Kicking off this weekend’s events, “The Best of the East Bay Express ‘Home Grown‘” party tomorrow, Friday August 6th in Jack London Square, Oakland celebrating all things born of the East Bay. The Party starts at 5pm, ends at 11pm and is completely FREE to attend. According to the site, all bar proceeds from the event are benefiting The OneCalifornia Foundation. The event promises to bring the very “best entertainment, art, food, and drink that this side of the bay has to offer”.
HempCon is also approaching this weekend, August 7-8 in San Jose at the Convention Center and the website describes it as, “premiere event of the year with a huge amount of exhibits including medical marijuana dispensaries, collectives, care givers, evaluation services, legal services, educational institutes,… HempCon will be an educational event as well with a full weekend of seminars and presentations by industry leaders, advocates, and attorneys. Whether you are a patient or someone who wants to get more educated about medical marijuana, you need to be there”. Ticketing has closed online and $20 will be charged at the door for entry. Our manager, David will be there with a Patient’s Care Collective crew promoting the Top Ten Trading cards and meeting patients.
With all this going on we thought it would be nice to do a little roundup of marijuana related events for patients and enthusiasts the West Coast and beyond!
I know I for one am really looking forward to this years Outside Lands Festival happening in San Francisco this August 14th and 15th. This three year old festival is experience not to be missed. There’s a lot to be said for listening to amazing live bands with 50,000 other people at night, under the stars in legendary Golden Gate Park. The Saturday’s headliners include Further feat. Phil Lesh and Bob Weir and The Strokes. Sunday boasts Al Green, Kings of Leon and Chromeo among others. And for when hunger strikes, check this link to SF Eater, festival food has never sounded so good. Single day tickets are available for $75 and 2-day tickets for $140. Here’s the link to find where to buy service fee free tickets.
Still in August, The Seattle Hempfest will be held on August 21st and 22nd from 10am to 8pm each day and admission is FREE. The festival is the largest gathering of speakers on hemp and marijuana policy reform in the world, and features 5 stages.
If you are in Southern California, The Know Your Rights Expo. held on August 28th will be Orange County’s first “Medical Cannabis, Legal Marijuana and Natural Medicine Expo” and aims to educate people, patients and dispensary owners on the changes to the CA medical cannabis law and includes live music and vendors. Check out their ad on Cannabis TV here.
August 28 and 29th The Olympia Hemp, Love and Freedom Rally in Olympia, Washington is held and sounds like good fun. Comedian and editor of West Coast Cannabis magazine Ngaio Belaum is a speaker and admission is FREE to the public.
Norml holds their 39th Annual National meeting on September 9th through the 12th, in Oregon at the legendary Governor Hotel, downtown Portland. This event features many panel topics including presentations from Norml Women’s Alliance and a legislative round-up of current events spanning it’s three days. Saturday the 11th is a medical cannabis only day and is described as a meeting of doctors and researchers addressing the latest developments in medical marijuana. Ticket prices range from $150-$300.
Again in Portland, you might like to also attend Hempstalk 2010 held on the 11th and 12th of September. This event celebrates cannabis music and culture and is FREE for all ages.
I was surprised to find that The International Cannabis and Hemp Expo. at Cow Palace, San Francisco will be held again on September 25th and 26th. Held for the first time this April 2010, it was a huge success with patients coming out in force to be part of the first cannabis expo to be held at Cow Palace. We rented a booth for our dispensary and completed it with a custom backdrop and display cases holding beautiful samples of our medicine to match our Trading Cards. We were handing out samples of pre-rolled joints, Hash Chocolates and Top Ten Trading cards, and understandably, were extremely busy all weekend! This year they have expanded the Prop. 215 area which was jam-packed at April’s event. We enjoyed this Expo. but definitely thought some improvements could be made overall, especially to food concessions and perhaps adding more entertainment and educational features to balance the sale of glassware in the non Prop. 215 area. Ticketing information is not currently available online.
On to Santa Cruz for the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana’s WAMMFest 2010. This event will be held September 25th in San Lorenzo Park on Duck Island, Santa Cruz from 12pm to 5pm and is FREE.
After leaving San Jose Hempcon moves on to Los Angeles for September 10th, 11th and 12th and then to Denver, Colorado for November 12th, 13th and 14th.
If you can’t make any of these more major festivals or, if you don’t like crowds and just want to hear more, there are many, many local chapters of patient’s groups, advocacy and awareness meetings and municipal hearings which involve medical marijuana and it’s users. Most notably, ASA (Americans for Safe Access) and Norml which are national patient rights groups, and Axis of Lovein San Francisco. These groups meet frequently and are especially necessary in cities like San Diego and Marin where patients are dealing with unfavorable local, legal circumstances. Follow the links to find your local chapters.
Having fun and being involved in something you care about makes you happy, so get out there and find your community if you haven’t already! There were many more festivals than I could list so check some of these links for more.
West Coast Leaf Summer Calendar
Why jesus allows this sort of thing to continue is a mystery.
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