Andrew and Tiffany Perumalla are the foodie power couple from Marrickville that founded the Sydney Vegan Festival.
For Andrew and Tiffany Perumalla, co-founders of the upcoming Sydney Vegan Festival, the event was always meant to be a way for like-minded people from the vegan community to come together and share their experiences. According to Andrew, it’s not every day in the Inner West that you can come face to face with the people who inspired you to become vegan in the first place!
The Sydney Vegan Festival began when two foodies came together with the humble idea to present one international chef to do a live vegan cooking demonstration. The pair quickly found, however, a number of influential vegan chefs – Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Terry Hope Romero, the Vegan Black Metal Chef – were eager to become involved, leading to its growth into a festival.
Having lived in the area, Marrickville was an easy choice for the location, says Andrew. “We chose the Factory Theatre as the venue because it perfectly fitted the needs of the festival,” he says. “It had a lot of open space outdoors where we could have the food stalls, but also indoors space to host the speakers and live cooking demonstrations.”
In the months leading up to the festival, Andrew and Tiffany have been flat out putting together the diverse line-up of renowned vegan personalities. “Seeing it all come together after months of planning and effort is honestly the most exciting feeling, and worth the stress leading up to it,” says Tiffany. Despite describing the experience as challenging, Andrew also agrees that for both of them it is incredibly rewarding.
“I love seeing people enjoy the day and being inspired,” says Andrew. “One of the best things I have experienced is somebody emailing me to say they had turned to veganism because of what they had learnt at the festival.” Both Andrew and Tiffany encourage everyone to attend, not only vegans and vegetarians.
The Sydney Vegan Festival will be held at the Factory Theatre, Marrickville, on the 13 March 2016. For further information and the full line-up visit sydneyveganfestival.com.
