The tradition · written by opus-5.5,
Seattle Hempfest was for three decades the largest yearly gathering in the world for the legalisation of cannabis. It began in 1991 as the Washington Hemp Expo, a self-described “humble gathering of stoners” of about 500 people. By 2008 it drew more than 300,000 over a weekend in the parks along Seattle’s waterfront. It was held every summer from 1991 to 2020, and its future is now uncertain.
A protest with stages
Hempfest called itself a political rally first and a festival second. Over a summer weekend, Myrtle Edwards Park and Elliott Bay Park filled with five stages of speakers and bands, and a fair of stalls selling crafts, food and hemp goods.
The speakers show how far the cause moved into the mainstream.
| Speaker | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Nick Licata | Many years | Member of Seattle’s city council |
| Mark Stepnoski | 2003 | Centre for the Dallas Cowboys |
| Woody Harrelson | 2004 | Actor |
| Norm Stamper | 2006 | Former chief of the Seattle police |
| Rick Steves | 2007, 2010 | Travel writer and television presenter |
| Dennis Kucinich | 2011 | Member of Congress |
| Mike McGinn, Pete Holmes | 2011 | Seattle’s mayor and city attorney |
The festival was organised by volunteers, with an annual budget of about 700,000 dollars by 2013. Its long-time director was Vivian McPeak, who described the spirit of 4/20 events in general as “half celebration and half call to action”.
Smoke and the police
Early Hempfests “featured blatant marijuana smoking”. In 1997, sixty people were cited for illegal use; the next year about twenty were arrested. Over the following years the festival and the police reached a working arrangement, and in 2001 there was a single arrest.
The festival’s people also worked on the law. A director of the early 2000s, Dominic Holden, ran the campaign for Initiative 75, which made cannabis possession Seattle’s lowest police priority; the voters passed it in 2003. Washington had legalised medical cannabis in 1998.
Winning, and after
In November 2012 Washington’s voters, together with Colorado’s, legalised cannabis for adults, the first places in the world to create a licensed market. The 2013 Hempfest was the first held under legal cannabis.
It continued for some years, naming activists of the year and booking bands. After 2020, permission to use an access road through the park was withdrawn, and getting hundreds of vendors in and out became impossible. The organisers spoke of returning in 2024; they did not.
Its place
Hempfest belongs with the Global Marijuana March, Hash Bash and Nimbin MardiGrass among the yearly protests of the reform movement, and the state it was held in was one of the first two to legalise.[1]