CA State Fair cannabis exhibit celebrates milestone anniversary, honors activists
“The sky did not fall!”
That’s Lauren Carpenter’s motto about the California State Fair’s cannabis consumption area at Cal Expo.
Carpenter is a co-founder and the CEO of Embarc, the cannabis dispensary company that has sponsored the fair’s cannabis awards and exhibit for the last five years. She and her team then broke boundaries in 2024 when they created the first-ever cannabis sale area and consumption lounge at a state fair.
“We’ve just seen folks continue to take more interest (over the years),” Carpenter said. “The first year ... there were a lot of people just saying, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this is here,’ or ‘Pinch me, is this real?’ ... and so last year, we saw attendance only grow, and then I think we anticipate that continuing to grow this year as people continue to become more aware that this is here.”
Since the inception of the State Fair’s cannabis exhibits, the areas have morphed from an education-focused museum to a larger-than-life love letter to the history of cannabis in California.
On top of expanding the exhibit space itself this year, the team also added on a new category to its Golden Bear Awards for cannabis products and honored the 30-year anniversary of Proposition 215.
“It’s the culmination of the better part of a half-century of advocacy just to get us to this point,” Embarc co-founder Dustin Moore said. “It’s just so fitting to be able to honor those who came before us, that paved the way for us to even have what which to do this.”
Bigger and better
On Saturday, the California Cannabis Experience at the State Fair was a far cry from its predecessors.
When it first launched in 2024, the sales area was confined to a small outdoor space behind an Expo building, and the consumption lounge was a single tent hidden at the end of a long walkway underneath the bleachers of Heart Health Park, which Moore jokingly called “the Green Mile.”
Since 2025, Embarc’s area has taken over the former Raging Waters water park space, and this year’s setup grew even more from last year. According to Moore, the first day of the 2026 State Fair saw 50% more visitors to the cannabis area than the first day of the 2025 fair.
“We’re very grateful it’s here now, because there’s a lot more space,” said Kassy Burpee, a visitor to the consumption area on Saturday afternoon who also visited the State Fair’s consumption lounges in 2025 and 2024. “It’s awesome to see us grow and be more accepting.”
Burpee said the expansion of the State Fair’s cannabis exhibit and lounge seems to reflect changing opinions around marijuana usage in California.
“I’m hoping that (Californians) are becoming more open to the idea of like, (cannabis) isn’t hurting anyone,” she said. “At the end of the day, we’re just chilling.”
“I feel like it’s really tied into Californian culture as well, it’s strongly a part of our identity,” said consumption lounge visitor Bryan Galan.
The exhibit starts past the old castle-like entrance to the water park, where staff check identification. Educational information about cannabis lines the first walkway, leading to a small staircase descending to the fun zone.
CBD-infused slushie drinks are available for purchase along a small landing, before the main consumption area opens up at the bottom of the stairs. Dozens of brands set up tents and activations across the concrete and grass at Cal Expo, including Gelato, a cannabis brand based in California, Arizona and Michigan, which created a fantastical, colorful consumption space with interactive pop-ups and a wide selection of items for sale.
“Just to see that, specifically an event like (the California State Fair) is open to even considering (consumption), and having such a large activation of this scale is just like, a breath of fresh air,” said Hannah Bush, a marketing specialist with Gelato. “I’m just like, we’re finally getting somewhere.”
A large tent past the consumption area holds even more brand booths, as well as the main stage for the Golden Bear Awards and other live events planned throughout the State Fair’s run.
Adjacent to the tent, a small green building holds this year’s newest cannabis display and awards category, homegrown cultivation. Home growers were honored at the Golden Bear Awards for the first time ever on Saturday, after four years of only brands being allowed to enter their products.
“It’s really, really exciting for us to be able to honor the hobbyist gardeners, the backyard growers that make our community great,” said Rachelle Gordon, a cannabis journalist supporting the Embarc team this year.
