For 170 years, the California State Fair has been highlighting the state's best agriculture. From cheese and wine to vegetables and livestock, competition over who produces top goods is fierce. Beginning in 2022, California made history by including something new in fair competition: cannabis. With this 2024 season, officials made history once more in creating a space where adults 21 and over could legally smoke, eat and drink cannabis products as part of fair exhibits. The expansion helped give fairgoers an understanding of why the Emerald Triangle is known as the cannabis capital of the world and brought an armful of medals home to Humboldt.
The California Cannabis Experience, a 17-day immersive and educational exhibit that's the first of its kind for any U.S. state fair, included product displays, educational insights, presentations and lectures. There were also a cannabis retail outlet and designated onsite consumption lounge.
"I started growing with my single mom when I was a kid, so I have a lot of experience with this plant," said Shanon Talifero of Humboldt's Skyline Farms, whose team took home five medals. "But still, I personally learned so much from the exhibit. I feel lucky, honored and humbled to have been a part of this experience and hope to be included next year."
Fair awards for cannabis included not just the indoor, sun-grown and mixed-light categories of the past two years, but also awards for cannabis beverages, cartridges, concentrates, wellness products, pre-rolls and edibles. With thousands of people perusing the well-appointed showcase every day and many partaking in the consumption booth, the California Cannabis Experience offered a chance for cannabis businesses to set up booths and talk to a crowd about the benefits of knowing where their cannabis products come from, how they were cultivated and by whom.
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