Oklahoma City’s First Vegan Festival Draws 4,000 People

Approximately 4,000 guests attended the VegFest OKC—the first vegan festival in Oklahoma City—over the weekend, despite inclement weather. “This was huge. Completely eye-opening. We knew the city was ready for it, we just didn’t know [how] much it was ready for it,” event organizer Emma Ryan told local media outlet The Oklahoman. “Vendors are already calling about 2019.” The festival attracted vendors from several states, including Mattie’s Foods from Kansas City, which recorded more sales at VegFest OKC than at VegFest Colorado in July. The Loaded Bowl—which opened in 2013 as Oklahoma’s first vegan food truck—reported all-time record sales at the festival, and doughnut shop Holey Rollers sold out of its treats three times. “We had vendors doing cartwheels in the lawn afterward,” Ryan said. “It was just so cool to be able to be a part of something like that for the city.”