Fest hopes to clear the air

What comes to mind when someone says “hemp”?

If the organizers of the first Spokane Hempfest have their way, it won’t be illicit marijuana use.

Event coordinator Kathy Sanders, 39, worked hard to line up sponsors for the two-day festival Friday and today in Riverfront Park, but she said she was often battling misconceptions.

“When you mention the word hemp, a lot of people think marijuana or pot,” Sanders said. “Our goal is actually to educate and make the public aware of the benefits of hemp. It can be fuel, paper, it can save our natural resources.”

The festival, with its motto of “educate yourself,” features more than 80 bands and 30 speakers.

Spokane Hempfest founder Kevin Ballou said he started planning the event 10 months ago. He attended the Seattle Hempfest, one of many in the Northwest, and liked the idea enough to start his own in Spokane.

“We’re trying to get every little city on board to do Hempfest,” he said. “It’s a movement; it’s a war, but it’s a peaceful war. Look at everyone cruising around, kids and parents. Everyone’s cruising around, no one’s mad.”

Standing under the shade of a tree at the information booth, Ballou calmly coordinated the 45 frantic employees and more than 100 local volunteers, often stopping midsentence to answer his phone.

“Everyone’s pitching in together to make this happen,” he said.

He said that hemp, which is illegal to grow in the United States but not to possess or sell, is a renewable resource. Ballou said the benefits are so often repeated that it takes something like the festival to get people to rally for political change.

“People know that the hemp movement isn’t a bad movement. It’s a common-sense movement,” he said.

Ballou said planning the event had been problem-free with the cooperation of the city and police.

Admission to the festival is free, and visitors can stroll among approximately 50 vendors’ booths selling T-shirts, tie-dyed and handmade clothing, glass pipes and jewelry and offering body piercing. They can get a henna tattoo or have their fortune read.

Robyn Jamar, 45, and her daughters Alex, 13, and Jaedyn, 5, came from Coeur d’Alene to spend the day in Spokane and stumbled upon Hempfest.

“We just decided to play in the park today,” Robyn said. “I like the jewelry. I like some of the clothes. I think they’re glorifying it to some extent, but I think the agricultural cultivation should be legal.”

Volunteer Scott Schusder, 33, who works in health care, called Hempfest “an awareness-music festival.” The festival also advocates the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Washington voters approved such uses in 1998, but the law’s status remains murky.

“I know a lot of people who would medicinally smoke marijuana if it were legal, but Washington doesn’t want to come around,” he said.

Mike Conrad, 20, Hempfest director of security, said the event has its own security force to keep those looking to light up out of the event.

“This is about education, not smoking pot,” Conrad said. “It’s about coming together, bands, good music and education.”