Photo Gallery: Missoula Celebrates HempFest

Each September, the Saturday after Labor Day, the residents of Missoula, Montana gather at Caras Park in the heart of downtown to celebrate and learn about nature’s most abundant and useful crop, industrial hemp.

Attendees at Missoula Hemp Fest enjoyed vendors, who  sold some sort of hemp products, including clothes, jewelry, paper, accessories, t-shirts and body care. Attendees also enjoyed hemp beers from Kettle House Brewery and foods that included hemp seed products (seed, oil, milk, flour) from several food vendors. Other attractions included documentaries about cannabis, informative speeches, an eye-popping hemp and green fashion show and a load of information provided by the Montana Hemp Council (MHC).

On the stage during the yearly event there is always six or more musical acts that get the people grooving and moving. Each year thousands of people come to support the MHC making this event one of the most popular in Missoula. Hemp Fest is the main fundraiser for the MHC.

This year was also the first annual Glassfest held at the same time as Hemp Fest just up the road.  About a dozen local glass blowers and artists set up booths for an event that attracted hundreds of locals. Hosted by The GlassTree,  the festival featured DJs, live art and live glassblowing all day. The GlassTree is building a studio to host classes and teach the fine art of glass blowing. They have blowing stations set up in a room, as well as a gallery room to display the work. They plan to open their doors to students within a year.

Story and Photo by Taylor Kent

Did you attend Missoula Hemp Fest this year? Tell us in the comments below.