{"id":8753,"date":"2019-04-20T17:44:58","date_gmt":"2019-04-20T17:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=3430758"},"modified":"2019-04-20T17:44:58","modified_gmt":"2019-04-20T17:44:58","slug":"the-fog-of-four-marijuana-festival-lights-up-denvers-civic-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/the-fog-of-four-marijuana-festival-lights-up-denvers-civic-center\/","title":{"rendered":"The fog of four: Marijuana festival lights up Denver\u2019s Civic Center"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/the-fog-of-four-marijuana-festival-lights-up-denvers-civic-center\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2019\/04\/20\/420-in-denver-flyhi-festival-civic-center-park\/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dp-news-marijuana+%28Denver+Post%3A+News%3A+Marijuana%29&amp;utm_content=Google+UK#comments-anchor\"><span class=\"spot-im-replies-count\" data-post-id=\"3430758\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nina Stewart likes to see the cloud \u2014 the cloud of marijuana smoke wafting into the air as thousands of people light up in the middle of Denver\u2019s Civic Center on April 20. The smoke \u2014 and the recognizable smell that accompanies it \u2014 was the biggest giveaway that this was no ordinary day.<\/p>\n<p>It was 4\/20.<\/p>\n<p>And the park was filled with people such as Stewart who flocked to downtown to celebrate marijuana at the FlyHi 4:20 Festival on a warm and sunny Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just like the event of a lot of chill people here to celebrate an herb,\u201d said the 22-year-old from Aurora. \u201cAnd not afraid to smoke at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She was dressed in a Bob Marley T-shirt, and green beads featuring marijuana leaves were draped around her neck. She describes herself as a self-taught artist, and she held a sign promoting stickers she designed and was selling: a Colorado flag and mountains inside a marijuana leaf.<\/p>\n<p>This year Euflora, the dispensary chain organizing FlyHi, called it a \u201ccelebration of cannabis,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2019\/04\/19\/denver-4-20-civic-center-park\/\">an ode to the transformation weed has made in Colorado<\/a> since recreational pot sales became legal in 2014. In the past, 4\/20 was used for supporters to advocate for legalizing marijuana.<\/p>\n<p>Before Saturday\u2019s festival, organizers said they expected as many as 75,000 people to show up.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3430890\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter size-article_inline\"><img class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/the-fog-of-four-marijuana-festival-lights-up-denvers-civic-center.jpg\" width=\"4928\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/the-fog-of-four-marijuana-festival-lights-up-denvers-civic-center.jpg\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/the-fog-of-four-marijuana-festival-lights-up-denvers-civic-center.jpg 620w,https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.denverpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6545.jpg?fit=780%2C9999px&amp;ssl=1 780w,https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.denverpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6545.jpg?fit=810%2C9999px&amp;ssl=1 810w,https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.denverpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6545.jpg?fit=630%2C9999px&amp;ssl=1 630w\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\n<p>Seth McConnell, Special to the Denver Post<\/p>\n<p>Smoke billows from the end of a blunt as Trevor Penney smokes it Saturday in Denver.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Stewart and other attendees said the annual marijuana festival was more organized this year. There was better music. And there were more vendors \u201cinstead of it just being a bunch of people in a field,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s probably just as political (as before), but there\u2019s more money in it,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n<p>Vendors lined the middle of the park, with one stand grilling bratwurst and turkey legs. Across from the array of meat, another stand was showcasing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2018\/11\/10\/colorado-cannabis-infused-beverage\/\">cannabis-infused beverages<\/a>, including cola, root beer and blueberry-lemon flavors. A long line of people stretched between the two booths as attendees waited to buy a drink from a lemonade stand, which offered a refresher as temperatures topped 80 degrees.<\/p>\n<p>Many peopled lounged on the green grass in front of a stage and smoked weed, ignoring the police officers that waded through the crowd and the signs at the gate warning festival-goers that<a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2019\/04\/19\/420-denver-smoking-marijuana-public\/\"> public consumption of marijuana is illegal.<\/a> Jermaine Dupri and T.I. were scheduled to take the stage later in the afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>Among those sitting on ground were John Wayne Protsman, 56, and Zachary Protsman, 31, of Colorado Springs. It was the father-son duo\u2019s first time attending the marijuana festival in Denver, but they\u2019ve been to others elsewhere. They said such events have become less political than in previous years as more states<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/map-see-if-marijuana-legal-your-state-n938426\"> have legalized medical and recreational pot use.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the longest war America has been in \u2014 against one plant,\u201d John Wayne Protsman said of marijuana legalization. \u201cAnd now they are giving up.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\" \/>\n<p>Janice Stoilas, 33, agreed that the festival had lost its political focus, saying that when she attended three years ago it was still a rally. Now, she said, \u201cit\u2019s more of a celebration than a rally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stoilas, of Denver, said the 4\/20 festival was still relevant despite more legalization because the cannabis community has been underground so long.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWeed is a nice culture,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>It&#8217;s April 20th, meaning thousands of people will be flocking to downtown Denver to celebrate marijuana, including attending the annual festival in Civic Center Park. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7636,52,7089,6811,376,6471,6813,77,6815,5667,6886,9,5019,8082,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[7639,2632,7090,6816,2954,6479,6818,2655,6820,5673,6889,5022,8083],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8753"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}