Former boxing heavyweight Mike Tyson will host Kind Music Festival, a celebration of cannabis and “the next generation of music festivals”, on his 420-acre ranch in Desert Hot Springs, California.

The inaugural Kind Music Festival will make its debut on Saturday 23 February. The one-day pop-up event aims to embrace cannabis as a legalised, recreational product, in line with updates to California’s cannabis regulations.

Up to ten artists will play at the event, including Miguel and Starcrawler. Food trucks, inflatable rides, a bar area and vendor village will also adorn the grounds of the future Tyson Ranch Resort, an entertainment complex and cannabis research and design facility.

General admission tickets for Kind Music Festival sell at US$85 and VIP passes for $165. Part of all proceeds will go to Standing United, a charity dedicated to helping drug addicts and the homeless.

“Kind Music Festival is a revolution, leading the way for a new generation of health and wellness-focused cannabis consumers [that we call] ‘the Kind Generation’,” says an unnamed festival producer in a launch announcement.

“If music pairs with alcohol in a way that enhances the moment, our goal is to show that cannabis products can do the same”

Smoking cannabis in public places remains illegal in California. Rules on the festival website forbid sales or giveaways of cannabis products, as well as the carrying of illegal drugs or paraphernalia. However, a publicist for the festival has stated that festivalgoers will be permitted to light up on festival grounds.

The event is one in a wave of festivals marrying marijuana and music in the United States, as more and more states legalise recreational use of the drug.

The Original Green Mountain Cannabis and Music Festival took place in West Dover, Vermont last year. 1,000 people flocked to the festival, billed as byob/c (bring your own booze/cannabis), to view live music performances, purchase cannabidiol (CBD) products and smoke cannabis in the sun.

The United States is not the only country in which weed and music are mixing formally. In Canada, large legal marijuana producers are teaming up with talent agencies to sponsor events in much the way that leading alcohol brands do. This year, Toronto’s North by Northeast festival will be presented by Aurora Cannabis.

Jay Wilgar, head of UP Cannabis, summarises the thinking: “If music pairs with alcohol in a way that enhances the moment, our goal is to show that cannabis products can do the same.”

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Ahead of this weekend’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, promoter AEG Presents has sent a letter of claim to a California cannabis grower for alleged trademark infringement.

Lowell Farms LLC, which produces the Lowell Smokes brand of pre-rolled joints, is accused of “running a promotion which features the Coachella intellectual property and is clearly intended to trade on the substantial goodwill and reputation earned by AEG over the years” after announcing the launch of a limited-edition ‘Coachella Blend’ (pictured) to tie in with the festival.

The blend would only have been available to buy during Coachella and sold exclusively through a cannabis dispensary in Palm Springs, around 20 miles from the festival site in Indio.

The letter, posted by Lowell on its Instagram account, demands the company “remove ALL references to Coachella” – emphasis theirs – “from your […] social network accounts (including any use of Coachella-related hashtags), as well as printed materials and press releases” and “cease and desist from further use of the unlicensed Coachella intellectual property”.

“Lowell Farms has no desire to get into a prolonged legal battle with such an established and well-funded company”

In a statement, Lowell says it has “no desire to get into a prolonged legal battle with such an established and well-funded company” but is “working to find a creative solution to deliver this special blend to festivalgoers”. The LA Times suggests the blend will simply be renamed – to ‘#NotChilla’.

AEG last month filed a similar lawsuit against Urban Outfitters, alleging the clothing company made unauthorised use of its brand on a line of clothing. It remains to be seen how it will feel about a “forward-thinking” cannabis festival running concurrently with, and less than three miles away from, Coachella, and clearly marketed at festivalgoers.

Its name? Kushella. Watch this space…

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