Flower Fest and Lit Lounge recap

By Alex Robles

The 2022 season of the Flower Fest kicked off during the weekend of April 30 – May 1. This two day celebration of cannabis was held on the beach in Port Hueneme, Ca. The weather was exactly what you would imagine for Southern California, perfect. Blue skies, a slight ocean breeze and the cannabis culture everywhere.

The Flower Fest is Ventura County’s premier cannabis event with cannabis sales and consumption allowed on site. Now, let me be clear, you couldn’t roll a joint and puff away anywhere in the festival. You could only smoke weed in the consumption tents that were set up. Most of the tents had retail sales of cannabis happening inside, which was pretty convenient. I say most because Green Coast Radio was lucky enough to host a VIP smoking lounge experience called “The Lit Lounge”.

The Lit Lounge was different because there was no retail sales going on inside. It was more like a tasting room and chill out spot. It turned out to be a great place to hang out with friend and meet new people. I even saw vendors from other booths and tent in the Lit Lounge just hanging out. There was also a bar set up in the lounge where you could get delicious THC infused drink thanks to Splash Nano for providing the concentrate for the drinks. While we’re talking about the bar, big shout out to the bartenders Nina, Brenda and Hector. The cannabis tasting went like this. Everyone who came into the VIP tent was able to sample 4 different strains of cannabis.

First up was High Farms and they brought out there “High Farms OG”. It is a three way between the SFV OG x Triangle Kush x Hell’s Angels OG. Beautiful looking flower and some great smoke. It had an earthy pine cone flavor at the end of the exhale for me. Even though they said it was indica dominant, it didn’t zap my energy. The euphoria came with a “pick me up” for me. Thankfully because it was a long high weekend.

Then Embra cannabis brands had three different flowers for us to try. It was there Ice Cream Cake, Redding OG and “Peanut Butter Souffle. Now I want to be very CLEAR, the Ice Cream Cake and Redding OG were some great, quality smoke. BUT that Peanut Butter Souffle was the better of the three, in my opinion. For me it had a bit of a floral taste with some sugar at the end of the exhale.

I feel really fortunate that I was a part of The LIt Lounge. This was our version of Reefer Madness except with more love and education and less fear and hate. I gotta tell you, it felt really great to be able to hang with people and celebrate with cannabis. This is what cannabis legalization and normalization looks like, to be able to have an event like this without fear of the law and with the city’s blessing.

But you know what, sometimes it feels like we’re losing or at the very least watering down a few things in the cannabis community with legal weed. One thing that people who are new to cannabis or a younger generation that grew up with legal grass in California will never understand. Is that, even in the darkest days of cannabis prohibition, cannabis culture was something to be sought out in secret and savored slowly with friends. You always felt like you were part of a tribe or a secret society because you knew cannabis culture was outlaw culture and in the eyes of the law you and your kind were outlaws. The square community saw cannabis users as members of a shadowy subculture of citizens. If you had to talk about “Mota” or “bud” in public, it would always be in code and you would lean in and whisper. Because depending on where you lived in this country, there was and still is a real fear of losing your livelihood, family and freedom for a long time over a plant. But that discrimination against us and this plant, is what made those smoke sessions with friends so memorable.

That feeling of community and friendship that cannabis gave us is what we wanted to share with every who came into The Lit Lounge. I want to thank our partners for helping us put this lounge together for you. Above all, me personally, I want to thank my buddy Rodney Medina for all of his hard work. I’ve added some photos below along with the IG profiles of everyone involve with The Lit Lounge.

Rodney Medina @Rodneymedia

Green Coast Radio @Greencoastradio

Event coordinator – Tiffany @tl0805

Green Goddess Supply @ggs_home_grow

Embra Cannabis Brand @embracannabis

High Farms Cannabis Brand @highfarms

Tree Factory Dispensary @treefactoryca

SplashNano @Splashnano

Lulu Vida CBD @luluvidacbd

Hibnb – Hibnb.us

Bartenders