Vegan market intensity
Here is a quick blog post to reiterate my feelings about community markets.
Get out of your house and START A VEGAN MARKET.
I hosted my monthly Hackney Downs Vegan Market on Saturday and to say in was swamped by people would be a monumental understatement.
Check out this photo I shared from the day.
Thousands of vegans and vegan-curious people swarmed the market and many of the vendors could not cope with the demand. Cake stands that thought they would be safe by showing up with hundreds of cakes sold out within the first few hours. Temple of Seitan sold out of almost 500 bacon cones with hours still remaining of the event. Battered sold hundreds of portions of vegan fish. Big V had their busiest day at our market ever. Café SoVegan know how to make a lot of food and they sold out completely for the first time ever.
Some people have suggested that we should have more stalls or that the vendors should make more food. Neither of these things can happen. Our space has limitations around the number of stalls permitted and the vendors are making as much food as they possibly can. They are stretched beyond their limits.
The answer to this problem is simple.
More people need to run more vegan markets around London. You can see that the demand clearly exists. When thousands and thousands of people show up to my market on the same day as a sold out 1,000 person vegan food event is also being staged in Kings Cross, you know there is not enough being done to meet the demand.
I am only one person and I do what I can, but we are in desperate need of other community-minded people to step up and start local markets that celebrate and support independent businesses.
Start small. Don’t think that 4,000 people are going to swarm your event. Keep it local. You can do it if you simply start. Get an idea and run with it.
Do it for your neighbourhood. Do it for the business owners. Do it for the animals.
It was lovely. The BAE cone worked very well. I like how ToS use the market to try out new things.
It does seem to be London-wide demand being concentrated on this area at the moment! Café So Vegan organised another market in Stoke Newington the other day, which annoyingly I didn’t hear about until afterwards, and there’s also another small vegan market advertised at the mosque on Shacklewell Lane every Sunday. To my shame, I haven’t bought anything at that one yet, having made it past only once.
But yes, more markets would be great, and well done FGV for starting what’s undoubtedly the first snowball in an avalanche. 🙂
I LOVED the market. Queued for far longer than is reasonable for ToS with no regrets, it was so good and the market had such a cool vibe that you just chatted and people watched while you waited. Loaded chips – original style were amaazing.