cannabisnews.com: Peaceful Crowd Enjoys Sunny Hemp Celebration





Peaceful Crowd Enjoys Sunny Hemp Celebration
Posted by FoM on July 17, 2000 at 19:46:21 PT
By Susan Palmer, The Register-Guard
Source: Register-Guard
The cars lined up five across and 20 deep at the entrance to the World Hemp Festival 2000 on Saturday afternoon south of Harrisburg, and Quiet Garofano darted among them hitting drivers up for spare change. "Anything, even a penny will help," Garofano told one fairgoer.The dreadlocked and much-pierced Garofano hoped to get enough so he and three friends could make the $14 entrance fee.
"One dude just gave me $20," Garofano said.A New Hampshire resident, Garofano and his friends happened upon the fair serendipitously. On their way from the counterculture Rainbow Gathering in Montana to Arcata, Calif., they stopped at a rest area outside Eugene on Friday night.There they ran into another group of young people "puffin' nuggets" - a euphemism for smoking marijuana - who told them about the hemp fest."We went, `Yeah, we're here,' " Garofano said.He was just one of an expected crowd of 10,000 to 12,000 at what may be the last World Hemp Fest in Harrisburg. Promoter Bill Conde has announced that he plans to sell his property and business, Conde's Redwood Lumber, and move to the Central American nation of Belize after years of battling local officials, who have objected to drug use and sales at his concerts and festivals.This weekend, private security guards checked purses, backpacks and other containers at the entrance to the fair, and two Linn County sheriff's deputies strolled through the food and craft booths lining the fields where the three-day festival is held.Despite the stronger security presence and Conde's assurances that drugs wouldn't be condoned at the festival, "puffin' nuggets" was evident Saturday.Conde couldn't be reached to comment on drug use at the festival, but earlier in the day he said relations with the sheriff's office had improved this year thanks to advance planning."We've got a permit now. They're seeing that we're hard-working, that we're doing it right this time," he said. "The police haven't been crawling all over us. They've picked off a few, but that's normal stuff."But hundreds of folks lounging on the grass in front of the main stage were encouraged to light up by musicians and the program announcer, a self-proclaimed Master of Cannabis, who told the crowd, "Don't wait to smoke a joint if you want to. With discretion, do it now."And many did, particularly those seated under a soft green parachute-silk canopy offering shade as temperatures hit the mid-80s. Gray-haired women with bifocals cupped small pipes in their hands. Close-shorn young men in khakis held joints between thumb and index finger. Bikers in leathers, women in sarongs, old folks and young folks inhaled. Linn County Sheriff David Burright had no comment on the hemp festival, but deputy Jim Yon, who patrolled the party on Saturday, said law enforcement's main concern at the event was safety. Yon said he didn't anticipate problems."They just want to come and do their thing," he said of the crowd.The festival attracted people with different philosophies about hemp. Some said they believed marijuana should be legal. Hemp vendors, said they had no use for the drug, but see a wealth of opportunity and social benefit from the use of industrial hemp in an array of products including clothing, food, body oils and paper products. Others just came to have some fun.Nicole Johnson said she has attended the hemp festival for the past five or six years because, "They're family," she said, in reference to other fairgoers.A teacher's aide for the school district in Barrow, Alaska, Johnson supports the legalization of marijuana. "If anything, alcohol should be illegal. You don't read in the paper about some kid getting run over by a high driver."Jan Stevenson, a vendor, has no interest in the THC-heavy version of the hemp plant. The owner of Ab-bee Normal, a hemp store in Bay City, she sells clothes, candy, lotion, shampoos and other industrial hemp products.Her booth was one of dozens at the fair promoting the use of industrial hemp, a relative of Cannabis sativa that contains minimal amounts of THC, the psychoactive element in marijuana. Industrial hemp was once legal to grow in this country.Stevenson said she gets a big kick out of taking her booth to county fairs and watching older women touch the hemp fabric garments and say "Oh, this is what my old nighty was made of!""I just want to raise awareness that industrial hemp is so valuable," she said.E-mail: rgletters guardnet.comHarrisburg, OregonPublished: July 16, 2000Copyright © 2000 The Register-Guard Related Articles:Marijuana Advocate Throws Final Hemp Party http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6409.shtmlMarijuana Activist Earns Permit for Festival http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6253.shtmlPot Activist Angry at County for Interferencehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread2912.shtmlSheriff Outraged Over World Hemp Festivalhttp://mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n748.a05.html
