Vegan Camp Out 2024: Everything you need to know before you go!
VEGAN CAMP OUT 2024: Everything you need to know before you go!
Vegan Camp Out is the world’s largest vegan camping festival. The event is four days and three nights of camping, talks and workshops, live music, afterparties, yoga and meditation classes and of course the UK’s best vegan food! Want to know more? Here’s your complete guide to Vegan Camp Out 2024 – everything you need to know before you go!
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What is Vegan Camp Out?
Vegan Camp Out is the world’s largest vegan camping festival as well as the most international, with campers coming from over 40 different countries each year!
The event is four days and three nights of camping, talks and workshops, live music, afterparties, yoga and meditation classes and the UK’s best vegan food!
Where is Vegan Camp Out?
Vegan Camp Out takes place at Bicester Heritage in Oxfordshire which (fun fact!) is England’s best preserved former WW2 RAF base.
How much does Vegan Camp Out cost?
Weekend passes with camping (for 16 years old and older) are £115 plus a booking fee of £7.
Children’s passes are £35 plus a booking fee of £3.50 but children under three go for free.
There is also an additional charge if you require parking or a caravan pass.
Unfortunately, the price doesn’t change if you don’t fancy camping and would prefer to stay in a hotel. However, day tickets (which were £60 in 2023) get released at a later date for anyone who just wants to come down for the day.
How many people attended Vegan Camp Out?
Vegan Camp Out has gone from strength to strength since starting all the way back in 2016.
The first festival saw 400 in attendance and has since grown year on year to a whopping 13,000 attendees in 2023!
How do I get to Vegan Camp Out?
Vegan Camp Out is relatively easy to get to. There are public transport links near by as well as two motorway junctions on the M40.
Here’s how to get to Vegan Camp Out:
By train
The nearest train station to Vegan Camp Out is Bicester North which is only 1.2 miles away from Bicester Heritage.
Bicester Heritage is easily accessible from Birmingham and London by train.
From Birmingham you can travel direct from Birmingham Moor Street to Bicester North, which takes just over an hour.
From London you can travel from Marylebone Station to Bicester North, which only takes an hour and a half. Or you can take a direct train from Marylebone Station to Bicester Village which is just over an hour.
If you’re travelling further than Birmingham or London, I’m afraid it’s a bit of a journey – but well worth it!
From Manchester where I’m based I had two changes from Manchester Piccadilly to Bicester North at Nuneaton and Leamington Spa. The journey took three and half hours.
If your travel time is more than three hours I recommend going down the night before just in case there are delays on the trains.
This also means you’re not burning out from an early start later on in the day!
By car
If you’re travelling to the festival by car the journey takes about the same amount of time as the train from Birmingham and London.
However, if you travel by car it means you don’t have to worry about walking or taking a taxi from Bicester North (or your hotel if you’re not camping) to the festival.
There’s plenty of parking at Bicester Heritage and it costs £17.50 for the full weekend or £25 on the day.
Parking is near to the festival entrance and is monitored by security overnight.
Where can I stay near Vegan Camp Out?
Camping is included in your weekend ticket however if you’re not keen on camping there are a few hotels nearby.
I recommend booking a hotel as far in advance as you can. Bicester is only a small town so accommodation books up very quickly, especially when there’s a festival on being attended by 13,000 people!
Here are all the closest hotels to Vegan Camp Out:
- Ava House Bed and Breakfast – this simple but cosy B&B is only a 15 minute walk away from the festival or two minutes in a taxi
- Winchester Guesthouse – this simple but cosy guesthouse is only a 16 minute walk away from the festival or two minutes in a taxi
- Almond Tree Hotel – this is where I stayed. It’s basic but comfortable and quiet. The hotel is only a 25 minute walk from the festival or five minutes in a taxi
- St Anne’s Lodge – serviced accommodation with a garden, free private parking, a shared lounge and a terrace. The hotel is only a 15 minute walk away from the festival or three minutes in a taxi.
Vegan food!
I mean where do I start on the food? Vegan food is (of course!) a massive component of Vegan Camp Out. And there seems to be vegan food stalls for as far as the eye can see at the festival selling everyone’s favourite vegan dishes!
