Last Sunday, I climbed down out of the hills.
I bore witness to the annual Hemp Parade, part of MardiGrass, Nimbin, Australia.
The protestival had its inception on May 1 1993, inaugurated by the Nimbin HEMP Embassy in response to years of repression met daily by users of cannabis. As a weekend-long schedule of public events, which emerged as a legitimate platform of protest and celebration in response to an incident in March 1993 when eggs and toilet paper rained down on the police station, MardiGrass enables the inhabitants of Nimbin and the surrounding region to make a peaceful spectacle of themselves, and their cause.
Eighteen years later, the event is a unique festival by world standards, attracting thousands from around the region and indeed around the world.
By the time I lurched into town with friends Kathleen and Kenneth I'd missed the infamous 4:20 mass "enlightenment" and Kombi Konvoy which rolled through town on Saturday.
Officially known as the Rally and Parade for Cannabis Law Reform, the Sunday parade ends with a rally down at Peace Park near the site of the 1973 Aquarius Festival that had transformed the town into Australia's alternative capital. Down at the park, speeches would be made and prizes awarded for the winners of the Hemp Olympix.
But before that, there was the parade of the outraged and the outrageous. Here's a few shots:
The event will be held, so say its organisers, "until the war is over".
1 comments:
Wasnt it great? I love Nimbin for its pride in its underbelly.
Other key highlights included:
Hemp Industry Seminar notable, perhaps in true Nimbin fashion, for the attempts to high-jack and side-line it by audience members (Intense red angry man saying "But I want to eat it.. I want to eat it now!"). Nonetheless wonderfully non-smokable things are happening in that industry;
Joint rolling competition, again wth a significant non-local presence, again from France this year. While Bob the joint builder was a winner, and nice and hunble with it, the French won the novelty joint (its not called that, but i cant remember what it was called) with, gues what? an Eifel tower.. But could you really smoke it?
Comedy night at the Nimbin bowlo, a great establishment in the town by all accounts, somewhere between Nimbin depravity and the Castle. The jokes of Mandy Nolan were notable, including her description of smoking a joint after giving birth which had our company scream laughing innapropriately loudly due to lubrication.
Keep an eye out for the panels next year, which may involve a new cast..
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