Join us on Friday 28 and Saturday 29 January for our Vegan Food Festival!

12 noon - 11pm Friday

12 noon - 6pm Saturday

You’ll be able to browse a selection of vegan stalls, enjoy some of the best local vegan food and watch cooking demos on Saturday. Children can take part in kids crafts, and there will be live music and DJ’s over the weekend - times to be confirmed.

The event will take place in the Hat District, Bute Street.

Friday - 12 noon to 11pm

• Crazy 8 Hot Sauce
• Kalasin Catering
• Cosie Rosies Candles
• Rawlicious!
• Monstera Canteen

• Laugan's Cakies

• A Vegetative State

• Lush - Handmade vegan cosmetics
• Cub Coffee

Friday -6pm to 11pm

Soul Food poetry are a collective of spoken word artists, who will be performing with a live band, and will be joined by a DJ playing Neo Soul on the evening.

Soul Food Poetry brings poetry to life in the form of Spoken Word, images, videos, audio and all things creatively poetical!. There will also be an open mic session for local artists.

Saturday - 12 noon to 6pm

• Demos and soap making workshops from Lush
• Storytelling, puppetry, interactive games and crafts themed around nature, animals and the outdoors.
• Children’s crafts using recycled materials in the Mall

A selection of chef demonstrations by:

Greg Owen:

Gregory Owen owns and runs Monstera Canteen, the first vegan cafe in Luton, but Greg wasn't always Vegan. He used to consume meat and dairy every day and never ate vegetables. He would scoff at fiancee Emma for being vegetarian. Then Greg educated himself about how the meat and dairy industries work and what exactly was going into his body. Greg believes if he can do it, anyone can!

Both Greg's parents were great home cooks, encouraging the family to cook freshly prepared meals and teaching them the traditional cooking basics, inspiring Greg to be a passionate home cook. Turning vegan with new ingredients and cooking techniques ignited a new spark for him.

Greg's creative outlet is food. He built a small following on Instagram, posting meals and decided to take the plunge and start a full-time business. With the help of friends and family, he built Monstera Canteen from the ground using recycled materials wherever possible—creating the menus and a welcoming, fun, safe space for Luton locals to enjoy.

Anne Harnan:

Anne is a cookery writer who has contributed to many recipe books and gives a helping hand to well-known cooks.

She has taught at Jean Christophe Novelli’s Academy and worked on the food pages of Good Housekeeping and Prima magazines, as well as writing recipes for TV cookery shows. As a ‘foodie insider’ she has worked alongside many well-known chefs for cookery TV and has lots of tales to tell.

Carmela Sereno Hayes:

Carmela is a passionate Italian cookery tutor who specialises in the art of making pasta. Carmela is known as a pastaia (specialist pasta maker) and is also an event cookery demonstrator, recipe developer, food writer, founder and chef of a sell-out supper club, cooking simple, inexpensive, seasonal, flavoursome dishes whilst using good quality seasonal ingredients as her mantra.

The Italian Vegan:

When you think of the Italian diet you may think that there is no or very little room to showcase a vegan based diet? Oh, how wrong you are. The south of Italy showcases their pasta dishes simply, with semola flour and water or aquafaba while vegetables, lentils, beans, and other grains shine and take centre stage as a main dish on many a family table.

The vegan diet stretches from the mountainous top to the tip of the fiercely hot Italian boot. Carmela will be demonstrating the simplicity and mouth-watering options that the vegan Italian diet can offer.

Luton was named the UK’s best city for vegan food delivery in February 2021 by The Vegan Review, and this is a great opportunity to find out what we have on offer in the town. Watch this space as we add more activities over the next few weeks.

The Vegan Food Festival is part of Luton Street Fest, a series of three events taking place in Jan, Feb and March, which are funded by the Welcome back Fund.