Leeds Festival: Vegan at Bramham Park

Festival season is slowly coming upon us again and as we all know the second most important thing at a festival after the acts… is the food! Whether it’s the hangover-curing breakfast, the lunch to tide you over between pints or the late-night snack after all the acts are over, eating is important! Going to a festival, similarly to going on holiday, it’s easy to worry that as a vegan you won’t be catered for or that you’ll just be eating chips the whole time. I’m here to put your mind at ease, in fact, after the music, deciding what to eat was my favourite part of the whole experience. Being a vegan has never been easier and Leeds Festival has opened my eye to how much fun it can be to go to these things as a vegan.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and whether you need it to soften the blow of too much mucky beer or if you’re just setting yourself up for the day it’s good to have something in your stomach. Breakfast was the meal that I was most worried about when going to Leeds Fest. I am an absolute sucker for breakfast, it’s maybe my favourite meal of the day. A full English, a breakfast burrito or even a breakfast bap, suggest going for brunch to me and I’ll never say no. To my happiness, there were plenty of breakfast options and multiple breakfast vans serving all different assortment of breakfasts. On the first morning, we opted for a build-your-own breakfast baguette with just mushrooms, hashbrowns and beans. Sadly at this vendor, there was no vegan meat alternative but in complete honesty, I was more than happy to start my day off with a hashbrown and mushroom roll topped with beans! It did see me through till the afternoon so zero complaints from me. On the second morning, all my prayers were answered. We found a breakfast van serving up vegan breakfast baps. Two plant-based sausages, meat-free bacon, hashbrowns and vegan cheese all served in a soft white bun with extra hashbrowns on the side! I was in heaven! Paired with a coffee mixed with oat milk courtesy of the Salvation Army the day couldn’t have gotten off to a better start.

A couple of hours after breakfast and maybe after a couple of drinks we arrive at lunchtime or as The Hobbits might call it elevenses. No better time to get a little snack than while watching some of the acts or waiting for your favourites to arrive on stage. There are two cuisies that never fail to disappoint and that you can easily customise into being vegan. That’s Mexican and Greek. This afternoon we adopted the approach of “let’s get two different things so we can eat half of each others” and boy did it pay off. First off was a chilli bean burrito with mushrooms, spicy salsa, Mexican rice, guac and salad. As a former burrito chef, this lived up to everything I could have wanted it to. Secondly was gyros, sadly no meat-free substitutes but I never turn down a chip pita wrap especially when it’s covered in Greek ketchup and filled with fresh salad.

From one lunchtime feast to another on the second day, we decided it was time to branch out further and branch out we did! For this dinner we once again went for the “let’s get two different things so we can eat half of each others” and for a second time this trip it paid off in full! I must confess this meal was a personal favourite of mine, we went for vegan chicken nuggets and chips covered in gravy which as you can tell by the picture was absolute beige goodness. It’s hard-pressed enough to find someone that would turn down nuggets and chips never mind a vegan version topped with gravy. Both somehow very similarly and yet so differently we also ate Korean fried “chicken” boa buns topped with sesame seeds, spring onions and siracha mayo all on top of a big pile of chips. I do not want to confess this but yes, I did also dip some of the boa buns in the gravy and it was class.

The final meal of the day. The big one to tide you over until breakfast again. We spent so much time wandering all of the stalls trying to make up our minds of what we wanted to have. There were vegan chicken nuggets chow meins, “beef” burgers, hotdogs and even a stall that served pie, mash & peas! We were spoilt for choice. On the post-Blink-182 night, we opted for a late-night katsu chicken burger and a vegetable pizza topped with dairy-free cheese. After what was an incredible performance that drew me to tears this food was everything I could’ve wanted. Katsu never fails to disappoint me whether it’s from a stall like this, or Wagamama’s katsu curry, I’m sold. The woodfire pizza was perfect too, who doesn’t love a late-night pizza especially when vegan cheese is an option? On the other night, I also need to give a special shoutout to Veggie Republic Liverpool for two of the biggest and tastiest kebabs I have ever eaten. It was very hard not to go back there for every meal. One vegan chicken kebab with lettuce, tomato, onion, pepper, cucumber, fresh chillies slaw and siracha and one vegan donner kebab with all the salad. They were literally bigger than my head and made me the happiest boy in the whole of Leeds Fest.

So if you’re vegan and worrying about going to Reading & Leeds or even any festival, don’t worry. If this is anything to go off of you will be more than catered for believe me! Big props to Liquid Death for keeping us hydrated during the full festival. I thought Liquid Death was the wildest name for water I’ve ever heard but it’s pretty metal and we looked cool drinking it.