Santa Cruz VegFest is a local event celebrating plant-based, cruelty-free, animal friendly, as well as, an environmentally sustainable lifestyle. Now in its third year, Santa Cruz VegFest outgrew the Cocoanut Grove in 2024, and is currently located inside the sprawling Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds. There will be a gleaming fleet of food trucks, more than a hundred food and craft vendors, bands, speakers and comedians. Also, Santa Cruz VegFest is family-friendly, and it’s 100% vegan.
VegFest is run by Little Hill Sanctuary, a non-profit “that seeks to create a more kind world through rescuing and protecting animals from cruelty, providing them with sanctuary and compassionate care, and combating speciesism through promoting veganism,” according to their website.
Co-director Helbard Alkhassadeh – when he’s not busy repairing the pens that Mabel, Petunia and Poppy, the Sanctuary’s all-star rescued (giant) pigs, destroy on the reg – is very upbeat about this year’s VegFest. “There’s the obligatory bounce house, face painting, and kids (under 12) get in for free,” Alkhassadeh says.
One of the vegan comedians performing is Danielle Arch, whose experience being a vegan mom, is transformative. “Being vegan has absolutely helped me as a mother,” says Arch. “I had a very healthy pregnancy, and my bloodwork results always impressed my doctor. I gained healthy weight and was able to successfully breastfeed my child when he was a baby. I’ve had plenty of energy – minus the newborn days – and I love that I am able to raise my son this way. He is being raised vegan, and always impresses his pediatrician with his overall health with every check-up. We do get some folks who negatively judge or make incorrect assumptions, but he and I are proof that everyone – adults and children – can not only survive with a vegan lifestyle, but we can thrive with it.”
VegFest really does offer something for everyone. For the adults there is vegan wine, beer and cider. One of Santa Cruz’ favorite bands, The Inciters, will be blowing minds with their throwback sound and mod attitude. And for the kids (you will love it as well), is a mariachi band of children musicians. “I’d tell you the name of the band, but the manager is seven, and he doesn’t have an email,” Alkhassadeh laughs.
Speakers include Madeline Krasno, who spent years inside labs of pharmaceutical companies that tested products and vaccines on primates. Also speaking is Lauren Ornelas, whose organization Food Empowerment Project, and their fight for farm workers rights, getting healthy food into Black and brown communities, and alerting people to the use of slave child labor in chocolate factories, is heroic.
Any family, or any car, with three or more riders can park for free. This is VegFest’s way of offsetting the carbon footprint of the parking lot. Because every aspect of Santa Cruz VegFest is geared to help the message be as loud, tasty, and clear as possible. “We want people to understand that once you start treating animals and all species equally, it’s difficult to hate one another as humans, because you start bringing a larger perspective to the table,” says Alkhassadeh.
Santa Cruz Vegfest takes place on Saturday, May 31 from 11am – 6pm at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, 2601 E Lake Ave, Watsonville. Tickets are $5 in advance and $10 at the door. Children under 12 are free. Parking is $10 unless you have three or more people in your car, then it’s free. Tix at vegfestsantacruz.org
