challenge ends.

There were also free yoga sessions and talks, but I didn’t go to those. Overall, I was impressed with the amount of hard work that had obviously been put in by the organisers, and how well it paid off. Not only was it an opportunity to get my greedy mitts on things I wanted, and have a chat with a few people, but it was also nice to see the community spirit in action.

In total, I spent £8 on the tombola tickets, a recipe pamphlet and a couple of things which may or may not become presents. Not too bad, as I had up to £10.57 available without going into arrears today. Think I’ll treat myself to some more fresh veg tomorrow as I finished the last market pepper today.