London VegFest 2013

Monday 7th October 2013

Wow, London Vegfest (5th -_ 6th October) – what a weekend! It was the first time we've done a two day show away from home and the first time we'd left the children since before our daughter was born so we were very nervous and excited in the run up. The initial investment of time and money is a fairly large commitment for a fledgling business like Need Sweets and we didn't really know what to expect. Would the kids be ok with their grandparents? Would there be many people attending? Did we have enough stock and samples? Would people want to buy our sweets and marshmallows? Did we have all our passes and permits and know where we were going? Had we forgotten anything important? How would we cope?!


(Image Courtesy of london.vegfest.co.uk)

All week we worked to get everything ready for the stall and organize our stock. Friday night we packed the car and early Saturday morning we set off. On the drive into London we had a sudden panic that we hadn't checked if we we were going into the congestion charge zone. Neither of us had driven into London for some years so we had no idea where the charging started and no idea where we were headed as we had (against my preference) taken the sat-nav and not a map. I remembered why I'd taken the bus or train on my last few London trips! Luckily the motorway was clear and traffic was mild, Olympia was really easy to find and not in the charging zone, and unloading and set up went without a hitch.

The doors opened and the crowds poured in! Lots of veggies, vegans and curious people came over the weekend. The atmosphere was fantastic and our samples created a real buzz around our stall. There were lots of wide-eyed excited faces shouting, “ooo, can I have some?” and that was just the adults! We heard lots of our favourite customer exclamation too, “Brilliant! I haven't had these in so many years!” We ran out of smores, cola bottles and business cards on the first day as demand surpassed our expectations but we met so many friendly new people it was smiles all round.



On a personal note we did a little bit of spoiling ourselves. I particularly enjoyed some vegan chocolates made by artisan chocolatier Annesh Popat www.the-chocolatier.co.uk. His Aztec Spice Chocolate covered hazelnuts are incredible (and addictive). Exquisitely decadent, they've a wonderful combination of cinnamon which gives a beautiful aromatic note to the dark chocolate and chilli that adds a gentle warming kick at the end to remove any hint of bitterness. A really sumptuous indulgence, especially of accompanied by a steaming mug of their exquisite drinking chocolate. We're hoping to be able to bring these vegan cocoa delights to our customers at Need Sweets soon. Nick picked up a T-shirt from reggae star Macca B. “Wha me eat?” is his fantastic ditty about being vegan. Check out the official video on YouTube youtu.be/FLqjLn0W5K0

We arrived home on Sunday evening utterly exhausted and with very sore feet but feeling very happy with our weekend away. We had a lot of fun together and the support we got from other stall holders and the public gave us a fantastic boost. It may be an unconventional way to spend your first weekend away from the kids in three years but we had such a good time together we were so glad we did it. We'd definitely like to do it again next year.