The cannabis-friendly music festival Cannabash is moving to a permanent venue about an hour north of Grand Rapids, where event organizers plan to offer both cannabis and alcohol for consumption.
The open-air concert space, called Field of Greens and located in Baldwin, is believed to be one of the first venues in Michigan to allow the sale and consumption of both cannabis and alcohol on-site, although a few other events in the state have allowed both.
“We’re just normalizing and destigmatizing cannabis consumption and alcohol consumption as an experience,” Connie Maxim-Sparrow, co-founder of Grams & Jams Productions, the event company behind Cannabash and the owner of Field of Greens. “Whether you consume both or not, we just want to be able to provide everybody legally the recreational choice that they would prefer.”
Maxim-Sparrow said she realized she wanted her own venue to host Cannabash the day of the concert last year, when she thought about the amount of money she was spending on power, water and lighting, among other expenses.
Maxim-Sparrow also decided to bring in a big headline artist — Ludacris — a risk that she said paid off, attracting about 12,000 people to Cannabash.