Even the line was crazy. It wrapped from the corner of South Bixel and West Maryland all the way around the block to Sixth Street and South Beaudry. You could see tons of little clouds that lined the block as the 6,000 hash enthusiasts in attendance last Saturday waited, not too long, to join in on the festivities.
Once you made it through the gates, you were greeted with a few hundred yards of some of the best companies in the game. The 40 exhibitors came in the best form. Many had special offerings they’d been planning for months, be it merchandise, or educational materials around their hash or flower. But hopefully you got there early! A lot of the biggest names sold out of everything.
Kevin Chapman, Puffco’s director of events, was obviously thrilled for arguably their biggest and best event yet.
"I'm so proud of the community coming together to celebrate the plant at Puffcon 2023,” Chapman told L.A. Weekly. “Attendees started lining up at 7 a.m., to get in the doors and showed love and support to all of the vendors involved with the event all day! We couldn't do this without them.
A major component of Puffcon as a whole has always been glass. For years, Puffco has worked to be as inclusive with the glass-blowing community as possible, as opposed to some big digital monster trying to take food off their kids’ plates. Puffcon 2023 was no exception. This year saw 50 different glass blowers in attendance, giving them the opportunity to sell consumer-direct to some of their biggest fans that crave their products. Whether it’s as simple as a little marble or a five-figure glass Dab Rig, you would have had no problem
Obviously, with this many people smoking elite hash and flower, you’re going to need some snacks in the mix. Pufffcon had it well-covered with 14 food vendors covering the full spread of dietary restrictions. I found myself grabbing pizza slices a couple times just because the line was a pinch shorter than some of the more exotic offerings, and I needed to get back to work while I had the fish in the barrel for the day.
With this year being the biggest Puffcon yet regarding the quality of the musical acts, it almost made it feel like two events rolled into one that could have separately stood on their own no problem. One being a crazy concert with big names like 2 Chainz, Action Bronson, and Curren$y — the other a super sesh for the ages. The pair overlapped flawlessly.
In a community desperate for opportunities to get together and enjoy cannabis — sorry, vape pen and edible microdosing lounges don't count — Puffcon is becoming one of the flagship moments where you can smoke out with your friends somewhere. Sure we have a better than most lounge situation given how progressive West Hollywood has been on the subject, but it’s not the same.
Part of what makes Puffcon special is the scale of what’s happening in the heart of downtown. It’s just a vibe you can’t create in a room with 20 people regardless of how dope the WeHo lounge scene is starting to get. Being with 6,000 other like-minded people is a vibe. And that vibe transcends the music and the cannabis to this general energy around lifestyles as a whole. Everyone just seemed so chill and relaxed. And it seemed like it was their baseline.
So 6,000 chill people coming together to have fun and smoke hash on a sunny afternoon in DTLA? We’re very much about it and cannot wait until next year.
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