Twin Cities Veg Fest organizers love to hear from participants! It helps them prepare for future year festivals by knowing what worked and what could be tweaked. To maximize input there were several types of outreach. One was the attendee survey sponsored and incentivized by VegFund. We also had a volunteer and vendor survey and a Kudoboard sent out by social media.

Given that we had over 5,000 participants we wanted input from as many people as possible. And we got it thanks to your responses! We thought you would enjoy highlights from the surveys:

When asked their reason for attending, three quarters stated they wanted to learn about or try new vegan products. Almost half of respondents said that socializing and/or entertainment were key factors. This shows that we need to keep the event both informative and fun.

And the results show we have been successful with that. Almost all reported satisfaction with the festival—with 70% very satisfied. And over 99% plan to attend next time. This indicates that we met their desires.

We reached new people and helped make a change. Half of attendees were not vegan but around one third plan to go more plant-based in future! Interestingly, 66% report that sampling vegan products was what influenced that decision. Closely followed by visiting booths and talking to vendors and workers/volunteers. And almost half will share what they learned with family and friends.

That’s a big win for their health, the planet and the animals! Knowing that it has such a positive impact is what brings us together to host this event. The record number of volunteers, vendors, speakers, and musicians together make this all possible.

We thought you would also appreciate seeing some of the comments from attendees. Below we have provided some along with comments from our survey of vendors and volunteers. In addition, we sent a Kudoboard out via social media and have included comments from that. Its not to late for you to add your comments to the Kudoboard!

• 10th anniversary festival was amazing!  So many vendors, activities, demonstrations, giveaways, fabulous food, positive attitudes! 
• I was looking forward to VegFest all year – has been great seeing it grow in size and evolve over the last few years – was glad you made a presence at the State Fair as well 
• VegFest is like a holiday to me, and my favorite holiday at that. 
• Thank you so much! Wonderful experience – grateful to all the volunteers!
• I absolutely LOVED seeing diverse representation in VegFest exhibitors.  It seemed that most booths were run by women, black or other minority business owners.   I’m not sure if this was intentional, but please keep it up!  I want to support these businesses!  ❤️
• I was glad to see more affordable options this year… I want to try everything, but don’t want to break the bank and get too full to try everything!
• Thanks for organizing the festival! The volunteer program (including the training and on-site orientation, shuttle, etc.) was very well organized. 
• LOVE the fact that so much is composted or recycled! Appreciated all the help with that from volunteers.
• I appreciate the inclusion of some lower priced food (Reverie really hit it out of the park with the $4 sopes). It helps if you’re on a budget & also makes it easier to try more vendors without over eating. Also, Mistress Ginger is a jewel! & I appreciated the music stage (& the volunteers who brought samples from a cooking demo, that was an awesome treat). PS it just felt good to be around people who love animals and don’t eat them. Yaaay. 
• Wonderful event!  I was very impressed with the size and diversity of vendors
• It was our first year attending. Can’t wait for next year’s veg fest! Thank you for making such an amazing event!
• Thank you for including such a great variety of vendors!! Loved that this year had such a fun mix of food, food companies, jewelry, apparel, home items, and more! Definitely one of the best years in food variety too.
• Love all the free samples.
• I was really impressed with the accessibility set up. Thank you so much for continuing to keep it as accessible as possible. For me, the parking was really important and I loved having the chairs in different parts of the space set out.
• I love being in spaces with my vegan peeps! 🙂 It was truly a wonderful time! The energy was really good! I made so many great connections with folks who live (or desire to live) plant based lifestyles, and I always enjoy hearing about different people’s experiences. The food is always yummy and there is always something new to try out…and I of course enjoyed listening to both the performers that came on before and after us on the St. Paul music stage. What a treat! I look forward to it every year! Love you Veg Fest!

Thanks to all who participated in the Twin Cities Veg Fest 2022 and especially to those who shared these and other helpful comments.