We’re talking, vegan hog roasts, tacos and burritos, burgers, fish and chips, curries, pizza, hotdogs, fried chicken, sushi and salad bowls (the tasty filling kind!).
As well as desserts and sweet options such as cookies, ice cream, donuts, pancakes, smoothies and churros!
After returning from 2023’s festival I still felt full two days later!
Breakfast options
I was never at the venue early enough to check out any breakfast options (honestly going to a weekend festival is knackering!). However, I did try the Fluff stand’s American mini pancakes – which are delicious!
Fluff offers a wide variety of toppings which I really like as you could have these every morning and feel like it’s an entirely different breakfast each time!
I tried the cheeky monkey topping which includes candied peanuts, date caramel syrup, peanut butter sauce and banana slices.
I think this was the only fruit I had all weekend! 😂
Main options
One of my favourite vegan foodie experiences is the “weed” burger from The Dutch Weed Burger van.
Despite its name, the burger doesn’t in fact contain weed! Which is slightly disappointing admittedly because I’d be up for trying a weed burger for the first time!
Being an Amsterdam-based eatery, the burger’s moniker is inspired by Amsterdam’s worldwide reputation as the capital of the cannabis culture. However, the “weed” in the burger is actually sea “weed”!
This may seem like an odd base for a burger patty, but my god is it delicious!
It’s unlike any other vegan burger I’ve tried. Combined with a fantastic kimchi topping to give the burger an extra kick and plenty of fresh burger veg, this “weed” burger is the bomb!
Another favourite of mine is the vegan fish and chips from No Catch Co.
It is so good that I went back twice last year! Their vegan fish and chips is just incredible.
I found out that a staggering 380 million portions of fish and chips are eaten in the UK each year which is a huge amount of animals being killed.
Not to mention a huge amount of damage to our planet….just for fish and chips!
So in 2021, The No Catch Co. in Brighton was founded by vegan friends, Ed (a.ka. Earthling Ed!) and Kevyn to take on the fish and chip shop industry. In their own words: “Because it’s time to stop emptying the oceans – and it’s time to stop killing fish.”
I love supporting eateries that have such strong ethos and lovely back stories but actually just offer amazing food anyway!
As a big Mexican food fan I couldn’t WAIT to try vegan tacos at Vegan Camp Out! Which Vegan Filth provided in spades!
They offer surf and turf, beef, shrimp and avocado and even cactus tacos. I was told the cactus tacos taste like pickled aubergine but I decided to go with the shrimp tacos instead.
I’ll definitely be trying the cactus ones this year though!
Their food truck is by far the most lively, with hanging disco balls and a constant stream of top tunes and vibes throughout the weekend!
I also wanted to give a massive shout out to some of my favourite vegan restaurants in Manchester who had food trucks at the festival, including: Wholesome Food Junkies, Purezza and What the Pitta.
All their food is AMAZING but as I’m lucky enough to have access to them all the time at home I chose to try the other food vendors instead.
But for any vegans reading this, these are all incredible places to eat and are top billing in Manchester – so please go check them out!
Dessert options
Vegan Camp Out also has lots of great dessert options, including ice cream, donuts, cookies and churros.
But Ice cream is definitely where it’s at, at Vegan Camp Out! They provide at least three different ice cream choices which include: Lick, Dapper and The After School Cookie Club.
All my vegan travellers know too well how difficult it is to get vegan ice cream at restaurants in general. Ice cream vans also rarely provide vegan options, never mind vegan soft serve!
But thankfully at Vegan Camp Out you are spoiled for choice! Where you go just depends on what you fancy.
Dapper do a fantastic soft serve ice cream with every topping you can think of. Whilst The After School Cookie Club combines ice cream with homemade cookies dough and even ice cream with bubble waffles.
Then you have Lick which is more of a traditional ice cream parlour with a selection of different ice cream flavours, toppings and sauces. They even do their own tasty flavoured cones!
The ice cream is so good I decided to have it for breakfast one morning! The line for pancakes was just too long and as it was 11am already I thought it was almost a socially acceptable time to have ice cream – right?
Vegan Talks and workshops
The talks and workshops at Vegan Camp Out are fantastic and a big part of the weekend!
