By Benjie Cooper
IG: @nuglifenews
YouTube: Lucid’s Vlog
On a cool, breezy weekend in the Bay Area, Hempcon arrived at Daly City’s Cow Palace and opened its doors once again to legal adults with doctor’s recommendations for three days of giveaways, deals, and free dabs. The weekend event happens multiple times each year and usually takes place at the Cow Palace, though the previous one was held at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa. Other Hempcon festivals have also happened in San Jose and at the NOS Events Center in San Bernadino.
Not to be confused with the 420 Games, a touring series of cannabis-positive athletic events, Canna-Games was the advertised theme of this August 4-6 installment in the long-running series of California cannabis conventions known as Hempcon. And while participants in the 420 Games might expect to run, walk, bike, or skate for a few miles, contestants in this weekend’s events didn’t have to go any further than the main stage in the center of the event hall where hosts Medi Mike and Kaya tag teamed the microphone each day.
The first competition of the weekend was a hula hoop contest in which two groups of contestants each spun out one winner. The two champions were then pitted against each other, this time with two hoops around their waists instead of just one. In the end, a dreadlocked young woman narrowly lost to a girl in sunglasses who, when asked by Kaya after the first round how it was, replied laughing, “Awful…I was dragged into doing this!”
In the next event, contestants lined up to don a cardboard blindfold and play pin the tail on the donkey with a bunch of tail stickers and a printed vinyl sheet in what Kaya dubbed ‘stoner donkey.’ Yes, even adults will participate in childhood birthday party games when there are cannabis prizes at stake. Still, it seems a birthday game was a bit apropos as Medi Mike’s celebrated his 40th with the Hempcon crowd over the weekend.
As part of last year’s Canna-Games, there was a race that took place where adult participants sat atop tiny red tricycles and zipped around a large gladiator arena. Organizers scheduled a race to happen again this year, sans inflatable arena, but they canceled it after one of the trikes was given to a contest winner, and someone accidentally broke one of the other ones. Even though efforts were made to fix the wrecked three-wheeler, with only one functioning tricycle remaining, the notion of racing no longer made sense.
Another event that returned to this year’s Canna-Games was the blunt and joint rolling competition. Contestants showcased their skills in a few different categories including Best Freestyle and Best Traditional Joint. Some of the more experienced rollers tried their hand at rolling without looking using the cardboard blindfolds previously utilized in the ‘stoner donkey’ game. Winners in each category were awarded large wooden plaques declaring their victory.
Aside from the assortment of games that contestants played on the main stage, the regular rows of vendor filled the event hall, presenting to the con-goers their usual plethoric offering of cannabis and cannabis-related products. The large grid of vendors showcased their best flowers, oils, edibles, topicals, and glassware throughout the weekend and even brought out some new innovative products like the Pipe Mug which allows people to enjoy their morning coffee and a bowl of their favorite marijuana in the same mug. Candid Chronicle-featured cannabis comic, Patience also debuted signed copies of its first full-length issue, “The New Guy” over the weekend, as well as a corresponding flavored CBD drink.
Regardless of whether or not the Canna-Games are going on or not, there is a competition at each Hempcon where cultivators, extractors, and product-makers enter their best products in hopes of taking home a sparkling glass trophy or an ornate medal at the ceremony on Saturday. Submissions from the assorted entrants are prominently displayed across shelves in a tall glass case located in the iBudtender booth at the center of the hall. Ibudtender, an information-driven online cannabis resource and search engine, is at every Hempcon and officiates the product voting, giveaways, contests, and raffles.
Halloweed 2017 is the next Hempcon event scheduled to take place on October 27-29 at the Cow Palace. Last year’s event, which was hosted by Medi Mike and B-Real TV’s Adam Ill, featured a series of intricate and well-crafted Halloween displays to walk through at the entrance. It also featured a costume contest which was won by a girl wearing an abstractly-creepy costume called ‘Bad Trip’ with multiple faces and a fully-functioning, integrated smoking apparatus. For more information on upcoming Hempcon events and festivals, visit the company’s website at www.hempcon.com.
