Hempfest in Seattle

I just spent the last week in Seattle, Washington. The first weekend of which I spent at Hempfest, an amazingly huge festival of music, art and products for the purpose of marijuana anti-prohibition, and pro-legalization. I would have to say at least 30 to 40 thousand people attended throughout the day and witnessed the 3 stages of great, live bands, and the many booth vendors along the Seattle beach a few blocks down from Pike's Market.

To get to Seattle, my friends and I caught a ride using Craig's List ride-share category. We arrived at 2am and caught up with some friends who were dancing at a club party in Pioneer Square. Yes, both Seattle and Portland have a Pioneer Square, but they are quite different places to visit. We followed our friends directions, but alas we couldn't tell if anyone was home, so after crashing on the sidewalk in front of a "friend of a friend's" place, with a mild hangover the lot of us made our way to the festival.

Synchronistically, at the festival, I ran into several rainbow brothers and sisters whom I worked with at Milliways Kitchen during the Rainbow National, one of which let me stay in her backyard. Expecting to only stay for the weekend of the festival I missed my rideshare back to Portland and ended up staying an entire week. Luckily my friend Paul was there on business and let me stay in his hotel room. I'm lucky because Seattle is not as comfortable of a place to do urban camping as Portland. There aren't convenient parks to camp in, and even if there were the police don't seem as friendly about the idea.

One very cool place to go if you're ever in Seattle is Ballard. If there is anywhere I would try to urban camp in Seattle it would be the Ballard district, although I never did have to urban camp in Ballard as I met many people who were willing to let me stay at their place on their couch. You can meet lots of cool people at the Bergen Triangle Plaza at the center of Ballard, or at Mr. Spot's Chai House right next to the Triangle.