Northern California’s largest vegan food festival is back on Sunday, as the Bizerkeley Food Fest busts out vegan food “for meat-eaters’ taste buds,” with vegan versions of KFC bowls, Jack in the Box tacos, and even vegan oxtails.
Yes, you can completely pack a food truck festival even if all the food is only vegan — particularly if that food truck festival is in Berkeley, California. That’s been proven by the Bizerkeley Food Fest, which returns to Berkeley for its fifth annual celebration this Sunday, September 7, from 12-6 pm.
More than 90 food and beverage vendors will cram the North Berkeley BART station parking lot, for a celebration of top vegan chefs from around the country, with food “made by vegans for a meat eater’s tastebuds.” That is, many of these dishes are plant-based imitations of meat that will have even the most hardcore carnivores finishing their plate and asking for another.
Last year’s festival was at Berkeley’s MLK Park, which was still not big enough for this growing event. “We exceeded our footprint last year, we had 6,000 people,” festival organizer Erika Hazel, aka the Bizerkeley Vegan, tells SFist. “We filled up every downtown Berkeley parking garage.”
Photo by Jeffrey Littman Photography & Lawrence Felix
So why a vegan food festival? “We are the minority,” Hazel says. “I want to bring people together to defeat the stigma that vegan food is for vegans. It’s just really good food. No matter what your diet is, it’s just really great food. Meat eaters are the 99%, so I want to show vegan businesses that you don’t market to vegans, you market to everyone.”
Admission is just $5, but kids 17 and under get in free, and there are upgrades for Express tickets that skip the line ($20), and VIP tickets ($75) get you early entry, cooking demos, and oodles of extra goodies.
Photo by Joe Kukura, SFist
We went last year, and this Cambodian pineapple walnut shrimp (plant-based) from Srey Vegan was as good or better than any shrimp we’ve ever had. They’ll be back with it this year, and the festival will also feature El Compa Vegano serving what Hazel describes as “vegan shrimp boil Jack in the Box-esque tacos.” Fungi Foods will have their maitake mushroom burger and “some really bomb mac and cheese,” plus their plant-based take on a KFC bowl that they call a “KFV Bowl.”
The event will also feature electric car darling (because they’re not Tesla) Rivian doing a car show and offering test drives, plus there will be an Eco Sports Pickleball Tournament. There’s a kids’ pie-eating contest, plus a bouncy house for adults (!). Proceeds from the festival will go to benefit California Pit Bull Rescue.
Photo by Joe Kukura, SFist
That organization will also be on hand at the Adoption Zoo, along with Berkeley Animal Care Services, and JNW Reptile. “We will have snakes. Adoptable snakes!,” Hazel says. “We’re pretty excited about that.”
The VIP Cooking demos feature Sunni Speaks all the way from Miami for a session on making vegan ox tails, Polk Street’s Vita Cantina making a Meyer lemon cheese cake, and New Orleans’ Voodoo Vegan preparing a vegan gumbo.
Photo by Jeffrey Littman Photography & Lawrence Felix
And yes, there will be an alcohol zone, with a beer garden, wine garden, and a mimosa bar.
Headlining the entertainment, we have SF native StunnaMan02, who will surely perform his cult-hit song “Eat a Salad,” which is very vulgar, but still fundamentally a song about the value of eating vegetables. He will reportedly be doing a clean version.
Photo by Jeffrey Littman Photography & Lawrence Felix
The new North Berkeley BART station location will surely clear up the festival’s parking issues of the past. “Doing it at a BART station, you have no excuse. Go park at Del Norte, El Cerrito Plaza, Richmond, any BART station that has a parking lot, and just BART over,” Hazel says.
And she adds, “Come with an open mind and empty stomach.”
The 2025 Bizerkeley Food Fest is Sunday, September 7, 12-6 pm at North Berkeley BART ($5 advance). Tickets here
Related: This Weekend’s Bizerkeley Food Fest Set to Serve Up ‘Meat Eater-Approved Vegan Food’ [SFist]
Top image: Joe Kukura, SFist
Dining and Cooking