As someone who’s no stranger to music festivals and cannabis events, I know firsthand the amount of work that goes into pulling off a successful event. So I’ve got mad respect for Kat and her team for making The National Cannabis Festival happen.
But wait, there’s more! We’re taking things up a notch because we’re bringing our High-Class podcast on the road and recording an episode all about Kat and the National Cannabis Festival. Can you say “wowza”? This is our chance to immerse ourselves in the world of cannabis culture and bring our listeners along for the ride.
About Kat Rust
Kat Rust is the operator of District Growers and the National Cannabis Championship coordinator. She originally hails from California and started working in the industry way back in 2004, mainly in dispensaries and cultivation management. According to Kat, she was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and got to witness the boom of the medical cannabis scene.
In 2013, she packed her bags and headed to Washington, DC, where she started out working with the MediCal program. In the last few years, she expanded her expertise into consulting and working with the National Cannabis Festival. As someone who’s been in the industry since the early 2000s, especially on the West Coast, Kat has a unique perspective and valuable insights to share.
What keeps Kat going in the Cannabis Industry?
Kat shares her personal journey with cannabis and how she entered the industry. She was first exposed to cannabis as a medicinal alternative after having some trouble with her ACLs while playing basketball in school. She sought a less invasive way to manage chronic pain and was fortunate to be introduced to cannabis. With prior experience in agriculture, she was naturally drawn to cannabis cultivation.
Meeting people in the industry during her time in California also played a significant role in her path to the industry. She feels fortunate to have been part of the cannabis industry in California and Washington DC, seeing it grow in various industries and cultures. Overall, Kat is excited to be a part of the cannabis industry and looks forward to seeing where it goes in the future.
What’s going on in DC?
According to Kat, just like many other states, DC has a medical program as well as an initiative 71 program. The combination of these programs has created a huge culture surrounding cannabis that has been present in the city for as long as the plant has been around. Many locals take pride in their products and the industry.
The city, like many others on the East Coast, is working to figure out how to structure and support locals while expanding the needs and safety of the industry. Virginia is also a great place to be a part of the industry as it grows, with a medical program and a home cultivation aspect to their law. Maryland recently added an adult-use recreational program and will have a law for home growers on the books in July of this year. As a festival and culture, they are excited to see the growth of the industry in the DMV area.
National Cannabis Festival – The most exciting time for Cannabis Entrepreneurs
As a grower, having the freedom to be a home grower is an invaluable experience that offers many therapeutic values. Even just having a glimpse into the plant gives us knowledge that there’s much more to it than just consuming it for medicinal purposes. Cultivating the plant and having a physical relationship with it while it’s being grown is just as important. All three states in the DMV area offer this luxury, and it’s very exciting that Maryland will be adding home growers to their law in July.
The National Cannabis Festival
There are a couple of things I want to unpack here. Firstly, carrying a festival for seven years is an incredible feat in and of itself. As an event planner, I can tell you that events can be extremely complicated, and every single detail is mission-critical. Even the tiniest thing can lock up the entire event if forgotten. So growing a festival from year one to year seven and having it be nationally recognized is no small achievement. Not only am I planning a party, but I’m also becoming the cornerstone of culture and pushing policy through at the same time. It’s a huge undertaking, but it’s also incredibly rewarding.
Kat believes that festivals and gatherings like the National Cannabis Festival are the foundation that our culture has been built on, whether it be good or bad. In the past, cannabis enthusiasts were forced into closets, but these gatherings were an opportunity to come together, share resources, genetics, and information. The National Cannabis Festival covers many facets, from policy to the end stages of consumer use and culture aspects like music. It’s a full package of the history of cannabis and where it’s going, and you can experience it all in one day.
It’s locally owned in DC and women and minority-run, making it a truly homegrown event that encompasses cannabis from small gatherings exchanging information all the way up to a congressional forum in the capital. As per Kat, the festival owner, Caroline Phillips, has been an amazing leader in DC and a longtime enthusiast of cannabis. She has built the festival to be a focal point not just on the East Coast but nationally.
The Ultimate National Cannabis Festival Experience
As the National Cannabis Festival approaches, Kat is elated to be part of the team for the second year in a row. She praises Carolina and the entire team for putting on a magnificent event year in and year out. The festival covers everything from policy to education, and Kat is proud to be a part of the educational aspect. She is in charge of the Grow School, which is just one of five or six other educational stages at the festival.
This year, there will be a psychedelic pavilion with talks about their medicinal use, following recent legislation in DC. There will also be a culinary tent, culture tents, and much more, covering all the different aspects of the cannabis lifestyle.
Leading up to the festival, there will be a “420 week” or “20 food weeks” with lots of involvement for those in the DMV area. The festival truly encompasses all aspects of cannabis culture, from its history to its future, and Kat is excited to be a part of it all. The festival is locally owned and run by women and minorities, making it a truly homegrown event that has grown to become a focal point not just on the East Coast, but nationally. If you’re in the DMV area, be sure to mark your calendars for the National Cannabis Festival, as it promises to be an amazing time.
The Competition in Cannabis Events
Kat discusses the National Cannabis Championship, which is now in its second year and run by the National Cannabis Festival. The competition is specifically focused on local home cultivators in the Virginia area, as well as the District of Columbia, with restrictions to ensure that entrants are home growers and abiding by the law.