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Comment #4 posted by KCW on July 18, 2001 at 17:57:33 PT
world hemp fest 2001
Yes, the World Hemp Fest 2001 in Harrisburg, OR, is a go! For more info: http://www.high-5music.com
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Comment #3 posted by Noroom on July 16, 2001 at 21:17:11 PT:
World Hemp Fest 2001
Please infom me if there will be a world hemp fest 2001 in OregonThank You
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on July 18, 2000 at 17:00:31 PT
Update On Jack Herer's Condition
Original MessageSent: Tuesday 18 July 2000 6:47 PMFollowing is a statement I've written up about Jack. Please send it to all of your mailing lists. He's improving very rapidly.Love,JeannieJack Herer suffered a stroke on July 14, 2000 at the World Hemp Festival in Harrisburg, Oregon. He is currently recuperating at a hospital in Portland, Oregon. He is in stable condition and improving daily. For more information, please call 503-786-4143. Send cards and well wishes to Jack Herer, 14901 S.E. Woodland Way, Milwaukie, Oregon 97267.Jack appreciates the overwhelming show of concern and support he has received.Thank YouJeannie Hererhttp://www.jackherer.com/http://www.emperorofhemp.com/
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on July 17, 2000 at 20:31:57 PT:
Hemp Fest Closes On A Sour Note
Hemp Fest Closes On A Sour NoteBy Les Gehrett, Democrat-HeraldPosted: Monday July 17, 2000 Source: Democrat-Heraldhttp://www.dhonline.com/Conde and sheriff disagree on the success of the event.Harrisburg - After a weekend of relative harmony at the World Hemp Festival 2000, controversy finally sparked between law enforcement officials and festival organizers when it came time to end the event.In the application for a Linn County outdoor assembly permit for the event, Conde had indicated that the festival would close at 6 p.m. Sunday.That hour came and went Sunday with music still under way on the main stage. Just before 7 p.m. Conde received word from the Linn County Sheriff's Office that it was past the time to close the festival and send everyone home."We thought we were going to have to go in and close the thing down," Linn County Sheriff Dave Burright said today.Conde said it was an error on his part to have promised to shut the event down so early Sunday evening. But he was bitterly disappointed about the way the event ended."It was a panic scene. They phoned me and said two more minutes and the music had to be over. I had to stop them in the middle of their set," Conde said. "We didn't get a chance to gracefully close it. We closed it down under the threat of riot police coming in with their gear and shutting everything down."Festival administrator Johnathan Drake said that despite the sheriff's urging, organizers didn't completely clear the grounds Sunday night."I figured if he gave them two days to set up, we should give them two days to leave," Drake said of the campers. "We didn't even try to sweep the property last night."Overall, Conde felt the event went well. He estimated paid attendance for the weekend was between 7,000 and 8,000. "Was it a profitable venture? Yes," Conde said. "How much? It takes a while to figure that out."He said accessibility, security and public sanitation were far superior to past events. Burright agreed that security was improved during daylight hours, when agents from DeWitt Security of Salem provided coverage. But once it got dark, drug use and sales became more of a problem."We tried to give organizers the benefit of the doubt. There was some improvement, but it was still unacceptable," Burright said.Burright said arrests were made at the event, but he didn't know exactly how many. He expects to issue a report on the festival later this week.Conde said that it his still intention that this be the final festival at his property. In the end, it will come down to whether the Conde's Redwood Lumber property sells before next summer, he said. If the 14-acre site does not sell, then another event is a real possibility.Gazette-Times editorial comments & questions to: albanydh proaxis.comAlbany Democrat-Herald600 Lyon St. SWAlbany, OR 97321Telephone 541-926-2211© Copyright 2000 Lee Northwest Publishing
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