Hash and Food Pairings Shine at Cannifest 2024

Cannifest 2024 reminded me that Cannabis and food are made to be consumed together, to be paired and to elevate each others’ gustatory experience and that’s what Cannifest 2024 highlighted like shiny trikes under a light. There’s something about actually planning out the food that you’re going to munch on when you’re high that really highlights set and setting in a positive way. If you’re going to sesh, involve food and do so tastefully. That is the lesson that is being learnt as cannabis event licenses get used and abandoned all around the world. Ever since moving up to Cal Poly Humboldt, it seems like my life has been a series of seshes. Life is like a series of seshes. The box of chocolates got eaten by some foos with the munchies. This Cannifest 2024 recap is gonna highlight exactly that: the biggest open-to-the-public sesh that the Emerald Triangle still puts on. Cannifest brought musical talents from around the world up to Humboldt Bay to celebrate local cannabis – a longstanding tradition of Humboldt seshes like these. Cannifest also highlighted a new trend in seshes around the world – that of the cannabis and food pairing. This is a new level of high society and cannabis culture that is being formed right in front of our eyes. You could say that cannabis culture is entering high socieaty. Shoutout to Steve and Lori and Ben and Brian and the rest of the Cannifest team for all the hard work they put in in making this a possibility.

Cannabis Culture Club Surf n Terps and Cannifest Awards Show

Before the two days of cannabis festivaling aka Cannifest-ing at the park, was the Friday before which featured the Surf n Terps dinner led by Cannabis Culture Club and featuring many familiar goats local and from afar. At 300 a plate, it was a completely packed house and a true testament to the combination of fine dining and hash pairings. To witness both local food and solventless cannabis concentrates celebrated at this level – with Nikka T on the decks and Yung Slabby holding court while Chef Alex describes the hash pairing, gives me hope for the future. Especially because I hadn’t planned on it! I came by for the Awards show and caught the lobster tail end of the Surf n Terps dinner because as with all events – sticking to a schedule is for squares. All in all it was a grand ol’ time and way to kick off the event.

My first year at Cannifest

Maybe as a result of partying into the AM the night before, but the first day of Cannifest was a daze to me. At some point as a split second decision, I decided to have a particular type of experience at Cannifest this year – for the one day that I was there. I spent most of the time at the most Humboldt dab bar in the world. Set atop a dozen black and yellow totes, the Snail Nail Co. bar was lit, the electricity was flowing and the lines for dabs and delicious food were never ending. Not only was it my first year at Cannifest, it was my first time manning a dab bar with food pairings and concise pairing description and instructions to convey to high and soon-to-be-high people… at least at an event this size. It wouldn’t have been possible without my fellow volunteers. Thanks Keag, Leland, Coco, and co.

HighSocieaty Mochi Waffles and Hash Pairings

I volunteered as tribute to help High Socieaty with their free food and dab pairings at Cannifest. Free food and paired dabs for the masses at Cannifest? Yes – especially since that damn box of chocolates we were promised with life already got munched. This wouldn’t have been possible without Alex Scherma and 710tyler who were holding down the fort with some volunteers since lindz was our of town. Suffice to say, the food was delicious. I was able to share dabs of Arcata Fire that went perfectly paired with mochi waffles topped with fruit, candied nuts, or chased with a banana pineapple punch. There’s levels to cannabis and food experiences and this – when paired with a prime view of the stage and the gratis cost to all attendees really set the vibe to high.

Glass F.A.C.E. Competition at Cannifest 2024

Besides the in your faceness of food and cannabis pairings, the coolest thing at Cannifest that I saw while walking around was the glass section. The closer you get to Eugene, Oregon – the cooler the glass becomes. Things get… less obviously scientific and more subtly or not so subtly fumed. Seeing that old school get melded with the new school Dr. Dabber was a cool meld to see happen. For years, I’ve been seeing glass attachments for Puffcos and Cartas that seemed like such cool rigletts but way out of my budget. If i was going to dream for glass, I wanted it to be something with oomph and one of a kind factor. This year at the Glass Face competition was the first time I saw that. Knowing that each glass artist started with the same kit really highlights the artist’s skill and vision. Glass aficionados could see the glass and really see the artist’s vision, guesstimate the functionality, and admire the variety in creativity. Attendees to Cannifest cast their votes at the event and the winner was chosen by People’s choice. The winners ended up being Soulshine (3rd from the left on the bottom row). Congrats to them.