The competition combines the traditional judging experience and process with the intricate backgrounds and genetics of the strains, as well as the science behind it. The judging process includes a cannabinoid profile and the terpenoid profile, creating a comprehensive approach to the competition. Kat emphasizes that the competition encompasses everything, from the growing process to the science behind it, and is a great opportunity for home cultivators to showcase their talents.
A Two-Level Competition for Home Cultivators in Virginia and DC
The competition is focused specifically on home cultivators in the Virginia area and the District of Columbia who abide by the laws. The competition has a two-level process, starting with the state round, where competitors from Virginia and DC compete internally against each other. The top performers from this round will then move on to the final round.
Through this process, a grand champion is nominated and given the belts live at the festival. This year, the competition is also adding an overall cannabinoid champion and an overall terpenoid champion to celebrate and highlight the science behind cannabis. The goal of the competition is to educate consumers and cultivators and create networking opportunities. The festival is a chance for everyone to come together, build relationships, and enjoy the day.
The Symbol of Victory for the National Cannabis Festival Competition
23W, a great partner of the National Cannabis Festival, has been giving title belts for the competition. This year, the team expanded the competition to include a cannabinoid champion and a terpenoid champion, in addition to awarding belts to the grand champion and state champions.
While there are other prizes, the belt has been a significant symbol of victory for the competition. The team loves to hold them, make sure they look great, and take photos before presenting them to the winners. It’s important to them that the belts are championship ready before handing them over to the deserving champions.
What is the process to make the judges’ kit?
The excitement and energy of the cultivators getting their samples in is half the process of the competition, according to Kat. It’s really exciting to meet with those folks, who are constantly in touch with what they’ve been working on. A part of the process is breeding or genetics, and they have some very unique products or genetics that they’ve bred themselves. After they lay the foundation, it’s up to the team to divide everything up, which they have a process for. They have some great sponsors this year.
Once the team makes the kits, they initiate an awesome community judge process, where the people grow and judge the competition. For the state level, we select half of the judges from the community through an open process. After the judging process, the winners will be announced shortly.
The submission
Kat explains that the competition process starts with the cultivators and their excitement to submit their samples. Cultivators build the foundation, including breeding or genetics. The team then divides everything up and has a process for handling the samples, making it as blind as possible. The team breaks down the samples for the testing lab, using a new lab this year called Green Analytics. They handle everything to ensure the quality of the product and minimize any impact that could occur during handling.
Her experience in working at dispensaries and cultivation centers has shown the value of having mindful packaging and handling processes to ensure the quality of the product that the judges eventually receive.
The process of checking the submission
The competition process is divided into three stages.
- The first stage involves the physical samples, which are provided to the judges completely labeled without any pre-existing information. The samples are labeled as SAMPLE A, SAMPLE B, etc. We encourage the judges to consume the samples in their preferred way, as we acknowledge that everyone’s consumption preferences are unique. The judges are asked to evaluate the samples based on various criteria, including taste, experience, and structure. We designed this stage to keep everything as blind as possible and to allow judges to judge solely based on their experience of consuming the product.
- Once the judges finish the physical sampling and scoring of each strain, the team suggests that they package it up, set aside the scores, and move on to stage two. During stage two, we provide judges with information similar to what a consumer would receive when walking into a dispensary – just the cannabinoid and terpenoid profiles. There is no genetic information or relationship to any specific sample. We ask the judges to focus on the unique and interesting terpenes and cannabinoid profiles that work well for them and score accordingly. The team kindly asks the judges to put this information away and move on to the third and final stage.
- In stage three, judges get to see the names and genetics behind the samples they just scored. Although the team asks that judges come with a clean slate, seasoned judges may already have some idea of the genetics. This stage is exciting because it allows judges to see the uniqueness of the scores based on the name and genetics of each strain.
The Design of the National Cannabis Festival Competition
We designed the competition process to be old-school and simple, similar to how things were in the past. In the past, if you were curious about a strain and asked about its composition, you might have discovered that it’s simply a combination of two other strains like super silver haze and blueberry. This is the throwback we aim to recreate. The process is straightforward and focuses on the basics of cannabis, making it accessible to everyone regardless of their level of expertise.
The National Cannabis Festival team strives to have a well-rounded group of community judges every year. They acknowledge the importance of the people who support them by attending the festival and participating in the competition. This year, they are excited to have another round of great community judges who will provide valuable input and experiences
To learn more about Kat and the National Cannabis Festival, check out this episode:
What to look forward to at the National Cannabis Festival?
Kat is so proud to share that the event is committed to serving seniors and veterans by providing them with exclusive lounges. She is also excited to announce the addition of an LGBTQ lounge to make sure everyone feels included and celebrated. As a platform for cultivators and cannabis enthusiasts, the festival also offers a dedicated area for growers to showcase their products and expertise.
For all the growers out there, there is a dedicated area for showcasing your products and expertise. The organizers eagerly invite everyone to attend the upcoming festival. Don’t hesitate, come and be a part of this exciting event!
Interested in buying a ticket? Get yours here: https://nationalcannabisfestival.com/
Connect with Kat Rust: @greentigerusa
If you’re competing, or you’re thinking about competing for a license, but you don’t know where to start, I went ahead and cleaned up all of my application material, and updated a lot of it and you can get your own copy here: https://highsalwa.com/business-downloads. It is what I use to win licenses in multiple different markets. I have cultivation, production and retail that’s currently available and I’m looking forward to adding more to give you a head start.
