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On Saturday 20th July 2019 Green Pride took place in Preston Park, Brighton. Now into its sixth event, this is the fourth time we have visited the park, seeing it grow year on year.
If you are familiar with the Brighton cannabis scene you may have experienced one of their community events – they always seem to attract a big crowd, and Green Pride was one of the biggest to date.
The location is perfect for outreach to passers-by, some of who were walking dogs when they saw (or smelt) the event and came over to find out more information. I was pleased to speak to one older lady who said she used to “smoke it years ago”, but hadn’t for a long time. However she agreed with legalisation, so was happy that she had noticed the event taking place on her dog walk; so much so that she had stopped by to pick up an issue of The Quarter Leaf and get some cannabis information.
Events like Green Pride are the absolute best way to get involved with the UK cannabis community, which is a growing subculture throughout the UK. Helped by the organisation of the UK Cannabis Social Clubs movement, events like Green Pride hosted by Brighton Cannabis Club are established, attracting guests from all over. This is because they are great places to meet, network and grow the community, and every single time we see people travelling across the country to attend the events.
Arriving at Green Pride at about 1:30pm, 30 mins after the official kick-off time, I was greeted by a crowd of people who had arrived earlier in the day, like Hampshire Cannabis Community who had been there since 10am. Lots of stalls and tents had been erected in a vast semi-circle, with people selling things from CBD-infused smoothies to THC-removing mouthwash, smoking supplies, headshop glass and much, much more.
Hemp and CBD was, of course, a big focus – it is a section of the industry that is growing tremendously at the moment, and shows little signs of slowing down, despite the push back on some CBD products we’ve been experiencing in parts of the UK of late.
I caught up with Simpa Carter from Durham City Cannabis Club about their Autumn event due to take place in September. It promises to be a big one, with collaborative efforts from cannabusinesses around the UK.
I also spoke with Gregg from UKCSC about The Quarter Leaf, issue 2 will be coming out before Product Earth, which is due to take place 23-25th August in Stonley Park, Warwickshire. This is an expo I can highly recommend and I look forward to capturing some photos and video while I’m there later on in the summer.
There were several food options – we found a Brighton-based “earthling eatery” for some vegan food (fried tofu and wedges) which was thoroughly filling and delicious, and saw four or five other hot food eating options to cater to the massive footfall.
As well as plenty of cannabis education, there was also a stage and sound system which hosted artists from a mixture of genres throughout the day. Brighton Cannabis Club had their stand next to the stage and a club section behind with dabs and space for members to rest away from the main crowd.
The police did not make things difficult for event attendees, which was better than last year’s Green Pride – in fact, there were two arrests all day this year – and one was somebody caught weighing up weed in a car. We also heard of somebody stopped and searched outside Preston rail station. They found 3g of cannabis on him and took it off him without charge. But overall during the event, we didn’t see police arresting guests. There were some community officers in circulation, handing out leaflets saying cannabis was illegal (just in case anybody at the protest didn’t realise).
The UK Cannabis community is strong, growing stronger and established events like Green Pride show just how far we’ve come in recent years.
Thanks go out to Brighton Cannabis Club for hosting the event and it was good to meet everybody I met, and good to catch up with all I’d met before. I had a fun day, in a fun place in great company.
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Video: ISMOKE at Green Pride 2019
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