A local festival wants to help people understand all the options for a plant-based diet, and help vegans find community. 

Local animal advocacy group The Institute for Animal Happiness hosts the Hudson Valley VegFest in Poughkeepsie. The event for all things vegan is in it's second year. 

Visitors can sample and purchase all kinds of plant-based and vegan food options, as well as learn more about the vegan lifestyle. 

Data from Nielsen says that consumers are buying more and more plant-based proteins and dairy alternatives, and those food options are growing faster than all food and beverage combined. 

People at the festival say the event helps to share their products and helps them discover new ones. 

"You're like look at this awesome pumpkin fill-in-the-blank or this awesome ice cream, or look at this cheese or look at that vegan wine. I wish my store caried that," says Wendy Grossman of Wendy's Nutty Cheese in Phonecia.

She continues, "And you can go back and actually make the change you wanna see. You can expand the vegan community into your stores."

The festival goes through November 4 with tickets available for $10 at the door or on the VegFest website.