Do you enjoy crumbling herbs or do you miss getting angry? Then you will love the main names for this year’s 4/20 festival in Civic Center Park.
Big Boi, Lil Jon and Talib Kweli are set to perform at the Mile High 420 Festival on Wednesday, April 20, for the unofficial cannabis holiday, according to event organizers at the Euflora dispensary and FlyHi delivery service. The free event returns after a two-year hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Continuing a standing tradition in Civic Center Park, this 4/20 celebration will have a similar feel to those just before the pandemic, according to FlyHi operations manager Ashley Chubin. However, there will be some changes: The festival will not allow visitors through the gates before noon due to a local noise ordinance, she notes, but it will also run until 6 p.m. 21 this year.
The Mile High party is open to all ages and will have two stages and several 21+ tents for the sale of alcohol, with food trucks and product vendors scattered around the park. The headlines will appear on a main stage at the northwest end of the park, and a smaller stage in the Greek amphitheater will showcase local acts to be announced during the day, according to Chubin.
“We’re really excited to bring this back to Denver,” she says. “Now we just really hope for sunshine and that this weather endures.”
Lil Jon was scheduled to host the 4/20 Festival in 2020 before the event was canceled due to the pandemic. Talkshow TV host and cannabis industry speaker Montel Williams, another celebrity with ties to past FlyHi events, will also show up.
“We’ve had him for a couple of years and think he has a good grip on the cannabis industry and as an advocate,” Chubin says of Williams.
Marijuana use is not officially sanctioned or allowed in the Civic Center, but it has never prevented thousands of visitors from lighting up the park during previous 4/20 festivities. Those who are respectful and aware of the police presence around the park will be treated as they have been in previous years, Chubin said.
Denver’s unofficial gathering place for 4/20, the Civic Center, hosted marijuana smokeouts and free concerts long before the recreational pot was legalized in Colorado in late 2012, but the 2007 4/20 Rally was the first event resembling a festival with free music. Euflora took over the event permit in 2018 after the 4/20 Rally organizers lost their permit due to operational and clean-up issues with the 2017 rally.
Admission to the festival remains free for general admission, but $ 200 VIP tickets are also available. VIP passes include front row seats during the concert, a private lounge inside the McNichols Building and an afterparty with “very special guests”, according to the event description.
“I think they all represent the old, fun vibe that comes with cannabis. These artists are also the pro-cannabis industry, which I think is really important. Just having a festive and good time is important,” says Chubin .
After the public reaction to seeing Dr. Dre, Eminem, 50 Cent and Mary J. Blige’s appearance at the halftime show at the Super Bowl in February, Chubin is excited about the reaction to the Mile High party’s main names. All three artists gained fame in the 90s and early 2000s and have written songs and lyrics that fit right in at 4/20 festivals, including Kweli’s feature in “Get Em High” by Kanye West and “The Weedman “by Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz.
But the anthem we can not wait to hear is an easy choice: “Crumblin ‘Herb”, a classic smoke-session anthem from the Big Bois days in Outkast.