CannaCurious: Getting Heady @ Hemp Fest 2018!

Beautiful bluebird skies and crisp autumn weather greeted more than 500 attendees in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom on September 7-9, 2018 as Burke Mountain Lodge and Conference Center played host to hemp enthusiasts from all over the country. Friday night’s networking meet-and-greet and Sunday’s delicious hemp brunch bookended a full Saturday of workshops, exhibiting and a compelling keynote address.

“We’re learning more and more about how cannabis, in all its forms, can be a powerful intersectional leverage point for solving a host of social, environmental, medical, and economic issues,” explained Heady Vermont’s Kathy Blume, who led a CBD-infused #slowflow yoga workshop on Saturday afternoon. “Events like Hemp Fest create positive, supportive space for networking, education, brainstorming, and community building – all in support of solving our thorniest problems.”

From my vantage point, spending the day slinging grass-fed yak beef at our YakItToMe! Mobile BBQ food wagon, and talking with folks attending the conference, I was struck by the contagious enthusiasm and sense of collaborative energy which infused the weekend.

My favorite moments?

• Curly Girl’s lollipops. Enough said.

• Hearing the story of the woman from Massachusetts who drove her old Chevy pick up all the way north to Burke, where we stuffed it with sun flowers and it became a four-wheeled talking piece for the weekend.

• Meeting all of the new Vermont start up businesses Heady has been covering for months now, and witnessing them in the beautiful exhibit hall marketing their products, goods, and services to the assembled. You know who you are.
• Curly Girl’s popsicles. See above.

• The three organic farmers from New York who traveled hours to hear our keynoter. “He’s the real deal,” one of them enthused. “We’ve used seeds from a variety of growers. His are top notch.”
• Visiting with the folks from the NEK who manufacture what is perhaps my current favorite CBD-infused value-added product – Maple Plus’ CBD infused maple powder, which is now a daily staple in my post workout morning coffee.

• CBD-infused after shave? Indeed. Thanks providing such a wide variety of products, Hemp Fest!

I could go on, but the most important takeaway here is this: whether its cannabis, hemp, or CBD, it’s all about community.