London vegan news, reviews & events
There are some events that feel like a job and there are some events that feel like a privilege. Queer Vegan Disco definitely falls into the second category for me.
I am absolutely thrilled to be bringing it back for one night only in London in North London.
Read more below.
I have been thinking a lot about what vegan restaurants and cafés in the UK might need to start doing if they want to keep up with the changing way people eat.
For more than a year, I was very open about using Mounjaro. Mounjaro and other GLP-1 drugs can reduce appetite and make people feel full much sooner. For many people taking them, that means eating smaller portions, being more selective about what they eat, and thinking much more carefully about getting enough nutrition from a relatively small amount of food.
That was certainly my experience.
Read more below.
Right now, I am looking for temporary work, and it has made me think quite a lot about the complicated relationship between our ethics and the realities of making a living.
After more than 16 years of being Fat Gay Vegan, organising events, writing, promoting businesses, working in media, and supporting charities, I am currently looking for paid employment to see me through the next few months. It is a strange position to find myself in, particularly because I am trying to navigate the working world while staying as true as possible to an ethical framework like veganism.
Read more below.
There are few things that can get under my skin quite like seeing adults stand by while children or dogs terrorise pigeons.
This is an FGV rant!
Read more below.
It doesn’t make me happy to write this, but London Vegan Beer Fest 2026 has been cancelled.
This is not a decision that was made easily. It has been agonised over and every possible option to try and make the event happen was explored, but in the end it became clear that continuing was no longer financially possible.
Putting on large scale independent events in 2026 is incredibly challenging. Rising costs, increasing financial pressures, and a rapidly changing events landscape have made projects like this much more difficult than they once were. Sadly, London Vegan Beer Fest became one of those projects.
I know this news will disappoint a lot of people and I feel like I have let many of you down. I know people had bought tickets, made plans, and were looking forward to spending the day celebrating vegan beer, food, and community together. I am especially saddened because I had been thinking of London Vegan Beer Fest as my own farewell party before I relocate to Australia in a few months after more than 16 years of Fat Gay Vegan.
To everyone who bought a ticket, applied to trade, agreed to sponsor, supported the event, or simply shared the excitement, thank you. Your enthusiasm meant the world to me. Everyone who purchased a ticket has now been refunded and traders who paid deposits have also had those payments returned.
While this particular chapter has come to an unexpected end, it certainly does not mean I am disappearing without a trace.
As I prepare to leave the UK, I want to spend these final months doing exactly what I have been lucky enough to do for the past decade and a half. I want to support independent vegan businesses and collaborate with some of my favourite chefs, restaurants, and venues. I want to create memorable experiences for the community that has given me so much over the years. Most of all, I want the opportunity to say goodbye to many of the incredible people I have met through Fat Gay Vegan.
I’m planning a series of smaller events, supper clubs, and collaborations over the coming months. It feels like an appropriately personal way to celebrate everything this community has meant to me.
The first of these is the long awaited return of Queer Vegan Disco. This much loved night was a regular fixture before the pandemic and I couldn’t be happier to bring it back alongside DJ Phil Marriott and the wonderful team at Karamel. Everyone is welcome and I genuinely hope to see as many of you there as possible.
Every event I organise between now and my departure will be listed on the Events page here on Fat Gay Vegan, so please keep checking back.
Thank you for sticking with me through the highs and the lows. This isn’t the ending I imagined for London Vegan Beer Fest, but I hope you’ll join me over the coming months as we create some new memories together.
I hope to see you soon.
Click here to see all my upcoming events and book tickets. You can also join my FGV email newsletter online here.
If you appreciate these blog posts and the work I do to support vegan business, please consider making a one time small donation of a couple of quid online here. You might also be in the position to sponsor my work on an regular basis via Patreon.
You can order my book ‘Fat Gay Vegan: Eat, Drink and Live Like You Give a Sh!t’ online now. It has been out a while now but is still a good read. You can also listen to the Audiobook read by me!
You can watch/stream my weekly podcast Tell Me Where I’m Going (Wrong) on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
Follow me on Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Facebook, and Blue Sky.
I must love the sound of my own voice because I really never do shut up.
Always one to jump at an opportunity to speak, I am delighted to have been invited to be the guest on this month’s episode of The Vegan Society’s podcast.
Read more below.
I don’t often stop to celebrate the legacy of the FGV blog itself.
This blog has always been about shining a light on other people. Independent vegan businesses. Animal sanctuaries. Fundraising events. Community gatherings. New products. Restaurant openings. Beer festivals (ahem!).
But today I want to take a moment to celebrate this platform that started everything for me.
So far this year, more than 120,000 individual people have visited fatgayvegan.com.
Read more below.
Coming home can be surprisingly complicated.
As I write this, I am in Brisbane, Australia, visiting friends and family in the city where I spent my childhood and early adult years. In a few days I will fly back to the UK, but later this year I will be making the move back to Brisbane on a much more permanent basis.
It is fair to say this visit has stirred up a lot of emotions.
Read more below.
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about compassion and how exhausting it can feel trying to care about the world in any meaningful way.
There is so much happening that we take on board as compassionate people. War. Genocide. Poverty. Racism. Anti-immigrant hatred. Queerphobia. Transphobia. Disabled people being abandoned by the Government (take your pick of the country!). Workers being crushed. Climate collapse. Animal suffering on an industrial scale. People struggling to afford food and rent while corporations make unimaginable profits.
Sometimes it can feel impossible to hold all of it in your head at once, so I wanted to take a few minutes to get some thoughts out my brain.
Read more below.
Today in London there is a rally and march called Unite the Kingdom organised by far right agitator and convicted criminal Tommy Robinson. Tens of thousands of people are reportedly filling parts of central London waving flags, shouting slogans, and pushing the same exhausting anti-immigrant rhetoric that has been poisoning public conversation for years.
Meanwhile, my husband was trying to get to work.
Actually, not just work. His third job.