Ganja Games 2024 at Cannifest

I also had the privilege of witnessing the revitalization of Cannifest’s Ganja Games for 2024 with Ganjier and Budist. Go around, win some prizes! The Ganja Games were a side quest for every attendee at Cannifest – should they choose to accept it. Once you entered Cannifest, attendees were occasionally drawn towards the Ganja Games booth on their way towards the stage or dab bar. Whether assessing the hash rosin aroma with Arcata Fire, guessing the hash cultivar with Telos Hash, guessing the flower cultivar with Sol Spirit Farm, or putting a review into the Budist app – it was an opportunity to engage and win prizes. I did try it out an that’s how I got my hand on a tiny bit of Shiskaberry from Telos via the one and only Masonic Smoker. The old school heirloom cultivars are making a comeback. It’s not all sunshine and roses though because after learning about Paradise Rose aka Fruit Loops from the eponymous Rose from Huckleberry Hill herself through the wonderful experience of smoking, I also learned about the Papaya Rose through a similar method. If you know you know and if you don’t, hit me up for the tea. Now is as good a time as any to throw in a PSA that Stealing from farmers isn’t part of the culture – it’s part of the industry. If you’re a dipshit culture vulture who is just around waiting to sell the license you’ve stashed under your partner’s name – I’ve got no sympathy for you. Dipset homie.

2nd year Judging Cannifest, this time w/ Budist!

Cannifest and Budist worked together this year and the 99 judges across all the categories tallied their scores up before the event by submitting their scores to Budist through an online form which they accessed through a QR code which was sent to them alongside instructions in their judges box. As a flower judge, I’m appreciative of the changing categories every year. It gives an opportunity for different farms to win with different cultivars. Last year the categories were between purple and green. This year, it was all about the high: the categories were Party Time, Balanced, and Couch locked. Which we all know are proxies for three words which are known to be useless at the dispo and on most websites (including the one ran by yours truly) There were no flower samples this year which I feel deserved to be crowned the “Party Time” winner. Nothing submitted gave me an uplifting high indicative of a longer flowering cultivar and I’m calling it out because this is an industry and culture wide issue. I hit up “the dude” running “the sheets” at Budist and told them that I didn’t want my choice for the Party Time winner to be counted because of my strong feelings about the sample pool and I didn’t want my arbitrary choice to impact the final decision. He was able to nullify the entry I had put into the Google Form. This was one of several judging processes I was part of this year and it’s always nice to see how the salami is made and confirm and report that there is no foul play happening. Am I biased as a judge? Probably. But who else are you going to ask? I’m just upset that I can’t find any party time weed. Still – Congrats to Royal Budline for sweeping all three categories in the flower section. But there hasn’t been anything new in terms of highs on the flower market in years, and these competitions are the snapshot of our trek towards cannabis genetic bottlenecking. I just hope we aren’t too far gone to make it back.

Cannifest 2024 recap… Can’t wait for Cannifest 2025

I want to budget my time better for the next time so I can get a better look at all that this event has to offer. Grow Games, all the panels, most of the booths. There’s and I’m happy to report that I didn’t really come across any booths I’d call boofs. Though, I did come across some possibly freeze dried lemon cherry gelato. Not gonna name shame the newcomers but come on, there are better options. The art. The wall. Here it is in rare once a year empty form. I can’t wait to walk Halvorsten Park all year long and get high while looking at the art knowing that it was all put up at Cannifest, and that it will be redone again in 2025. This is how to throw a community based, place based event. I look forward to seeing Cannifest grow to new heights and I’m honored to have been able to play a small part in supporting Humboldt County’s largest annual cannabis event. On day 2 of Cannifest, I bounced to catch a flight at SFO. On the way out of Halvorsten park, I noticed a suspiciously clean shaven person with a cardboard sign indicating a desire to hitch a ride to the Bay area. I made another split second decision and picked up my first hitchhiker. Different readers will take that in different ways but the way I take it is this: Humboldt is rubbing off on me.