Image via
For the first time in Illinois history, concertgoers were legally allowed to smoke weed at an outdoor music festival. And Cypress Hill, Stephen Marley, and other cannabis-loving music legends were there to celebrate.
The Miracle in Mundelein festival, located about an hours’ drive north of Chicago, uniquely allowed attendees to bring their own bud and get high anywhere on the festival grounds. The 2-day concert, which was only open to adults 21 and older, kicked off last Saturday with live performances from Cypress Hill, Stephen Marley, and Action Bronson. The party picked back up on Sunday with sets by Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Lettuce, and Karina Rykman.
Traditionally, weed lovers have been forced to step out of live concerts and sneakily light up a joint in a nearby alley or parking lot. At the Miracle festival, the exact opposite held true: cannabis consumption was allowed everywhere inside the event space, but prohibited outside of the venue. The promoters urged the crowd to stick to the rules in order to keep the dank smoke from wafting through the streets of Mundelein.
“Let’s show everyone what a responsible and respectful community we are by adhering to these rules and regulations,” said the Miracle promoters on their website.
Concertgoers were able to bring their own weed into the festival, with a few restrictions. Attendees were only allowed to bring products that had been legally purchased in Illinois and were still in their original packaging. The promoters also limited guests to following Illinois’ out-of-state cannabis possession limits of 15 grams of flower, 2.5 grams of concentrates, or 250 mg of edibles. The festival also partnered with a nearby RISE dispensary to allow customers to step out, buy some legal weed, and then return to the show.
To facilitate the consumption experience, the promoters set up multiple dab bars and rolling stations throughout the festival grounds. At the dab bars, attendees were allowed to blaze their own concentrates using the provided dab rigs and torches, which were cleaned by the staff between each use. The rolling stations featured complimentary grinders, lighters, papers, and rolling trays, plus high-top tables to roll up on. Bongs and other easily breakable glass pieces were not provided, though.
Adult-use states have so far been pretty averse to allowing people to actually smoke weed in public. But in the past few years, a growing number of state officials have been willing to greenlight one-off public consumption spaces at festivals like the Miracle. This Labor Day weekend, the Arts, Beats & Eats festival in neighboring Michigan went one step further and even allowed attendees to buy weed at the event. Around 17,000 adults reportedly visited the festival’s enclosed consumption zone and snagged over $100,000 worth of legal bud during the 4-day event.
