Vegan Festival Korea

Vegan Festival Korea (비건페스티벌코리아) is the original grassroots vegan festival of South Korea — an independent, community-run event that predates and remains distinct from the more commercial Korea Vegan Fair / Vegenomics trade show held at COEX. Returning for its 2026 edition with dates TBA, the festival has traditionally been held at Seoul Innovation Park (서울혁신파크) near Bulgwang Station (Exit 2) on Line 3 and Line 6, a sprawling former research campus turned creative community space on the north-western edge of Seoul.

Where the Korea Vegan Fair leans B2B and beauty-industry, Vegan Festival Korea is deliberately people-first and animal-centered. Its stated mission is "celebrating love for animals, fellow humans, and the planet" with an explicit endorsement of the zero-waste lifestyle. That ethos shapes everything from vendor selection to site design — expect rigorous no-animal-products standards, minimal single-use plastics, and a strong presence of animal-rescue charities, vegan advocacy groups and ethical fashion brands alongside the food stalls.

The food programme reflects Korea's rapidly growing vegan scene. Expect vegan burgers and soft serve, raw doughnuts and desserts (which sell out spectacularly fast — often by 2-3pm), nut milk coffee with dairy-free ice cream, vegan baked goods, traditional Korean snacks, plant-based milk teas and specialty cakes. Korea's Buddhist temple-food tradition gives vendors a deep culinary vocabulary to draw on, and you'll often find modern reinterpretations of classic dishes like bibimbap, japchae and tteokbokki made fully plant-based.

Beyond food, the festival hosts live music, workshops, seminars and exercise demonstrations across a typical run of 11am to 6pm. Past editions have featured yoga classes, cooking demos, talks on plant-based nutrition and screenings of animal-welfare documentaries. The audience skews younger and more activist than Western equivalents, with strong representation from Seoul's design and arts communities.