National Cannabis Festival Lights Up DC on 4/20, Of Course!
Story and photographs by Kurt Wimmer
The National Cannabis Festival is in its fourth year and now is an annual event in Washington, D.C. The event is meant to serve several purposes. Of course, it’s a music festival, which this year had several national performers as well as local D.C. bands. The event also acts as a gathering place for legalization activists and an opportunity to register voters and educate them about marijuana laws in the United States and Washington. Finally, the event hosts an ever-expanding marketplace for goods and services that are part of a burgeoning marijuana marketplace. This year’s event took place, appropriately, on 4.20.19.
Black Masala, a local D.C. brass jam band – extremely high-energy and great musicianship.
D.C.’s claim to a unique genre of music is go-go – a variety of hip hop made famous by late D.C. artist Chuck Brown. The genre is high-energy and characterized by aggressive and infectious percussion. Backyard Band is a hard-working, hard-rocking five-year-old D.C. band that brought the go-go to the Cannabis Festival.
DJ Biz Markie is known for 1980s old-school rap but brought a popular DJ set to the festival. Several elaborate spaces were set up by legalization activists (feature photo).
Typical of the creative nature of efforts of legalization advocates to highlight the cause were several massive inflatable blunts.
The festival also brought out a number of D.C. artists, including this spray-paint artist working in a challenging breeze to put the final touches on this painting of his best buds.
D.C.’s marijuana laws are a frustrating mix of liberalization and restriction. An individual can grow her own cannabis or receive it as a gift. But outright purchases of marijuana for recreational use remain illegal. This strange set of laws is frustrating to users who can’t grow their own, and it provokes crazy schemes such as the $60 juice bar where weed is given away for “free.” In this environment, expensive attempts to get around the laws proliferate – like this $199 “medical marijuana card.”
Seeing a hand-blown glass bong is great, but seeing one actually made is even greater. Several artisans set up shop at the festival.
Action Bronson of Queens was a crowd-pleaser.
Another massive inflatable blunt, which was a kick visually but more like a kick in the head when it landed on a festival-goer unexpectedly.
Before the final set, couples competed for a “weed wedding” sponsored by Weed Maps, one of the entrepreneurial companies that has sprung up in the cannabis marketplace. The lucky couple received a reception for 50, hotel, and of course the experience of being married in front of the festival crowd. One of the many unique aspects of the ceremony was an unusual line following the traditional “you may kiss the bride” line – “the couple may light up.”
The crowd was the largest of the four years of the festival and enthusiastic about being at a festival that openly celebrated the sometimes behind-the-scenes act of lighting up.
Experts performed American Sign Language for the audience, even during fast-paced rap acts – when having two signers was definitely an advantage.
Ludicris, who has won three Grammys and has had a long string of hit records, seemed enthusiastic about the festival and its theme.
The audience members who had worked their way to the front of the stage for Ludicris were markedly enthusiastic about his performance.
