SAN FRANCISCO – The 12th annual Outside Lands, San Francisco’s largest summer music fest, took place this past weekend and made history by being the first public event in California approved for cannabis vendor sales and public consumption.
Approval came last Wednesday from the city’s Office of Cannabis, only two days before the three-day event was scheduled to start.
Held in Golden Gate Park, the fest’s designated 21-and-over Grass Lands area featured California cannabis vendors and was sponsored by cannabis delivery platform Eaze. Cannabis company Flow Kana sponsored the Grass Lands stage and hosted a nightly Produce-to-Bong Contest, with prizes for the best bong made from fresh fruits and vegetables.
Located south of the polo fields, aka SoPo, cannabis product vendors at Grass Lands included Kiva Confections, Cresco Labs, Lagunitas Hi-Fi Hops, Bloom Farms, Moxie Extracts, PAX Vapor, Jetty Extracts, Cookies, Binske, Legion of Bloom, Pacific Stone, and many others, as well as local cannabis retailers and businesses.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s Datebook described the queue for entry into the 21-and-over section as long with IDs being checked by security, who also controlled over-crowding in the designated area. Director of marketing for Oakland-based edibles company Sublime, Mylan Ton, told the Chronicle, “Everyone is really happy.”
“To fully embrace Grasslands at Outside Lands brings the industry and its users out of the shadows,” said Kiva Confections on their Instagram feed, “and shows that our products can be elevated, sophisticated, and normalized.”
The historic approval for cannabis sales and consumption at Outside Lands comes after the 2018 introduction of Grass Lands as a “curated cannabis experience” at the fest.
Music acts and performers that headlined this year included Childish Gambino, Twenty One Pilots, The Lumineers, Flume, blink-182, Kygo, Kacey Musgraves, Lil Wayne, Hozier, Counting Crows, Bebe Rexha, and featured dozens more. Legendary singer/songwriter Paul Simon closed the fest on Sunday night.
Heineken Beer sponsored The House, featuring EDM and a roster of top DJs, while another festival area contained comedy venue, The Barbary. Foodies feasted on food prepared by renowned and local chefs in the GastroMagic section, while another area, called D.A.V.E. (Discussions About Virtually Everything) hosted TED-like talks with various speakers.
