Vegan Campout 2023

You may have noticed I haven’t been online much these past few days. That’s because I went to a festival in Biecester. Vegan Campout 2023 was one of the most eventful festivals I have ever been to. Many highs and many lows but it’s a learning experiance that I thoughtfully enjoyed. Dappa, my favourite ice cream van was there and I had two lovely ice creams from them. I got to try churros, coconut pancakes, wagon wheels and a red velvet sandwhich cookie. None of it beats Dappa ice cream. What’s also good? Watermelon slices and fresh coconut water and fresh.

Shoutouts

My friend Vee (Vegantoria Spongecake). She’s in the picture on the left. She’s the one who brought me to three of them and I’ve made changes that turned my life around for the better. She’s one of a kind.

WhatsApp Group: Vegan Friends - I didn’t get to meet any of you, but I know you were all around and it was great talking to you all. Hoping to meet some f you next year.

Becky’s Emporium- Amazing bath bins and love the wax melts there. I also managed to get some brilliant bath bombs. I picked Ditto, Sailor Moon and Mew.

Happy Maki - The best sushi burrito place around. I had one last year and another one this year and they were just as good, if not better.

Holy Carrot - The oyster mushroom wings were one of the best things I ever had at the weekend. I want to go to their new place in London when it opens.

Dappa - For serving the best plant-based ice creams. Disco Biscuit is their best one.

Osu Coconuts - For doing so much with coconuts then I could ever imagine. The fresh coconut water is a lot nicer than the shop bought stuff.

Frutory - Great choices of juices, smoothies and fruit. It’s nice to have healthier choices too! The biggest slice of watermelon I have ever had, but it was gorgeous.

Yom - For serving me some delicious breakfast pots. I think I loved the banana and cocoa one the most.

Mel Tropical Kitchen - I didn’t go to them this time, but I go to them regularly at Oxford at the Gloucester Street market.

Vegan Queens for a great setlist, and for reminding me to listen to Kylie’s new song.

Clare McKenna for hosting the Lady Gaga vs Beyoncé yoga session. Not what I expected at all, but it was a lot of fun.

Pros

• Excellent headlining acts. Sam Ryder did a fantastic gig. Romesh was hilarious. I will never forget his phrase: a dick is a dick is a dick is a dick is a dick.
• Mind and body workouts. I loved waking up early in the morning I do the yoga workouts. It made me feel accomplished that I went on to do three on the Saturday. I was too tired to do it on the Sunday, but I saw lots of people were having fun. They didn’t just have yoga this time, they also had Zumba and kickboxing.
• Token scheme - there was a private WhatsApp group where only the admins could post when they made a new post. The goal was to encourage engagement and increase activity to boost their anglorithm. As a reward, those involved in the group were given 6 meal tokens. Very useful, it saved me a lot of money and gave me more freedom to explore new vendors and buy different stuff.
• As a vegan venue who do everything for animals, the place is very pet friendly.

Cons

• Not enough toilets. This was an issue last year, but it seemed worse this year as there seemed to be less toilets for the disabled, but more people. Showers were hard to find too. It took me a 20 minute walk just to get one, and then I had to que for a clean shower. Didn’t fancy one that had a turd in or the cubicle showered in toilet roll
• Accessibility areas were poor and small. One shower block that requires a radar guy. This isolated a lot of people who don’t have a key. This is linked to the lack of toilets. It was so dire that some people left on Saturday. There were a lot of complaints about this and this did dampen the mood for some of the people there. There should be room for people to come in and out. There wasn’t enough space for wheelchair users and people had to bring their own chairs. Some people on sticks were struggling to stand.
• Tokens stopped being accepted on Sunday after a certain amount. I’m not sure how it worked. More communication or terms on how to use them would have been more useful to both customers and the vendors. I still have one left, maybe it could be souvenir or useful next year.
• Weather - the rain and wind caused our tent to flood. So we decided to leave before the after party started. Many people had the same idea.

Suggestions

More toilets and showers, and more people to clean and empty them. I also think there should be more staff about. More training should be given to staff. There was some people being turned away from accessibility for not having a brown wristband. I bet there’s a lot of people who are disabled who didn’t get one.

Vegan Campout is dying for a Bubble Tea stand. I overheard someone say the same thing. I was sad there was nothing with matcha in. Matcha stuff is already hard to get, but even harder to get vegan unless you make it yourself. Bird & Blend could do a stall there, I could see that doing very well at Vegan Camp Out.

I saw a stall doing face paint and glitters. There was a fair area and a circus. I did of consuming at the weekend and it would be nice to balance it out with creating.

Vegan Camp Out had so much this year, but I didn’t think there could be some creative workshops such as a writing group or doing some arts and crafts with eco friendly materials. A cooking session might be fun too.

With that in mind, I am going to remember this for the good times and not the time I found a turd in the shower.