Every year the line-up gets bigger and more diverse. Guest speakers in 2023 included: The Vegan Society, Viva!, the Plant Based Treaty, We The Free, Animal Rising, PETA, The Animal Law Foundation and BOSH!.
I attended several talks at the festival such as “raising children on a vegan diet”, “Plant Based Treaty in action in your community” and “revolutionary dining: mending the menu to save our planet and animals”.
The Pig Vet
One of the most impactful and emotional talks I went to was by Dr Alice Brough (The Vegan Pig Vet).
She spoke about her experience in the pig industry as a vet and how it led to her becoming vegan.
Not only that, Alice blew the lid off whatever you thought the pig industry was like. Sadly it’s far worse than any of us could imagine.
I was devastated to hear about the cruelty that pigs endure at factory farms and the conditions that pig vets have to work in to try and treat the pigs every day.
At one point Alice began to get upset talking about how she witnessed farmers smashing piglets into concrete walls if they were deemed “not fit for purpose”. Some are put into large bins still alive and are just left to suffer with their injuries until they die.
This is so difficult to talk about and I can feel tears welling in my eyes just typing these words.
But it’s so important that EVERYONE knows the extent of the cruelty taking place on pig farms. Not just those who are already vegan but everyone who buys pork from the supermarket and doesn’t think twice about how it got there.
Through her years as a pig vet Alice was diagnosed with PTSD (as many pig vets are) and decided to leave her profession to become an activist.
She now shares her story to raise awareness about pig farms and advocates for better conditions for the pigs as well as the vets treating them.
How to be a voice for the animals
Another favourite talk of mine was given by Jo and Issy from Viva!. It was great to hear all about their nationwide awareness campaigns and what the impact their undercover investigations have had.
In 2020 they released the film, “Hogwood” which uncovers the shocking conditions under which animals are subjected to in the factory pig farming industry.
They also gave some great advice on how to get started with vegan activism by helping to raise awareness about animal cruelty in factory farming with local Viva! groups.
The talks were hugely popular at Vegan Camp Out. Even if the crowd was too big to fit inside the tents, everyone just piled in and around them to hear the speakers.
On the Saturday at last year’s festival, the sunshine was glorious so everyone used the talks as an opportunity to catch some rays AND learn something at the same time!
yoga and meditation classes
I will be completely transparent, I did NOT get up for early morning yoga or meditation! 😂
I’m much more of a night owl and enjoy late nights dancing over an early wake up call to exercise I’m sorry to say!
However, Vegan Camp Out provides a variety of yoga and meditation classes from 7am onwards in their mind and body tent for anyone that fancies it!
Classes include: hatha yoga, yin yoga, fitness yoga, animal style yoga, vinyasa flow, pilates, xhai meditation and breath work.
At the festival last year there was even Beyonce vs Lady Gaga Yoga, which sounds really fun!
If yoga and meditation doesn’t float your boat, there is also zumba and boxing classes as well as daily morning runs led by the Vegan Runners UK group.
Vegan Stalls
Even if you’re not a big shopper, once you arrive at Vegan Camp Out you’ll want to buy ev-ery-thiiing!
There are a wide range of stalls at Vegan Camp out. You’ll likely take all weekend to work your way round them but you’ll love checking them out between talks, food and shows!
Vegan clothing
I don’t know about you but I’m a sucker for vegan merch! There are so many creative vegan slogan t-shirts and hoodies to choose from, it’s really difficult to narrow down which ones you’re actually going to buy!
I decided to cap myself at one t-shirt as I had already bought a Vegan Camp Out t-shirt to remember the weekend by and I didn’t want to go too overboard spending!
Vegan shoes
Last year there was a stall selling vegan shoes that sold the cutest pastel vegan hi top trainers I’d ever seen!
I hadn’t seen trainers like this anywhere else (especially vegan ones!) and just HAD to have them!
Holistic products
There is also lots of new age stalls selling all sorts of handmade jewellery, crystals, candles and incense.
Vegan cosmetics
I highly recommend Becky’s Emporium for amazing vegan bath bombs, bubble bars, wax melts and soaps.
Becky creates the most crazy homemade bath bomb designs! From novelty penises (yes, you read that right!) and giant love hearts to Disney and gaming characters.
