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In its 22^nd year, Seattle Hempfest is the largest cannabis event in the world, with a quarter million happy and blissed out people attending the protestival, one part festival and one part protest.  Seattle Hempfest, which is free and open to the public. It is one of the most inspiring experiences a cannabis activist and enthusiast can experience.  It’s a mile and a half long celebration of cannabis culture and a festival where people can safely consume marijuana publicly and enjoy a beautiful day in the park, with entertainment, a vibrant marketplace, food and food for thought.

The recent passage of Washington’s marijuana legalization law, I-502, had voters and cannabis enthusiasts ready for a public celebratory toke at Seattle Hempfest this year. Although it is still illegal to publicly smoke marijuana in Washington, within the safety of Seattle Hempfest, people smoked, vaporized and consumed cannabis.  With great enthusiasm, people took hits from four and six foot bongs, and socialized with circles of friends or friendly strangers while passing around enormous joints. The overall effect was a peaceful and happy crowd.  Seattle Hempfest is an event where people can safely consume marijuana publicly without fear of arrest and prosecution.  As trivializing as this act may be perceived, public marijuana smoking is a form of protest.

The nonviolent protest is the heart of Seattle Hempfest.  The roots of Seattle Hempfest began in 1991 as the Washington Hemp Expo.   Five hundred people turned out to the event organized by the Seattle Peace Heathens Community Action Group. The Seattle Peace Heathens were a voluntary group of alternative cultural advocates who produced and promoted peace and social justice community projects.  The Washington Hemp Expo touched a nerve in the community and the event grew exponentially every year.

By 1994, the growth of the event, now called Seattle Hempfest, was raising the attention and concern of local government and law enforcement, which had been turning a blind eye to the unpatrolled event.  With the help of the ACLU, Seattle Hempfest was identified as a legitimate political rally, and not a “pot party” as detractors wanted to categorize it.  Seattle Hempfest had a counter- cultural flamboyance, but was professionally savvy in negotiations with local agencies.

Seattle Hempfest has expanded from a one day event to three days. The crowd attendance has grown from 15,000 people to 250,000 people.  All of this growth would not be possible without the planning and consistent effort of dedicated volunteers who have met the increasing logistical demands and more complex permit requirements with the city government.  Over the weekend of Seattle Hempfest, the number of volunteers swells to over a thousand as all event activities are coordinated to keep everything running smooth and safe 24 hours a day.

Volunteer Powered Seattle Hempfest.
“There is no nation like donation”

This year, Seattle Police Department received praise and chuckles for handing out Nacho Cheese Doritos to people attending Hempfest. Affixed to the snack bags were informational and joke riddled stickers advising the festivalgoers some of the new marijuana regulations with I-502.  Among the text was “This sticker is not a lawyer and cannot provide you with legal advice.”  And  “The contents of this package are as delicious as they appear”.

One key part of visualizing the annual political protest message of Seattle Hempfest is the event poster.   Past images evoke and depict messages of peace, hemp agriculture, and awareness of nonviolent prisoners, public education, and idyllic scenes of future possibility. Poster images have captured the fundamental messages of political protest at Seattle Hempfest. This year’s poster uses a popular image for the federal government: the iconic Uncle Sam is passing a lighted joint in front of a glowing Emerald City.  “I want YOU at the Seattle Hempfest” is what the headline reads.

Marijuana legalization has not been the only political destination for Seattle Hempfest. Previous years, a single protest message was crafted and presented to bring attention to different issues related to marijuana prohibition. To demonstrate marijuana reform has made a significant progressive step but has not reached its destination three protest messages were emphasized this year.

The first Seattle Hempfest protest platform is “eliminate marijuana from the Federal Schedule.”  As you may know, the Federal Schedule is the federal drug policy that lists marijuana as a controlled substance and having no current medical use in treatment.  Schedule 1 substances are legally defined as highly addictive and have the most restrictive laws regarding use, possession and distribution.  Seattle Hempfest recommends going beyond moving marijuana from its current schedule status, and moving it completely out of the Federal Schedule.  The reasoning for this is the two most widely consumed drugs, recreational alcohol and tobacco are both exempt from Federal Scheduling. Marijuana with its relative history of safety should also be exempt.

The second protest platform is “harm reduction.” Harm reduction measures usually includes efforts to change the impact in society of mass incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders and related injustices.  Seattle Hempfest is shifting harm reduction to a personal level with a series of health pamphlets called, Cannabis Gut Checks. These pamphlets share information on recent scientific studies relating to topics of health and safety of cannabis use and depression, driving, health, lungs, memory, mental health, pregnancy and teens.  The pamphlets candidly discuss the risks of cannabis use and provide the reader with additional resources for information.

The third protest platform is “voter power.” To harness the right in our representative democracy, Seattle Hempfest encourages voter registration. The Hempfest Voter Registration team members walk the festival with clipboards and knowledgably answer questions and help register Washington state voters.  They assist voters with changes of address,  register newly eligible voters who are turning eighteen, and field questions regarding the eligibility of convicted felons, who have recently been restored the right to vote in Washington.

Voter Registration at Seattle Hempfest

Political protest happens all day from the stages, the shouts of call and response engage the crowd as HEMP is repeatedly spelled out with a “give me an H, give me an E”  In between band sets, notable luminaries from Washington, Oregon, California and Vancouver give encouraging, engaging and informative speeches.

Speakers include Seattle and Washington elected officials, activists, legislative advocates, lawyers, doctors, patients, writers, growers, and directors of national drug reform organizations.   A longtime Seattle Hempfest favorite is Elvy Musikka, a medical marijuana patient, who since 1988 has received 300 joints a month from the Federal IND program.

Seattle Hempfest is an amazing and inspiring event for cannabis activists and enthusiasts.  It is a focused cannabis reform rally, a gigantic celebration of culture and music, and a weekend where people are free to consume marijuana safely in public and enjoy a beautiful day on a waterfront park with a lot of smiling people.  Seattle Hempfest is the largest cannabis event in the world and at its heart is the belief nonviolent protest can create positive change. You’ve got to see it to believe it.

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/