First cannabis festival in PE to focus on medicinal uses

The first Chelsea Cannabis Collective 420 Festival will be held at The Greenbushes Hotel on Sunday. Entry is free with more than 40 stalls and JP Logiotatos and Neil Grundlingh look forward to seeing you there
CELEBRATING CANNABIS: The first Chelsea Cannabis Collective 420 Festival will be held at The Greenbushes Hotel on Sunday. Entry is free with more than 40 stalls and JP Logiotatos and Neil Grundlingh look forward to seeing you there
Image: FREDLIN ADRIAAN

Port Elizabeth’s first cannabis festival is finally here after a six-month delay due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

Chelsea Cannabis Collective 420 Festival organiser Carol Fensham said the focus of the festival was the medicinal aspect of cannabis, with trusted vendors in place to educate and supply festivalgoers with products.

The festival will be held monthly, with the inaugural event at the Chelsea Sports Bar from 10am to 4.20pm on Sunday.

Though its main focus was medicinal cannabis, the festival would accommodate vendors and consumers of other products unrelated to the plant, Fensham said.

“The cannabis products will not be sold to anyone under the age of 18.

Stalls with cannabis products will be on one side, so parents who will be bringing children will have to leave them with someone on the other side where they are allowed,” Fensham said.

Festivalgoers can look forward to a range of stallholders offering beauty products, cannabis planting workshops, reiki healing consultations, a tattoo station, bohemian clothing, food and live music.

Fensham founded the festival with Jean-Paul Logiotatos earlier in 2020 with plans to debut in March, but it was delayed by the national lockdown.

“This first event is our trial run and we'll obviously learn after seeing what works as time goes.

“The next ones will probably be held on Saturdays so that we don’t conflict with our other big markets in PE,” Fensham said.

She said they would identify a charity to donate proceeds to starting from October’s festival.

“We will be donating a portion to a cause — specifically children’s funds and animal funds that are doing medical research for cannabis,” she said.

She said the aim of the festival was to educate people.

“It’s really to make people aware of the medicinal use and health benefits of marijuana other than its recreational use,” she said.

“The festival was actually the brainchild of my [ex-husband] who is very much for cannabis being legalised  for medicinal use in SA.

“He’s been working in Johannesburg and Cape Town for a while now and suggested that I start something like this in Port Elizabeth, so I spoke to my now business partner Jean-Paul and he was very keen to start this with me,” she said.

Entry to the festival is free and all Covid-19 prevention protocols will be adhered to.

“We will be taking temperatures, writing down people’s names and numbers and following all coronavirus [prevention] guidelines.

“There will be security and car guards to watch people’s vehicles,” Fensham said.

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