The products smell incredible, are homemade and 100% vegan and cruelty-free!
Vegan home decor
There aren’t a lot of vegan home decor stands at Vegan Camp Out. Which makes sense as most things you buy for your home would be too difficult to carry back from the festival anyway!
But there are a few “taster” decor products out with funky throw pillow designs, rugs and ornaments.
Vegan tattoos
A stall that always has a line outside of it no matter what time of day it is, is the tattoo tent!
Demand for vegan tattoos is so high that people literally get their camp chairs out and sit down to queue up, even if it’s raining!
There is a whole table FULL of pre-designed tattoos to choose from – how cute are these below
Vegan Charities
Vegan Camp out offers you the chance to find out more about vegan causes with several charity stalls to check out.
Here are some examples of vegan charities focussing on increasing awareness of veganism, animal welfare, conservation efforts, climate change mitigation and sustainable development you’ll find at the festival:
- Viva! – Viva! is a British animal rights group, which focuses on promoting veganism. They carry out undercover investigations to expose the abuse of factory farmed animals and produces information on how to go vegan, including recipes and shopping guides.
- The Vegan Society – The Vegan Society is the oldest vegan organisation in the world and provides information and guidance on various aspects of veganism.
- WWF – WWF is dedicated to conserving nature, protecting endangered species and promoting sustainable practices worldwide. They work on initiatives related to wildlife conservation, habitat preservation, climate change and sustainable business practices. I also ran the Manchester Marathon for them in 2022 and can’t advocate for them enough!
- Greenpeace – Greenpeace is an international environmental organisation that focuses on campaigning for solutions to global environmental issues. They advocate for clean energy, sustainable agriculture and protection of biodiversity to combat deforestation, overfishing and pollution.
- Amberwood Animal Sanctuary – based on a former beef farm in Oxfordshire, the Amberwood Animal Sanctuary is a safe home for animals who otherwise face slaughter.
Live music and entertainment
What would a camping festival be without live music and entertainment? Better yet, you don’t have to wait until the afterparties at Vegan Camp Out!
Festival goers can enjoy the mystical “Slip Shod” which is a live music and entertainment area sectioned off by mysterious shipping containers carrying unexpected cargo labelled “Slipshod Faire, open with caution”.
Here you’ll find a circus, games and attractions including a steam-powered train of all things!
There’s also great fire shows, a music stage with a multi-genre sound system, walk-about theatre and a bar.
Throughout the day and evenings there are also live bands and singers performing in the music tent.
You’ll find the full line-up schedule in the festival booklet when you check in.
afterparties
Vegan Camp Out has fantastic afterparties with different themes lined up for each night from 10pm until midnight.
Last year they had a 70s and 80s pre-party on Friday night and an electro and house DJ set with the BOSH guys on Saturday night.
Make sure you stay until the Sunday night though as some of the weekends best acts take place then!
I had to leave at 3.30pm on Sunday to get my train and was devastated to miss Eurovision runner-up, Sam Ryder’s set!
Even worse I had to leave half through an amazing Mancunian drag act called, “The Vegan Queens” who were singing all my favourite pride classics! *Sobs*
Final thoughts
I had an absolute blast at Vegan Camp Out!
There’s truly something for everyone. Whether that’s live music, food, talks, discussion panels, workshops, exercise classes or parties. This festival caters for a wide variety of interests and is a bonafide vegan mecca!
They even cater for families with stuff to do for the kids including a teens tent, play area for younger children, skate ramp and fun fair rides.
You can even bring the family dog! Which I highly encourage everyone to do because I loved meeting them all when I attended the festival last year!
I personally loved the carnival atmosphere too and enjoyed the fact there was so much to see, do and EAT!
But best of all, Vegan Camp Out offers an incredible opportunity to connect with so many likeminded people. At this festival, you don’t need to worry if there will be vegan options or if you’re going to end up in an awkward dairy debate. This festival is catered just for YOU!
Every vegan traveller should have Vegan Camp Out on their bucket list – because something tells me they’re just getting warmed up! 😉
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So tell me – are you ready for Vegan Camp Out 2024? If you attended last year, let me know about your experience in the comments below! 😄
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