Cannabis enthusiasts, local artists, musicians, activists and vendors converged on Zuanich Point Park Saturday afternoon for Bellingham Budfest, a family-friendly, all-ages event designed to celebrate cannabis and spread awareness of the issues surrounding it.
Outside, live bands played for people sitting in the grass and vendors sold everything from food to jewelry to CBD products to Pride merchandise. Inside the Squalicum Boathouse, a series of panels discussed the medicinal and therapeutic uses of cannabis, safety issues affecting dispensaries, the path to legalization and improved regulation of the cannabis market.
This year’s Budfest is the second to be held in Bellingham. The inaugural event was in 2019, but Budfest went on a two-year hiatus following the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Elaine Hornal and Arlene Olson of the League of Women Voters of Bellingham/Whatcom County were two of the many people representing advocacy organizations at the 2022 Bellingham Budfest. (Brendan Gardner/Cascadia Daily News)
Amanda Mac, creator and co-host of Budfest, said the event’s mission is to legitimize, normalize and celebrate cannabis consumption while educating the community about cannabis and its legalization. Mac framed the event as an important part of the fight to improve cannabis policy in Washington state.
Because Washington was the first state to legalize recreational cannabis, along with Colorado, Mac said Washington cannabis laws have much to improve upon. Other states had the benefit of looking at what earlier legalizers had done, while Washington had no such advantage.
“I think a lot of people don’t really realize there’s still so much work to do,” she said.
The continued ban on growing cannabis at home, continuing prison sentences for those convicted of cannabis-related offenses prior to recreational legalization and certain regulations on advertising cannabis products, which Mac considers overly restrictive, are just a few aspects that need improving, she said.
Dispensaries “can’t promote their business like a legal business,” Mac said.
Festival-goers watch a performance at the main stage of the 2022 Bellingham Budfest at Zuanich Point Park on July 16. (Brendan Gardner/Cascadia Daily News)
But Mac said the event is also intended to be a celebration of cannabis and community, and the festive atmosphere Saturday certainly fulfilled this goal. Mac said The Bellingham cannabis community is “a very special community with lots of different creative, innovative, fun-loving go-getters.”
In a speech at the event, popular travel writer Rick Steves, host of “Rick Steves’ Europe” TV show, advocated for national legalization of marijuana as a civil liberty.
“I am a travel writer, and for me, high is a place,” said Steves, who also serves as the chair of the board of directors for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “Sometimes I just want to go to that place, and if my government says I can’t go to that place, there had better be a pretty good reason.”
Continued incarceration for cannabis offenses is not only a waste of money for the state but an equity issue as well, Steves said.
Those incarcerated are disproportionately “poor people and people of color,” he said. “This is a principled issue. We are the cutting edge of a civil liberty that America deserves.”
Steves ended his speech in a manner characteristic of the combination of celebration and advocacy that defined the festival.
“I am a hard-working, tax-paying, kid-raising American citizen,” he said. “If I work hard all day long and go home and want to smoke a joint and just stare at the fireplace for three hours, that is my civil liberty.”
