Great Smoky Mountain Veg Fest 2025

Welcome to the Great Smoky Mountain Veg Fest 2025! Veg out with us for a day of fun, discovery, and magical vibes at the Great Smoky Mountains Event Park on Saturday, July 19 from 10a.m. - 6p.m.

Friends with the Forest is hosting an inaugural family-friendly festival to bring the Bryson City community together to celebrate a healthy, compassionate, and regenerative summer! All proceeds will be applied to launching a 501c3 non-profit sanctuary and nature center. This free event features Earth-friendly vendors, plant-based food & beverages, live music & entertainment, workshops & presentations, food demonstrations, art, yoga & meditation, kids activities, games, animal rescues, and more!

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Suggested donation: $5/person to support Friends with the Forest's mission to launch a sanctuary/nature center.

*We recommend parking in town and carpooling to the event to ensure enough space for all visitors to attend. Thank you!

Goals:

• Create a social opportunity for the community to connect and meet new friends
• Give attention to cruelty-free and mindful lifestyle choices
• Benefit local businesses, artists, animal rescues, and non-profits
• Raise awareness for healthy solutions to benefit the Earth and all of its inhabitants
• Elevate consciousness in Bryson City through spreading a contagion of compassion, love, and kindness
• Educate on topics of self-sufficiency, healthy living, and conscious consumerism
• Veg out and have a great time with many activities for the whole community to enjoy
• Raise awareness for services available to the community
• Generate funds for local animal rescues & non-profit projects, including Friends with the Forest's sanctuary/nature center

About Friends with the Forest

Mission: To create a healthy, compassionate, and regenerative community for all through events and programs to bring people together to learn about connection with ourselves, other people, animals, and nature.

Friends with the Forest Bryson City is a venue and collaborative effort to host educational events and programs that foster a deep sense of care and connection to people, animals, and the Earth. Our small and dedicated team has a strong vision to aid in expanding our community’s consciousness through showing people how we are all connected, and how our healthy choices shift our realities. By transitioning our collective attention away from perceived problems to instead adopt solutionary thinking, we may all become a part of the world’s solutions to thrive in harmony with Earth.

Friends with the Forest will include a small animal sanctuary (starting with an aviary for our two rescued Goffin cockatoos), education center for events & workshops, upcycled art exhibits, and self-guided botanical trails to provide a therapeutic space for visitors to enjoy, learn, and explore. We plan to eventually include a food truck to provide healthy, affordable, and eco-friendly plant-based meals for the community, and to help with generating funds to support the operations of the sanctuary/gardens/educational efforts.