"It’s time for New York to receive full recognition as the next mecca of cannabis. MARY Fest will showcase the hottest established and up-and-coming legacy brands," says Adrian Farquharson, CEO of MARY Fest, a three-day extravaganza to take place between 4/20/2023 and 4/22/2023.
What Happened
Cannabis culture publication MARY Magazine will announce on Tuesday the launch of MARY Fest. The three-day festival will be hosted in New York City around 4/20 next year.
What Is MARY Fest?
MARY Fest is an experiential cannabis lifestyle event encompassing elements of fashion, music, health & wellness, design, tech, and aesthetics. MARY Fest will provide a stellar opportunity for THC and CBD brand representatives to showcase their products directly to East Coast consumers, and get up close and personal with their beloved customers.
The event will also feature an outdoor space where attendees can experience CBD vendors, experiential activations, and food trucks while enjoying a smoke or dab in the designated chill out zone: the Garden of MARY.
“New York is the hub of creativity, media, and experiences. With the recent legalization of adult-use cannabis consumption, it is the perfect time to call to action everyone from veteran brands to new and emerging brands in the industry and unify. MARY Fest is an aesthetically pleasing, educational, and fun cannabis lifestyle event, the likes of which the East Coast has never seen before,” adds Farquharson.
An Inclusive Festival
For Sara Brittany Somerset, VIP manager for MARY Fest, “MARY Fest is inclusive, non-discriminatory, and welcomes everyone who loves the plant. While we strongly encourage our participants to respect state possession and consumption laws, this is a cannabis festival. Therefore, the plant will be celebrated. It is high time New York City had a proper, cannabis community-centered event.”
MARY Fest will donate a portion of the ticket sales to the Minority Cannabis Business Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to the progress of aspiring minority business people in the cannabis sector.
Since cannabis tourism is on the rise, MARY Fest presents an opportunity to attract curious and adventurous minded-consumers. Attendees will learn about the latest trends in the industry.
MARY Fest will host expert-level panel discussions on topics from New York’s role in the national cannabis industry to cannabis and sexuality. Select industry veterans and thought leaders will moderate the panels.
Are you looking for a 420-friendly love match? MARY Fest will introduce Heightened Connection, a cannabis-friendly networking and mingling series with a unique emphasis on matchmaking for cannabis-consuming adults. Heightened Connections provides a social hour and modernized speed-dating by creating a place for in-person bonding for today’s cannabis consumers.
The NFT Element
Additionally, embracing the future of the world of digital currency and blockchains, MARY will create a MARY Fest non-fungible token (NFT) that will airdrop to all attendees with e-wallets.
“Other states have had a decades-long head start in launching a legal cannabis industry,” said Farquharson. “Some states have produced brands that have become household names. It’s time to showcase what New York offers as a cannabis mecca.”