Trippin Down Festival Lane
By Chris Melter
Music festivals in 2020 are basically cancelled.
With all the craziness happening in the world (thank you COVID-19, and we mean that sarcastically), we’ll have to relive our festival dreams in 2021. With no VELD or Coachella, no EDC, and a very uncertain future for Osheaga, we’ll just have to smoke up at home and hope our favourite artists continue to host virtual concerts. The combination of music and cannabis is a no brainer. For years people have been sneaking joints into concert venues and festivals, and the reality is that cannabis never required legalization to become a music festival fixture.
Woodstock
Think about the original Woodstock, not just one of the historical events in the world of North American pop culture, but arguably this continent’s quintessential gathering of its kind. As if all the pipes and joints being lit up in the hours upon hours of footage weren’t enough to convince you, according to untold reports, witnesses and news sources, no less than 99 per cent of the attendees were smoking weed — and Woodstock took place back in August of 1969.
Needless to say, legalization of marijuana was not yet passed during that time in New York. Despite that, cannabis was easily considered the most prevalent substance at that time. For those who smoked it, they felt free; free from worry and inhibition, and free from arrest and harassment. And the event itself? Not surprisingly, it was actually quite peaceful. (We’re talking about the original Woodstock here, not the regrettable mess that Woodstock ‘99 devolved into.)
So, no, cannabis didn’t need to be made legal in Canada to be viewed as an essential element of the music festival experience. But let’s not kid ourselves: it’s helped. Cannabis is no longer being embraced exclusively at Canadian music festivals as a means of elevating live acoustics or amplifying your euphoria, but some music festivals are transforming into unprecedented and vibrant catalysts for cannabis culture itself.
Journey Festival
Take Journey Festival, a sprawling event that promised to blend cannabis education with a summer music festival. The premises were set to include a beer village, booths selling cannabis paraphernalia and culture items, and a selection of licensed producers who would discuss trends and products, but not actually sell weed.
Ever After Festival
Or Ever After Music Festival, which allowed attendees to bring weed into the event — and consume it. Sure, ticket holders were still frisked at the gate, but single-day ones were allowed to tote up to 10 grams of dried flower cannabis, and campers were permitted up to 28 grams to be kept at their designated sites. The only catch was the cannabis needed to be pre-rolled.
Toronto Festival of Beer
Even the Toronto Craft Beer Festival featured a “potio,” which was a designated cannabis consumption zone separate from the beer-swilling and cigarette-hacking areas. It made history as the first provincially-backed and age-gated consumption lounge open to the Canadian public.
And those are just a small handful of Canadian examples. In the States — specifically California, where cannabis has been legal for medicinal use since 1996 and recreational use since late 2016 — you’ve got undertakings like Northern Nights and Outside Lands. The former is one of the first overnight, three-day festivals in the U.S. to legally allow recreational cannabis sales and consumption. The latter welcomed no less than 28 cannabis companies, with edibles also highlighted (pun intended) via enhanced chocolates, gummies and mints.
The idea here is pretty clear: to disrupt the stigma of cannabis in a fun, safe and collective way, as well as to further ‘normalize’ the industry. Despite legalization, it isn’t smooth sailing just yet for these cannabis-friendly music festivals. Unfortunately, new bylaws introduced by the City of Vaughan actually forced the cancellation of the Journey Festival. Are bylaws like these all about self-preservation and status quo thinking, and stigmatizing action that hurts the legal market? With the cancellation of many festivals this year, and what with cannabis being deemed “essential” during this time, we’ll have to wait until 2021 to see how attitudes around cannabis have really changed. For now, we’ll just grab a joint at home and check out who’s livestreaming next on IG Live.
For more WINK tune in and follow our instagram