The 50th anniversary of the Ann Arbor Hash Bash will be a classic marijuana fest honoring the event’s long history and activism still happening, organizers say.
“I’m really proud to say that this Hash Bash event is going back to its political roots,” said co-organizer Matt Dargay, a University of Michigan social work graduate student and president of Students for Sensible Drug Policy at UM.
“Hash Bash really started as a protest around the arrest and incarceration of a person who was in possession of marijuana,” Dargay said, referring to Ann Arbor poet and pot activist John Sinclair, who was serving a 10-year prison sentence for two joints and was freed not long before the first Hash Bash took place on the UM Diag in April 1972, after Michigan’s felony marijuana law was declared unconstitutional.
“That’s really where things started,” Dargay said. “And this time around, to celebrate the 50th anniversary, the activism and advocacy angle is very much going to be a part of it.”
Organizers expect several thousand cannabis enthusiasts from across Michigan and beyond to be in attendance for the 51st-annual rally on the UM Diag at high noon April 2.
“I am really excited to say that Hash Bash is back in person,” Dargay said. “It’s going to be a great day.”
About 30 speakers are expected to take the stage over the course of two hours, including U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit and many activists involved in the marijuana movement. Music will follow, and the event will once again spill over into the Monroe Street Fair.