No Meat Festival

No Meat Festival — known locally as 無肉市集 (Wú Ròu Shì Jí, literally "Meatless Market") — is Taiwan's largest and most influential vegan event, founded by Zhang Zhirui (張芷睿) and now a fixture of the East Asian plant-based calendar. The 2026 flagship edition runs across two days, 4-5 April 2026, at the striking Taipei Performing Arts Center (TPAC) in Shilin District, directly accessible from Jiantan MRT Station (劍潭站) on the Red Line.

What sets No Meat apart from most vegan markets is its uncompromising sustainability standard. The festival's three core principles are pure vegan cuisine, zero-waste market practices ("naked buying and selling" — 裸買裸賣), and advocacy for environmental protection and animal rights. In practice that means no disposable packaging, no single-use plastic or paper, and a requirement that visitors bring their own containers, cutlery and bags. The festival enforces this rigorously — it's not a suggestion but a condition of entry at many stalls.

The food line-up typically features more than 70 vendors representing Taiwan's extraordinarily deep vegan food culture. Expect Taiwanese street-food classics made plant-based (guabao, lurou fan, mianxian, stinky tofu), traditional Buddhist vegan cuisine (素食, with the "oriental vegan" standard that also excludes pungent vegetables like onion and garlic), modern vegan fine dining, raw desserts, kombucha brewers and artisan plant-based cheeses. Beyond food, stalls cover zero-waste homewares, ethical clothing, cruelty-free cosmetics and animal-rescue advocacy.

The Taipei Performing Arts Center venue is itself a draw — an award-winning Rem Koolhaas building whose three cantilevered theatres create a dramatic outdoor plaza that No Meat transforms into a market. The festival also runs smaller one-day editions throughout the year at various Taipei parks (Yongquan Park has been a recent favourite), and No Meat now operates permanent vegan restaurants and retail spaces inside Taipei MRT stations.

Entry is free. Practical tip: bring a full zero-waste kit — reusable container, bottle, cup, bag, cutlery and straw — or you'll be turned away at most stalls. The MRT makes the venue trivial to reach from anywhere in Taipei. Pair with a visit to nearby Shilin Night Market (Taiwan's most famous) for a fascinating compare-contrast between Taiwan's traditional street-food culture and its fast-evolving vegan scene.