The 7th annual Vegan Fair returned to Bristol Harbourside this July and offered up a mix of awesome musical entertainment alongside the chance to learn about the UK’s fastest growing lifestyle.

The weekend proved to be a major success; firstly we were blessed with some beautiful sunshine and secondly the fair attracted over five thousand visitors. Many traders reported their best takings ever.

Not being a vegan you may wonder why I attend the fair, well this 2 day mini festival is basically a big party in the centre of town with two stages and some meaty headliners. For me it was all about the Sunday, reggae Sunday. This year the fair offered up both Macka B and Horace Andy and for an entrance fee of eight quid how could anyone pass up the opportunity?

With a few jars of organic ale and cider on board, a few freebie samples of food eaten and the sun shining, the wife and I chilled out listening to local DJ’s spin a whole heap of classic reggae. At around 5pm we made our way to the main stage for the UK toasting legend, Macka B. I’ve not seen this man live since the mid-80’s so I was extremely excited to see him perform and he didn’t disappoint. With the new album ‘More Knowledge’ just out, his set focused on this release. The sound was crisp, the band tight (with live horn section) and the delivery spot on. Macka did dip into his back catalogue with ‘Me Don’t want no Big Mac’, which went down a treat with the vegan massive, plus tunes like ‘Everybody Loves Bob Marley’ and ‘Legalize The Herb’(I would like to say nuff respect to the guy and his gal who kept me supplied with some very fine smoke).

After a quick turn around it was the turn of the Dub Asante band to take the stage and set the mood for the foundation rocker, Horace Andy. Strangely enough I have never had the pleasure of seeing Horace Andy live, so I was pretty excited by the prospect. The Dub Asante band were excellent, laying down some classic riddims, which Horace rode in his own unique vocal style. He played a vast range of material including a couple of tracks from arguably his greatest album, 'Sky Larking'. Being in Bristol it was inevitable that he would include a couple of classic Massive Attack cuts and when ‘Man Next Door’ dropped the crowd went crazy! A nice touch was Macka B joining Horace on stage and dropping some serious toasts.

The day came to close with the end of the set, all the organic ale and cider had been consumed, the evening was drawing in and the crowd went away very happy indeed. A huge respect must go out to Timbo, the man behind this quality event.

Review by JumpUp