Mardi Grass

Do not confuse with Mardi Gras

Nimbin, Mardi Grass 2008

Mardi Grass , a hemp festival, has been held since 1993 in the Australian village of Nimbin on the first weekend of May. The festival includes: Hemp Fair, an exhibition of industrial hemp farmers and the Mardi Grass Market. The latter is devoted not so much to products as to advertising of the festival itself - thousands of different souvenirs have been prepared. In parallel with the above, visitors can visit the hemp poetry contest, see and purchase paintings in the hemp gallery, and take part in an extensive and exotic cultural program. From 14:00 to 19:00 at the Hemp meeting in the central hall of Nimbin, guests of honor, writers and businessmen speak. Psychotropic cannabis products are sold at a separate location (Nimbin Ganja Fairs). The organizers emphasize that Mardi Grass is “a festival of the spirit, reverence for life and a blow to absurd and bad laws.”

Among the festival's traditions are a carnival of caravans, a hemp olympiad (championship on rolling up joins and throwing bongs ), a “ Cannabis Cup ” like the Netherlands, night dances and an anti-proliferation demonstration. Police stopped interfering with the festival since 1997, after several Nimbus hippies chained themselves to patrol helicopters and gave interviews to numerous journalists in this form.