BY ALLISON STEIN
‘Oktoberfest, a festival for beer’. Every year the streets of Downtown Tempe fill with staggering drunks that wobble as they make their way from beer stand to beer stand. The loud ruckus of the event is heard for miles around from women laughing and men boasting.
Still, not too far away in Phoenix, on Oct. 12th a different kind of festival kicked off it’s inaugural opening, Cannafest. Cannafest is the medical marijuana cardholder’s equivalent to Oktoberfest. The only difference is – instead of poisoning oneself with alcohol, at Cannafest festival-goers medicated safely with cannabis.
DOMM Life extended the bamboo past its normal confines and closed off both the front and back parking lot to potentially host a crowd just short of 2,000 attendees. On the one hand, DOMM stands for Delivery of Medical Marijuana, that’s only MMJ service they offer. DOMM, the storefront, is so much more than that. The massive overflow from Cannafest was more than normal and the venue quickly hit a maximum capacity of 120 people.
Around 11 a.m. the line was just starting to form. But, by noon… the line had tripled in size. For the rest of the day, there a steady pace of attendees waiting to enter Cannafest and the line never died down.
The main part of the event was held in DOMM’s back lot next to the church. From live painting demonstrations where you could zone out and watch, to dispensaries dab tables and booths, concentrate brands and edible companies, lined the paved lot.
The Coughee Company Cafe was open in full swing and that area of DOMM was closed off for VIP only. Inside the VIP lounge, there were pumpkin rice treats and other snacks for munchies. Jupiter batteries lined tables and there was even a coloring station for those that just wanted to talk and color with friends. VIP guests to the event could also enjoy a complimentary free 15-minute massage. After walking through and checking out all the vendors, the VIP area was a great spot to unwind.
Besides the amazing staff at DOMM Life, who else is behind this new event? David J. De Corpo, the event director for GreenPharms Dispensary. He also now runs Trapped Culture Promotions and if that isn’t enough, he has a show on MTL Live which is Mad Terp Labs.
David says the sole purpose of Cannafest is to “break the stigma”. …Instead of the fights over spilled beer and who hit on whose girl; that happens every weekend in God only knows how many bars across the world; it’s a stoner festival proved much more mellow and relaxed!
All in all, things went off without a hitch at Cannafest 2019, and we should expect more from David and Trapped Culture in the future.