Calgary Folk Music Festival Designates Cannabis Consumption Area
Calgary may have banned cannabis (and cigarette) smoking in all public places, but the largest city in Canada’s most enthusiastic legal cannabis-consuming province at least had the sense to allow people to smoke grass at the Calgary Folk Fest.
After all, folk fests and cannabis belong together. At Folk on the Rocks in Yellowknife, which allowed cannabis use in the festival beer garden, a member of the organizing team said legalization had led to “the most successful Folk in years.” The anonymous organizer noted, “People smoked before, but this year they smoked a lot more. I can’t remember it being this good for a long time.”
At the Winnipeg Folk Fest two weeks ago, the RCMP threatened to give $700 tickets to concertgoers caught consuming cannabis. According to festival goers, people who wanted to smoke weed did anyway, but police issued zero tickets for public cannabis use.
Calgary’s Folk Fest will follow Folk on the Rocks in restricting use—they’ll offer a designated cannabis-consumption area accessible only to ticketholders of legal age, but will locate the area far enough away from the main attractions that no one will be exposed to it who doesn’t want to witness cannabis consumption.
Homemade edibles are presumably okay too, though the festival’s website notes that “commercially manufactured edible cannabis products are currently not legal in Canada for recreational purposes, therefore will not be allowed on Prince’s Island Park (PIP).”
