| CANNABIS | Mike Madriaga VortiFest Vibes The wonderful balance of weed, freestyling, and a music festival in Sedona. BY MIKE MADRIAGA F or cannabis consumers, flowing into Mother Nature is a natural movement, especially if there’s a mystical allure, a slight break from the heat, and great music to rock out to. That was the scene at VortiFest in Sedona late last month. The renowned holistic and healing city in the heart of Arizona’s Red Rock Country provides a different trip, cannabis consumers say. So Phoenix New Times checked out VortiFest — organizers billed it as a music festival and experience — to scope out the cannabis culture during the event. It took place on September 23 and 24 at the Sedona Performing Arts Center and Sedona Red Rock High School stadium fields. Two-time Grammy Award-winning hip-hop group Arrested Development co-headlined the show. New Times caught up with lead guitarist JJ Boogie and vocalist One Love as they smoked Jeeter Durban Poison pre-rolls near their private tent backstage. “We’re from Atlanta, and it’s not legal yet,” JJ Boogie said. “They need to legalize it everywhere, and everyone that’s locked up needs to be released.” In Georgia, people with medical cards are only permitted to purchase CBD in the form of extracts that are low in THC and high in CBD. It’s a different cannabis world than the one found in Arizona, which legalized recreational use in 2020. One Love, who says he’s been smoking weed since he was a teenager, added, “Georgia will probably be the last place to get legal. They are making too much money putting people in jail just for smoking a joint.” While Speech — rapper-and-vocalist and co-founder of Arrested Development in 1988 — said he doesn’t consume cannabis, he told New Times earlier this summer that it should be legal in every way, not just for medicinal use but also for casual use. “I also feel that nonviolent offenders who were imprisoned just because of selling or having weed, those sentences need to be revoked because obviously there are now legit busi- ness owners selling the same product,” he explained. Before their performance, some members of Arrested Development stocked up at the Curaleaf dispensary in Sedona. “Shout out to Miss Love at Curaleaf,” JJ Boogie said. “She checked us in the dispensary today.” ‘The Customs of Consuming’ Though Proposition 207 legalized recre- ational cannabis use in Arizona, there’s still a mixed bag of feelings when it comes to smoking weed. That was true even at an open-air concert in Sedona, a city with a long history of pot smokers, hippies and mystical magic. Outside of the fenced-off and guarded backstage and VIP areas, in the central venue allotted for 3,000 concertgoers, folks were a bit more discreet when smoking Arrested Development performed “Tennessee,” which won the group a Grammy in 1993, at VortiFest. weed out of respect for the event, venue and other attendees. Some who admittedly consumed cannabis were reluctant to go on the record with New Times. “It’s about the customs of consuming,” Chase Brendle said. “Even when I was smoking in college, we had rules. You sat down at a table and [the joint] only went to the left, and here, we have that same etiquette.” Brendle is the founder and owner of Lacuna Kava Bar, with locations in Phoenix and Sedona. He had a booth at the festival that promoted his kava bar in Sedona, which has a cannabis-friendly patio. “Like, if there’s a couple next to you and you can tell they’re not into [weed smoking], please go take a walk,” Brendle said. One member of Phoenix Afrobeat Orchestra agreed with Brendle. “As a polite smoker, when you smoke tobacco or cannabis, the polite thing to do is move away from crowds who don’t smoke. Especially if there are kids. Let the kids experience that on their own when >> p 43 41 phoenixnewtimes.com | CONTENTS | FEEDBACK | OPINION | NEWS | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | PHOENIX NEW TIMES OCT 6TH–OCT 12TH, 2022
