Celebration With a Purpose at Baltimore’s Vegan SoulFest
Brenda Sanders and Naijha Wright started Vegan SoulFest six years ago and the crowds have been growing ever since
Overcast weather is blocking the sun but it’s still in the high 80s in Baltimore’s Clifton Park. Under a view of the Baltimore skyline, crowds of people meander along the aisles between tents and stalls set up in the middle of the grass. To the right, there are tents selling pizza, cheesesteaks and coconut water. To the left, people have set up in camping chairs and picnic blankets on a hillside to eat. This is 2019’s Vegan SoulFest.
Billing itself as “Baltimore’s premier celebration of veganism and culture,” the free event on August 3 was a chance to see much of what Baltimore’s vegan community has to offer. Local vegan eateries are well represented, as well as vegan and environmentalist non-profits in the area. You can pay for a chakra realignment, eat a vegan cheesesteak, or dance to reggae while the DJ shouts out “Mercy for animals!”
Six years ago, Vegan SoulFest was just an idea shared between two Baltimore vegans, Brenda Sanders and Naijha Wright, who were looking for a way to spread what Sanders calls the “lifesaving information” of veganism to communities where it is rarely talked about. “We had to…