Purple City Genetics, a long-standing cannabis nursery, breeder and seed producer based in Oakland, set up a display of some of its most popular cloned plants, including the Moroccan Peaches and Bolinas strains.
Members of the Purple City Genetics team teach passersby about the science and art of breeding marijuana, while providing advice to budding home growers and selling plant starts.
The weekend of July 25, the cannabis area is honoring Home Grow Weekend, which will feature live demonstrations and panels on planting and cultivating cannabis plants at home.
Remembering Proposition 215, 30 years on
At the core of this year’s cannabis activities is an acknowledgement and celebration of the 30-year anniversary of the passage of Prop. 215.
The voter-approved proposition, known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, legalized the use of medical marijuana in California and kicked off the ongoing movement for medical and recreational legalization across the nation.
The California State Fair and Embarc’s team are honoring the activists who were on the front line of the fight throughout the festival’s run this year. On Saturday, a panel of activists spoke about their Proposition 215 experiences and on Sunday, the cannabis area will screen “Join The Club,” a documentary about Dennis Peron, one of the original authors of the Compassionate Use Act.
“Before Prop 215, there was no legal marijuana anywhere in the U.S., it was a felony to even sell a joint, and here we are today and a full revolution has happened,” said Dale Gieringer, a co-author of the Compassionate Use Act. “Cal Expo really pioneered (the cannabis celebration). This is the first sort of state-sponsored exhibition.”
Gieringer and other current activists with the California Cannabis Historical Society are educating fair goers about the legalization process and continuing issues with marijuana possession and use in the justice system at a booth in the cannabis exhibit tent.
“We’re really proud to say that since we passed Prop 215, over 40 states legalized medical marijuana and over 50 foreign countries,” Gieringer said. “That all started here in California, the birthplace of the cannabis movement.”
Though the legalization battle in California effectively ended in 2016 with the passage of Proposition 64, some original Prop. 215 activists maintain there’s still a ways to go to make marijuana safe and equitable in the U.S.
“All these people said to me, ‘Well no one’s going to be busted for weed anymore,’ but it’s like, just because you’re not getting busted and the people you know aren’t getting busted, that doesn’t mean nobody’s getting busted,” said cannabis activist Chris Conrad, who testified as a marijuana expert in thousands of cannabis possession court cases following Proposition 215’s passing. “If you go to (cannabis) conferences, it’ll be mostly white people, you go to these (marijuana) communities, it’s mostly white people. You go to the court, it’s mostly people of color.”
Award-winning weed
On Saturday evening, the top producers across California were honored at the fifth annual Golden Bear Awards. More than 180 products across 60 categories earned gold, silver and bronze medals, but only one item in each product type took home the coveted Golden Bear.
Winners were announced in a ceremony under the main tent in the cannabis area on Saturday evening, which was topped off with a speech about Prop. 215 by Gieringer. Home grow category winners will be announced and celebrated on July 25.
“This is, for our industry, a really big deal,” Carpenter said. “To be recognized by the State of California for being the best of the best, when you operate in an industry that for a really long time has hidden from government rather than recognized by it.”
Here are this year’s Golden Bear Award winners for cannabis, awarded Saturday:
- Sun Grown Flower: Greenshock Farms - Pink Rider
- Indoor Flower: Wood Wide - Woodzy
- Mixed Light Flower: Ridgeline Farms - Blueberry Caviar
- Pre-Roll: One of a Kind x Joy Ridge Farms - Dutch Treat
- Cartridges: Moon Valley Cannabis - Neon Panther Live Rosin All-in-One
- Concentrates: Moon Valley Cannabis - Neon Panther Ice Water Hash
- Edibles: Emerald Sky - Blue Dream Live Rosin GrooveBar
- Beverages: St. Ides - Lychee Pear High Tea
- Wellness: Emerald Bay Extracts - Super Lemon Haze RSO Tablets
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