19th Annual Seattle Hempfest is Most Successful Hempfest to Date

The 19th Annual Seattle Hempfest is “shaping up to be the best Hempfest yet” said event organizer Vivian McPeak. Although expenses for Hempfest 2010 were up this year “we got double the contributions we got last year. I’ve got a good feeling about this,” McPeak told HIGH TIMES. Those in attendance were highly inclined to agree.

Fraught with trials and trepidations until the final hour, this year’s Hempfest was a textbook example of a well-run, successful activist event. Although rain threatened throughout the weekend, it never emerged and over 150,000 attendees enjoyed two perfect days of sun, fun, music, merchandising and seminars. Scores of the most informed marijuana law reform activists in the country shared three stages with dozens of the dankest music makers from every genre. High-energy rappers Skee-Low and Black Sheep, who led Tony B’s Hip Hop Revue on the main stage, followed Washington’s own wild beauty, the punk metal artist Charlie Drown (who wowed the crowd with weed-leaf pasties). New York-based rock and rollers The Click Clack Boom were so well received by the crowd that they earned a slot as an upcoming HIGH TIMES Unsigned Band of the Week.

The speakers included world-famed travel guru Rick Steves, National NORML Board members George Rohrbacher, Jeff Steinborn and Bill Panzer, celebrated cannabinoid researcher Dr. Sunil Aggarwal, HIGH TIMES associate publisher Rick Cusick and many more. One bittersweet omission to this year’s festivities was legendary hemp activist Jack Herer who died on April 16. In recent years Jack shared the HIGH TIMES booth at Hempfest and his absence was deeply felt and marked by a poster board blow-up of his best-selling 1992 HIGH TIMES cover. Every professional activist in attendance was asked to sign the poster, which will be auctioned for NORML at that organization’s 39th annual national conference in Portland, Oregon on September 11. The 2010 Seattle Hempfest was dedicated to Herer’s memory and the oft-repeated theme of this year’s festivities was “This One’s For Jack.”

One potential tragedy was averted when a 19-year old college student failed to return home and was feared missing. After a week of searching in coordinated efforts with event organizers and police departments in two states, it was discovered that Melanie Harman took a side trip to a Rainbow Gathering in Newport, Washington. In a joyful e-mail a spokesperson said, “Thankfully Seattle Hempfest has gone another year without a missing person. 19 years strong!

“In the words of Garrison Keillor, "Be well.  Do good work.  And keep in touch."

Check out the video of Rick Cusick’s 4:20 speech at Seattle Hempfest 2010. (Please note: Mr. Cusick is the Associate Publisher of HIGH TIMES and was mistakenly introduced as the magazine’s “publisher and editor.”)

Click here for the video of Mr. Cusick’s rousing legalization speech at this year’s Hempfest.