Cannabis is a uniter. People who love hip hop smoke weed. Metalheads smoke weed. Beck fans smoke weed. As a cannabis consumer and regular attendee of music festivals, I have smoked weed with every type of person you can imagine, while listening to everything from jazz to power noise (yes, that actually is a genre of “music”). Outside Lands Music Festival (OSL) has been one of San Francisco’s premier music festivals since its inception in 2008, and a decade later, they broke new ground in 2018 by being the first music festival with a legal cannabis consumption area, Grass Lands.
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Shaking Up Shakedown Street At the Grateful Dead’s 60th Anniversary
Now in its 7th year, Grass Lands has continued to make history at OSL. While technically they were not the first music festival to allow legal cannabis sales (Northern Nights 2019 has that honor), Grass Lands continues to push the envelope year after year with a better consumption space with every incarnation (this year had a lot of great places to sit and chill that were missing in previous years).
This is the first year that OSL has had a teaser the weekend before. Specifically, Grass Lands was expanded to a two-weekend event as part of the Grateful Dead’s 60th Anniversary concert, finally making “Shakedown Street” into a marketplace with legal cannabis sales.
“Long-time cannabis enthusiasts and newcomers alike seemed awestruck by what we had created during weekend one at Dead & Co,” said Lauren Carpenter, the CEO of Embarc, who served as the cannabis concessionaire for OSL and the 60th Anniversary concert. “It was incredible to see repeat customers during weekend two at Outside Lands, both from previous years and even within that weekend.”
Carpenter reports that, despite initial concerns the event producers had about negative impacts on alcohol consumption, they have not seen people replacing alcohol with cannabis, and in fact, alcohol sales have remained consistent. “Grass Lands has proven time and time again just how positive cannabis can be when integrated thoughtfully and responsibly into the patron experience.”
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Cannabis Was the Real Headliner at Outside Lands 2025
While cannabis consumption was confined to Grass Lands, many of the artists on stage had their own cannabis connections.
Both LaRussell and Thundercat have performed at cannabis-focused events in the past year. While she no longer smokes, Doja Cat has clarified across multiple interviews that her name is definitely a cannabis reference (and a shout-out to some of her favorite felines) and cannabis was a big part of her early image as a musician. Though not as obvious as those cannabis connections, Beck’s 3rd album, Mellow Gold, was reportedly named for a potent strain of cannabis.
“Cannabis and music have gone hand in hand since time immemorial, said Carpenter. “The number of artists that have that connection to cannabis is indicative of its rightful place in art and music spaces.”
Like me, Carpenter and her partner in life and at Embarc, Dustin, loved seeing Beck perform with a full symphony.
“There’s something so magical about his full orchestra. You have to take a step back and appreciate everything this festival is: the music, the setting of Golden Gate Park, and the communities it brings together. It was one of those moments in life where you just have to stop and take it all in.”
Perhaps the most well-known cannabis-connected artist at Outside Lands this year was Ludacris, who’s been rapping about weed for over twenty years. His hit song Blueberry Yum Yum, like Beck’s third album, is named for a strain of cannabis and will be turning 21 years old this December. Not only is the song very clearly about cannabis, the music video shows Ludacris with cannabis plants and makes it unmistakably clear what he is rapping about. In case anyone is wondering if weed is still part of Ludacris’ act, his DJ, DJ Infamous, was fined last month for cannabis possession in the Cayman Islands while he was there performing with Ludacris.
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While The Cannabis Industry Withers, Grass Lands Has Blossomed
As cannabis consumers and industry heads alike are well aware, many iconic cannabis brands have gone out of business in recent years, and we’ve seen a massive consolidation of licenses to fewer and fewer brands, as profit margins have shrunk.
Despite that consolidation, Grass Lands was still going strong with roughly the same number of brands and booths as I saw in 2019 (the last year I attended). The biggest change I saw was smaller and less elaborate booths (no chocolate fountains this year), which likely has more to do with the broader inflationary economy than it has to do with consolidation in the cannabis industry.
“We hosted 25 cannabis brands at Dead & Co. and 31 at Outside Lands this year,” Carpenter added, “We’re beginning to see a market mature, and brands understand that events at this scale are an incredible opportunity to meet new customers.”
As the owner of a chain of dispensaries, Carpenter knows the struggle of being a brick-and-mortar dispensary.
“Traditional retail, by its nature, is prohibitive because it requires a customer to walk through our four walls. Events are a wonderful opportunity for brands to get their products in front of the masses.”
One of the other changes I noticed at this year’s Outside Lands was a stronger representation from equity brands, which Carpenter credits to their partnerships with “the Equity Trade Network and small legacy farmers.”
As you might expect, customers tend to buy a bit differently at Grass Lands than they would in a traditional dispensary. No one is buying ounces of flower, instead, Carpenter says, “One-use products are definitely a hit (no pun intended!) at music festivals. Convenient and consumption-ready products, like prerolls, smaller-dosed edibles, and beverages, are also popular.”
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Cannabis Events Offer Greener Pastures
Despite the overall contraction of the cannabis industry, cannabis events continue to offer brands a great avenue for exposure to new consumers, and while Grass Lands is the pinnacle of cannabis events, it is far from the only one.
“We’re proud to serve as the nation’s leading cannabis concessionaire, with events, festivals, and concerts throughout California, Colorado, Washington D.C., and a handful of other states,” said Carpenter. “We’re also the exclusive cannabis partner for the California State Fair, the only fair in the nation to allow cannabis sales and consumption.” This year, Carpenter says California’s State Fair “welcomed over 250,000 visitors to the cannabis experience and doubled our revenue, supporting dozens of cannabis farmers, brands, and manufacturers.”
So if you are a cannabis brand looking for a way to boost your sales, or a cannabis consumer trying to find a new favorite product to replace one that is no longer available, check out your next local cannabis music festival or state fair.