From Seed to Stage, the Emerald Cup Brings Out the Best in Cannabis

Hey, you. Yeah, you. Did you scoop your weekend pass for the Emerald Cup Harvest Ball yet? We got ours and we heard that the cost goes up this Friday, so we wanted to let you know so you can save a few bucks.

The Harvest Ball has announced its full music lineup and it is as eccentric as always.

They’ve announced speakers for their must-see Emerald Cup Sessions discussions and the list of people and panels is refreshingly diverse.

They have announced their Emerald Cup Small Farms Initiative which will grant exhibit space and spotlight promo, pro bono, to 27 small cannabis farms as these craft cultivators continue to be crushed by overbearing regulations and taxes.

We know that the best seed breeders and all our weed people will be there. We know the Cannabis Marketplace will be lit. We know that the food is always great. We know this!

This mid-December gathering in Santa Rosa has become such a tradition that it almost feels like a homecoming, even for a couple of East Coast dudes living in SoCal.

We’ve never seen the term “Harvest Ball” attached to the Emerald Cup, though. So, what is it?

The Emerald Cup Harvest Ball is not the “Pothead Prom” as some have asked. You don’t need a tux or a gown, and you can leave your blue suit and brown shoes at home because the Emerald Cup is a party, a celebration of the cannabis plant and the culture at its roots.

That’s what it always has been, and it looks to us like that tradition is set to carry on this December 11-12 at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.

But, yet… it seems like there is something we haven’t mentioned. Some core part of the Emerald Cup that is not being marketed along with the Harvest Ball.

That, of course, is the annual competition and Emerald Cup Awards, a storied gathering dating back to 2004, way before cannabis “brands”, or social media, or the relative safety that now buffers law-abiding cannabis consumers and producers.

The Emerald Cup Awards will not be held in 2021, but they aren’t going anywhere. They are evolving year after year, however, and change always comes with some debate.

This year, one of the top seed companies in the world, Humboldt Seed Co., is an Emerald Cup Harvest Ball Sponsor which makes perfect sense when you realize how many Emerald Cup-winning farmers run Humboldt Seed Co. gear in their gardens, greenhouses, and grow rooms.

We reached out to Nat Pennington, Humboldt Seed Co.’s CEO, for his insight on December’s Harvest Ball, and the competition and Emerald Cup Awards to follow.

“The Emerald Cup is the quintessential cannabis event in the world,” says Pennington, “and for a genetics company, it is the most relevant event because it provides a great opportunity to talk shop and go over the experiences that people have had. Whether they are Humboldt Seed Co. customers, or our peers and colleagues, we can all get together socially in this fully above-board marketplace.”

Looking back on the epic history of the Cup, Pennington says, “There has been innovation and collaboration that has changed the cannabis world forever that took root at the Emerald Cup.”

We tried to pry some secrets out of Nat about what they might be unveiling at the Harvest Ball and we got him to fess up to a hot collab with Ridgeline Farms (past Emerald Cup winner), but no more details were given. You’ll just have to show up on December 11th and 12th to find out!

Here’s the roadmap from where we’re at now to the Harvest Ball in December, and on to the Emerald Cup Awards in the spring of 2022.