A WINCHESTER festival will be moving to its original home after an event which hoped to open people’s minds.

The city’s vegan fair took place on Sunday with traders offering their goods and talks for those hoping to understand more about the diet.

But the mother and daughter team behind the festival, Ruby and Amanda Watkins, have announced that next year’s event will be returning to Romsey, where the annual event began.

Amanda said: “Next year it is going to be a much more-simpler event, we are going to take it back to Romsey.”

Despite the farewell to Winchester, the organisers have said that the weekend’s affair drew in around 1,700 people, with near 50 traders for people to engage with.

“Everyone was really welcome, it wasn’t about going vegan, it was about opening up your mind to maybe doing meat free Monday or having a plant-based meal,” said Amanda.

“It is going to help our environmental footprint.”

She continued: “The talks were about how to keep healthy, being a vegan is easy you can pop to Greggs or a chain restaurant and get junk food, that’s not what we are about. We want people to be healthy vegans.

“Hopefully we educated and enlightened a few people on getting a healthy balance.”

During the fair local companies showcased what they had to offer, with the likes of Lemon and Jinja and the Little Bee Bakery drawing in the crowds. They were joined by major chains Lush and Wagamama’s.

As part of the event Amanda fed the homeless, with donations that were given by businesses and any left over food was given to hardworking volunteers and to charity Southampton Sikh Seva, which helps the homeless in the city.

And £150 was donated to the organisation from a raffle held at the festival.

“I am very proud of me and my daughter, even if it has bought homeless people some sleeping bags and they are going to be fed tonight, that’s what it is all about.”

Earlier this week Amanda presented the funds from the day to Jindy Sing of the Southampton Sikh Seva.

The event was held just weeks after “Derick Dumper” advertised a hoax festival in Romsey and the pair offered him the chance to come to Sunday’s festival.

Amanda said she received a reply from the hoaxer who refused the offer but said it has “spurred him on to do more events”.

Mr Dumper tricked a vegan stall to turn up to the event in Romsey Town Hall, as well as more than 40 people on a Facebook event. When it came to the day in December last year, it was revealed the whole thing was a stunt pulled by Mr Dumper, which was met with criticism from Amanda and Ruby.