Links  to my historical event coverage below  and more photos from 3D.

New Years Eve End of Prohibition Party! http://issuu.com/thcmag/docs/january2014_issue13/41?e=0

First Sale at 3D http://issuu.com/thcmag/docs/january2014_issue13/53?e=0

Photos courtesy The Hemp Connoisseur 

Mason, Betty and Brian at the start of the press conference.

Sean smelling the Bubba Kush.

Toni helps Sean select his strain.

An edible, a Dixie Elixir & Edibles truffle, is part of the historic first purchase.

Sean paying cash. Sean’s Mom is beside him, recording with her smartphone.

Sean smiles as his purchase is put in the bag AKA exit packaging.

“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”, the Neil Armstrong of marijuana.

10) Orpheo & the Wrench The Grassroots Stage offered more musical variety than the two other stages, which were primarily dance whomp and wub wub wub DJs. Orpheo & the Wrench, a Denver based acoustic duo, played an enjoyable set and the most surprising part was their homespun spoof of “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” telling a tale of the Devil going to Denver and getting smoked out. I was squealing with laughter.

Caps by Visual Fiber

8) Green Man Cannabis Denver dispensary, Green Man Cannabis, has colorful and appealing T-shirts and stickers. Their booth was a fun stop in the vendor row. You could try to win a T-shirt of your choice in a modified corn hole game. You could yuck it up and have your picture taken with a bong smoking Jack Herer stand-in. The free “got THC?” temporary tattoos were a fun alternative to stickers.

In the Jack Herer cutout, smokin’ a bong!

7) Mahatma/Strainwise Mahatma, a Denver concentrate company, and Strainwise, a family of dispensaries, had a sleek, professional and comfortable booth in a spacious 10 x 20 tent. The booth was open and provided shade and a space to chill. Their booth had a tall dab bar, black leather couch and love seat, and a large urn of medicated iced tea. The 6 Million Dollar Man was comically posed with Mahatma’s 2013 Cannabis Cup for Best Concentrate on the dab bar.

The 6 Million Dollar Man posed with Mahatma’s 2013 Cannabis Cup for Best Concentrate on the dab bar.

6) Sohiyo Sohiyo, a California-based clothing and merchandise company, will outfit you in dab culture coolness. Sohiyo had lightweight and eco-friendly bamboo sunglasses and bold Brandalism Stickers and T-shirts, among other items.

Sustainable bamboo sunglasses by Sohiyo.

5) The Green Team The do-good Green Team from Denver Relief walked the event site and kept the grounds clean to ensure cannabis events have a positive impact in the community by keeping things green and clean.

The Green Team, keepin’ it clean!

4) Grassroots California Grassroots California encouraged audience participation with a painted hat competition. 12 contestants entered the painted hat competition to win $710 in cash, $710 Grassroots gift card and limited edition hats with the winning design.

Grassroots California’s audience participation competition hats.

3) Collaborative street art mural Local artists Berk, Plaant and Sypages, painted the white side of an RV bus over the two-day event into a 710 Cup race car scene with the mascot driver winning the race and the other characters celebrating victory with a flaming torch and dab. The plaid cat is just stone cold chillin’.

2) Hitman Glass Hitman Glass, maker of rigs and pipes, has taken Brandalism and run with it. Brandalism is common in dab culture and Hitman Glass turns dozens of recognizable cartoons and product mascots into Hitman Glass advertisements. Ready for an epic guerilla marketing campaign, stickers, T-shirts and hats of the Monopoly Man, Popeye, Toucan Sam, Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Felix the Cat, Tom and Jerry, Pacman and dozens of other familiar characters hold a dab rig and covertly advertise the underground world of dabbing and Hitman Glass.

Hitman Glass “Brandalism”

1) Mila Jansen, the Queen of Marijuana. Mila Jansen, an inspiring woman and a cannabis pioneer, was onsite as a keynote speaker and an international judge for the solvent-less hash competition. She was presented with the Female Industry Achievement Award, by her most prolific student, Nikka T. of Essential Extracts. To find out more about her life and achievements, watch her film, Mila’s Journey, a recent documentary that explores several decades of Mila’s life, including her role in couture fashion, her life in India, the development of her cannabis career, and the lifestyle choices she made being a mother of four children.

Mila Jansen, circa 1960s

This article was originally written for LadyBud.  http://www.ladybud.com/

10)   Denver Kush Club passed out custom screenprinted Bic Lighters. Nice, DKC!  Most dispensaries usually give away cheap lighters that don’t reliably work, but y’know, you can’t really complain about free schwag, right?  It’s nice Denver Kush Club  puts their name on a quality lighter that people will want to keep.

9) I liked Big Buddha Seeds giant Buddhist Temple in the recreational area of the Cup. Their free schwag bags said “Peace and Love” and added a calming element to the jam packed walkways. Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.

8) Medicine Man for the Willy Wonka themed promotion.   I am childhood fan of the original Roald Dahl story, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the 1971 film adaptation of this mad, reclusive genius candy maker, Willie Wonka. I love the 2005 Johnny Depp film version too.  Although, the use of Willie Wonka,  to promote marijuana products is not new, Medicine Man did a solid job incorporating the elements together into a memorable promotion. Orange skinned, green wigged and white costumed Oompa Loompas were walking around the Cup passing out golden tickets. Golden tickets were also part of print and online advertisements.  Willy Wonka was a tall, well costumed man, who walked around the event site smiling maniacally and offering free puffs of vaporized marijuana from a colorful plastic squeeze bottle. Who can do this? The Medicine Man. The Medicine Man  can. ( all together now) “The candy man can cause he mixes it with love  and makes the world taste good. And the world tastes good cause the candy man thinks it should!”

7) Essential Extracts budtender, Ms. Gabby. Essential Extracts shared a booth with Pink House.  Essential Extracts take the high road and make water based hash from methods learned from Amsterdam hash legend, Mila Jansen.  Gabby  had great style. She had a great combination of street savvy fashion style and professional smarts.   

6) The Dixie Elixir and Edibles booth.  My years of vending had me recognize the Dixie booth had one of the best locations of the whole Cup.The Dixie booth  was nicely situated inside along one of the main traffic arteries of the event.   Dixie presented a very professional and sophisticated product line that advances the concept of cannabis wellness and medicine to larger audiences in Colorado and around the country.

5) The couches and street art made chilling in the alley way between buildings a more sophisticated experience.

4) Wonder Woman tank tops from Green Man Cannabis.  A jay smoking Wonder Woman strolls across the front of  pastel yellow tank tops.  

3) Hanging at the SAFER / NCIA booth with the Amendment 64 crew at 4:20 on 4/20!

2) The Free Massage chair at Riverrock.

1) The Incredibles milk chocolate and peanut butter fountains with fresh fruit skewers.  I’m glad each dip was a modest 5mg dose because I wouldn’t and couldn’t stop dipping the assorted bananas, strawberries, pretzels,and cake squares into the most magnificent hash chocolate and peanut butter hash fondue fountains I could ever dream of.