I went to the Caribbean Festival all day yesterday. It used to be called Bob Marley Fest, but I guess calling it something a little more generic brings more people in. I heard a rumor floating around a few days before the show that within the borders of the festival, marijuana is decriminalized. Now, I wasn’t planning on walking up to one of the many police officers with spliff in hand to ask, “Is this OK, officer?”
What I did notice from the police, though, was the old “turn-the-shoulder-and-waft-a-fan-in-your-face” method, ensuring no inhalation takes place. Haha, what a joke.
I saw this one, kind of cute, police officer with an accentuated bottom laughing and joking with this 60-plus-year-old Rastaman all while he was smoking a marijuana cigarette. He even rolled it up in front of her. Legal? No, but I guess the committed attitude from law enforcement on days like yesterday, at a place like the Bob Marley Festival, is that you can’t catch them all, so why catch any? When the sun went down and the lights came on, the smoke rising from the audience was phenomenal.
Although I kept my smoking to a minimum yesterday, the main message the Marleys and other performers tried to push was peace, love and unity; unity with yourself, unity with the world.
–Samuel Hendrix
Class of 2010