IVU was launched at an International Vegetarian Congress in 1908, in Dresden, Germany. They were then initially annual, but soon changed to every 3 years. By the mid-1950s the name had changed to World Vegetarian Congress, held every 2 years. Everything vegan since 1996.

For all events before 2012, see: IVU 1908-2010

From 2012 we began the changeover to an annual IVU World Vegfest- with the 40th in 2012 designated as a Congress/Vegfest. In 2023, IVU felt that it was time to once more change the name of the event for the sake of stressing the importance of going vegan. This time, the event was changed for IVU World Vegan Festival. The festival was designed to promote veganism and the benefits of a vegan lifestyle to the world, and to encourage people everywhere to adopt a vegan lifestyle. IVU hope that this name change would help to bring awareness to the importance of a vegan lifestyle and motivate more people to adopt it.

The Vegan Festivals are being rotated around IVU's six regions, here's the most recent ones: