Holden booted from Seattle Hempfest

I was talking to a friend when a member of the Hempfest board, John Davis, whom I’ve known for about 15 years, approached me and said, “You can’t be back here. You have to go.”

I showed him my VIP pass. Surely, an article I wrote suggesting the event should take down tie-dyes from the stages to debunk stereotypes about Hempfest couldn’t make them completely lose their shit, could it? And after working on Hempfest for over a decade, and pushing for many of the things the event organizers love so much (remember how pot enforcement is the city’s lowest law-enforcement priority now, guys? And that Hempfest steering committee members thought it was a “bad idea,” but it passed and now you appreciate it? You're welcome), they weren’t really kicking me out, were they? Davis snatched the pass out of my hand, and as the security guy escorted me out, he said that it’s because I'm a “member of the media.”

Uh, I’ve been a member of the media in past years, and I’ve always been allowed backstage. And before I was a reporter—back when I was the spokesman for Hempfest—several times we’d have reporters walk freely backstage. So what gives? Hempfest director Vivian McPeak reportedly told a staffer, who went to ask what the fuck was going on, that I had “proverbially stabbed [him] in the back.” But, Vivian, I thought you were omnipotent. About 10 minutes earlier, he was on the main stage mic referring to himself as “the great Vivian McPeak.”

Sorry for the egregiously long quote from Dominic's post, but really, you should head over to SLOG and check out the entire post. It is super duper awesome to see how open-minded this corner of the "movement" has become.