If you are someone who lives in or around the DMV area, the National Cannabis Festival is something that you may have heard about, especially if you are a medical cannabis patient. Once a year, thousands of people gather at RFK Stadium for their shared love of a natural plant. The event consist of food, cannabis brands, infused foods and drinks, music, wrestling, rolling competitions, and so many other incredible things. The best part about this experience is getting to connect with other like-minded humans over something that provides so much relief to people across the globe. Walking around freely with a joint in your hand makes you feel on top of the world!
When I originally heard about this event, I already had an event planned for my family and wasn’t planning on going. I saw a bunch of posts from brands hosting giveaways for tickets to the event and figured that if I could get a free ticket, it may be worth going and my family may be more understanding. I entered a few and didn’t expect to hear back. On Friday, April 22nd, I was alerted that I had won a ticket from the Culta giveaway! I printed the ticket and started planning out my time at the festival.
SATURDAY, APRIL 23rd, 2022
I woke up extremely excited. I had seen some friends post the event in previous years so I knew a little of what to expect. I packed my Cookies backpack with everything I thought I would need for the event – sweatshirt, hat, vapes, lighters, papers, portable battery charger, hand sanitizer, etc. There are a few things that I know I will be bringing next year and one is sunscreen – the amount of sunburn that I saw hurt my heart! I will also be planning on bringing some lawn chairs for the concert portion of the day – the ground did have a decent amount of trash and whatnot, making it harder to find a spot to sit on the ground. Tissues are another great thing to bring as there are not a ton of napkins around and the port-a-potties did not all have toilet paper. Another thing I want to note is that no water bottles or food are allowed – we had to chuck two water bottles we had brought. There was also an issue with security with my friend’s grinder – it had a glass top that wasn’t acceptable, so we had to walk it back to the car. Definitely check the list of approved items before going to this event!
Walking in to the event, there was loud music, tents set up everywhere, and people walking around with joints, blunts, bowls, etc. I targeted a few specific vendors and explored a few others as I walked around.
A few vendors I had to see –
Select/Grassroots: Such a great company with phenomenal employees. They had samples of the new Select X-Bites, Grassroots pre-roll tins (empty of course) and chapstick, and a lot of information on what they are working on right now.
Wana: Love Wana edibles and had to stop by to see my girl Erica! She is always extremely friendly, loves giving out swag, and can help you find the best edible for your needs.
Rolling Bouqe: DMV’s own papers! They have cones and rolling paper.
Culta – Stopped by to thank them for the ticket and grab a swag bag.
One of the amazing things about events like these is you never know who you will see or who you will meet. I can tell you that there were some people that I planned on seeing that I didn’t get a chance to and some people I saw that I never would have expected to see at an event like this. That is one of the things that I love most about cannabis – how it connects us.
VENUE INFO
The festival gates opened at 12PM, but they did provide an “Early Entry” option for people who wanted to pay extra to get in at 11AM. The curfew for the event was 10PM. The main entrance was at the RFK Festival Grounds with parking on lots 1, 2, 3 and 6. Our friend sent us a link in the morning to pre-pay for parking and I didn’t get a chance to do this until around 3-4PM – at this time, there was only one lot left to reserve for (lot 6). For next year, I will definitely be pre-paying a lot earlier so there is a shot at a better parking spot. They did have people directing traffic, though it was an entirely confusing process. We were extremely relieved to find a spot that was easy to relocate on the way back.
The walk to the stadium for us was about a half mile. We did have to return something to the car, so it took us a little longer to get in. The walk up to the stadium, there are a lot of men selling shirts that will yell things over to you. After the event, they will sell the same shirts for $5+. There are multiple lines for security and bag checks. It took us about 5-10 minutes to get through security both times. Once past security, you walk down to lot 5/festival grounds where the event takes place.
I would definitely suggest taking a look at the event map and list of vendors beforehand. We did not look at this and chose to just roam through the grounds, but I know there are multiple vendors I missed that I would have loved to get a chance to talk to. The main sections were the stage area, the food trucks, and the vendors. I will say that they had such a large selection of food trucks to choose from. The lines were a little wild, but they moved relatively fast. I know the truck that we purchased from could not keep up with orders and was calling numbers out of order. There were about 20-30 people waiting for over 20-30 minutes. I would suggest not waiting until you are starving to trek down to get food.
There are plenty of options for infused and non-infused foods and drinks including slushies and lemonade. They did give out Liquid Death water, but I was not sure where to find this. I will say the most dangerous part of drinking a lot at this event is the bathroom situation – there is one area with a bunch of port-a-potties. Be warned that these are definitely not the cleanest. In trying to find one that wasn’t destroyed, most of them had wet toilet paper on the ground with no remaining toilet paper to use. I limited what I drank specifically for this reason.
MUSIC
This event hosted a lineup of musicians from 11AM on, with the headliner being Wiz Khalifa.
11AM – DJ Farrah Flosscett
1PM – Cramer – Intro by Bo Shuff & Remarks by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
2PM – Golden Browne
3PM – Shamans of Sound – Intro by Kelsye Adams, Remarks by Brooke Pinto, Presentation of 2022 Community Changemaker Award
4PM – Dupont Brass – Intro by Talia Zitner, Remarks by Jazz Lewis
5PM – Backyard Band – Ultimate Weed Wedding
6:15PM – Ghostface Killah – Intro by Lindsay Ayers, Remarks by John Falciccho, Intro by Luke Jones, Remarks by David Moon
7:30PM – Lettuce – Intro by NCF Advocacy Committee Co-Chairs Queen Adesuyi, Michelle Rutter, Morgan Fox. Presentation of the 2022 Changemaker Award. Remarks by Gary Chambers.
8:45PM – Wiz Khalifa
We got to the stage area when Lettuce was still performing. We found a spot and sat down. Shortly after Lettuce finished, they announced the 2022 Changemaker Award, which went to Gary Chambers, the Louisiana Senate Candidate. He came out and spoke to us briefly. A big thing that I took away from him speaking is that this is a man of action. He knew he only had a few minutes to speak as everyone was gearing up for Wiz and he chose his words wisely. He told us about a man by the name of Kevin Allen, who has been locked up since 2014 for $20 of cannabis. Gary asked us to send an email to the Louisiana government to bring attention to this man’s case and give him a chance at freedom. If you would like to assist, you can send an email to “jbe@la.gov”.
Wiz was scheduled to go on at 8:45PM, but did not get on until around 9:40-9:45PM. With the curfew for the event being 10PM, we knew we did not have much time. My friends and I stayed for the first song and a little of the second – we wanted to beat traffic out of the venue to avoid being stuck and get on the highway back to Baltimore with minimal traffic (for DC). Wiz was phenomenal for the few moments we got with him. He started with “I need y’all to light this shit up tonight DC! I came a long way to be with y’all tonight. If you love weed, make some noise!” The amount of smoke that filled the air was incredible. Waves of smoke, rolling above the crowds, lifting into the sky. Nothing can compare to that moment. I keep replaying the video I got of this because he made it feel so magical. I will post a few photos and videos below.
If given the chance to go again, I most definitely will. This was such a unique experience and I loved being able to share that with people from our medical community in Maryland. I highly suggest carpooling and not arriving at 12PM – I spoke with multiple people who got there early and weren’t able to make it through to the end. If you want to make the most out of your experience, get to see all of the vendors before they pack up and get to see the music performances in full, I would aim for mid-afternoon.
Bluntly Bookish in Baltimore 