CNY Hemp Festival
The 22nd annual Harvest Festival and Freedom Fair celebrates a new era for New York hemp growers.
Photographs edited by Dan Lyon.
Festival attendees learn about the different parts of the hemp plant.
Harvest festival organizer, Rob Robinson, is a CNY marijuana legalization activist interested in social justice and environmental reform. Some of his advocacy is inspired by the mantras of the gay rights movement: “We’re here, we’re high, get used to it,” he says.
Farm owner, George Knarich (center in black), answers questions about his first year of growing hemp after festival organizer Rob Robinson’s speech welcoming everyone to the harvest. “You guys are beautiful — let’s harvest some hemp,” said Robinson (right in colorful jacket) to the crowd from his pickup truck pulpit.
A vendor at the Hemp Festival cleans a dab rig used for vaporizing cannabis concentrates.
Sprout and her son, Chainsaw, hang out while she creates art for people attending the festival to purchase.
Buffy smokes a bowl while wearing a crown of hemp taken from the farm field.
George Knarich discusses the plants with Zach Howard, a regular marijuana user.
Festivalgoers pile George Knarich’s truck high with harvested hemp that the farmer and his team will process into CBD salves, oils and other products.
John Kimberly, a festival attendee from New Jersey, smells a hemp flower, then cradles it in his hands. “Is this how you look at a child for the first time?” he says.
Back on the festival grounds, Kurt and Nolan eat lunch near one of many hemp “Christmas trees” following the harvest.
A festivalgoer thanks George Knarich for growing hemp on his 20-acre farm and allowing them to help him harvest.