In the culture of cannabis, April 20 is a holiday when those who partake light up in enjoyment and in protest of prohibition.
Although the origins of “4/20” are debated — according to popular lore, a group of California high school students in the 1970s met after school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke weed — the day has been globally celebrated for years.
Until recently in New York, celebrations carried the risk of arrest or fines, so they would often take place in secret locations or places where the authorities were somewhat lenient, like Washington Square Park. Smoke-ins were sometimes staged as a form of protest. In 2020, the police busted a pot party in Manhattan, not because people were smoking weed but because they were flouting social-distancing rules during the pandemic.
But since the state legalized marijuana in 2021 and lifted pandemic restrictions, the protests have largely subsided. And a growing number of celebrations — some with brand sponsors — have emerged, catering to users new and old as well as people who are just “canna-curious.”
This year, as the state’s legal cannabis industry has expanded and cannabis use has gained acceptance, the variety of events has expanded. In addition to private parties and smokeouts, there are comedy shows and block parties. Happy Munkey, an events company, is hosting a cruise aboard a Hornblower vessel.
Not all events are focused on consuming cannabis. A workshop at MARY Fest, a new event in Brooklyn whose name plays on one of weed’s monikers, Mary Jane, teaches participants how to grow cannabis at home. Upside Pizza collaborated with Gotham, a dispensary on the Bowery in Lower Manhattan, on a secret menu. And Trends, a dispensary on Long Island, is streaming the N.B.A. playoffs and serving chicken wings.
Dabs and Lattes
If you have seen the YouTube talk show “Hot Ones,” in which the hosts interview celebrities as they eat increasingly hot chicken wings, then you understand the concept of “Hot Dabs,” a podcast whose most recent episode was recorded with an audience on Saturday at a cannabis-friendly co-working space in Manhattan.
Instead of eating meat, however, the hosts and guests take increasingly hot dabs. Dabbing is a method of consuming weed that involves placing marijuana concentrate in a glass rig, heating it until it evaporates, then inhaling it.
At Saturday’s event, called Dabs and Lattes, the guest was J.P. Toro, a celebrated rig maker whose creations can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
A haze hung over the room as the host, Dustan Mipuck, who goes by Hashaveli, asked Mr. Toro about his first experience dabbing. In the crowd, made up mostly of men from out of town, people who had brought their own rigs and lighters chose from resins with names like Morocco Peaches and paired them with coffee prepared at a bar inside the co-working space, Work’n’Roll, in Chelsea.
Justin Page, 41, brought Raincatcher No. 21, a rig in the shape of a nude woman with purple leaves for hair who is catching a raindrop with an opal inside.
Mr. Page, an event producer in Missouri, said that New York seemed to be overtaking California as the top destination for cannabis enthusiasts on 4/20 because of the growth of established brands and the city’s largely untamed market. (New York is rife with unlicensed weed shops.)
“It’s wild out here,” he said, adding that New York “is growing on me.”
