Thousands expected at first post-legalization pot festival
Emerald Cup has emerged as the nation’s largest cannabis competition
Sonoma County is welcoming a bumper crop of visitors this weekend — coming for weed, not wine.
Buoyed by California’s legalization of marijuana, Santa Rosa’s famed Emerald Cup harvest festival — a two-day conference, competition and weed-fest — is expecting a crowd of more than 23,000 enthusiasts, up from 6,700 four years ago.
“People are calling from all over the country who want to come and be part of the celebration,” said Tim Blake, the festival’s founder and producer. All motels and hotels are booked in a 20-mile radius.
From its modest beginnings in Laytonville over a decade ago, the festival is now held at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, with heated tents in case of rain.
It has emerged as the nation’s largest best-grown organic, outdoor cannabis competition — well-positioned to take advantage of the state’s “green
rush,” an emerging billiondollar enterprise of farms, labs and artisanal dispensaries.
The festival is dubbed “the Academy Awards of the cannabis industry” by Rolling Stone magazine. And this year the number of entries in its competitive cannabis contest is 50 percent over last year.
About 1,200 samples, up from last year’s total of 850, are awaiting critiques that can make or break a reputation.
That’s almost 100 pounds of weed that’s been tried and tested before Sunday’s awards ceremonies, Blake said. He has spent about $300,000 testing all entries at Santa Cruz’s SC Labs, seeking any trace of disqualifying pesticides, bacteria, mold or fungi.
Entries are judged on four categories. The first three — “looks, smell and taste”— each hold a maximum of 10 points, while the final category of “effects” gets double that, or up to 20 points, judge Nikki Lastreto wrote in the contest’s blog. Judges spent a month smoking the entries.
“So what do we look for in the perfect bud? We begin with the looks, of course – is she dense or fluffy? Does she have a clean trim, definitely by hand, that defines the shape of the bud? No loose messy buds ever get far. Is she covered in crystals, and what are her color variations? These are just the first of many considerations,” she wrote. “How sticky is it? Is it fruity or fuelly – or is it sweet or savory?”
For those with medical marijuana licenses, the festival features a dedicated “medicating section,” where vendors will offer samples.
No license? No problem. Physicians will be on staff to provide one. (Bring your California government-issued identification.)
The event is not just for stoners. For the first time, the conference will host a panel discussion with regulatory experts: Lori Ajax, chief of the Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation; Brian Lehay, director of California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation; John Nores of the California Department of Fish and Game; Assemblyman Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg, and Fiona Ma, chairwoman of the California Board of Equalization.
Other panels will explore topics such as cultivation, the cannabis genome, therapeutics, farm certification and marketing and branding. More than 450 vendors are expected.
Performers include reggae musician Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, youngest son of reggae legend Bob Marley, as well as Stick Figure, Kabaka Pyramid, Hirie, California Honey Drops, Tribal Seeds and Dirty Heads.
Marley will unveil his new “prison-to-pot farm” initiative. In partnership with Ocean Grown Extracts, he paid $4.1 million for the former Claremont Custody Center in Coalinga and is converting the 77,000-square-foot former prison into a cannabis grow space.
The event was conceived in the fall of 2003, when Blake and a friend “got to talking about the fact that Mendocino had the best bud on the planet, but no form of acknowledgment or celebration about it,” Blake recalled.
“That was when it was still very iffy to be out front about having a public competition,” he said in a statement. “We put out no press, just some last minute posters, word of mouth, and 23 entries into the ganja contest came forward.”
“Now, it is enormous,” he said. “It’s because people want to be part of this.”