Lifestyle

I spent 4 hours and 20 minutes in the state fair’s new weed lounge. Here’s how it went

Published

2 years ago

July 18, 2024

I spent 4 hours and 20 minutes in the state fair’s new weed lounge. Here’s how it went

SACRAMENTO —

Last month, the California State Fair announced plans to allow cannabis to be sold and consumed on-site for the first time in its 170-year history. On Sunday, I hopped on a flight from L.A. to Sacramento, bypassed the stands of deep-fried foods and whooshing carnival rides and made a beeline for Expo 6 to watch the first symbolic smoke sesh firsthand.

Here’s how the first four hours and 20 minutes went down at the fair’s new weed lounge.

Noon

At the back of the California Cannabis Experience, a brightly colored sign beckoned in a font you might find on a vintage postcard: “This way to the Embarc Oasis, ‘High From California.’” Below it, a hastily printed paper sign taped to the double doors reads: “Sales and consumption start at 12:30 p.m.” Organizers explained that the original 11 a.m. opening had been delayed. The reason? Because of an unexpectedly cool morning, the flame retardant applied to the artificial turf in the consumption lounge tent hadn’t yet dried. (That’s right. Organizers were making sure the fake grass didn’t get burned alongside the real grass.)

Trisha Rogers, a fair worker stationed at the front door of the exhibition hall, told me that around 300 people had inquired about the consumption lounge’s opening since the exhibit’s 10 a.m. start. (According to a spokesperson, by the end of the first day, more than 1,000 fair goers visited the lounge.)

Cardboard cutouts of stoner movie characters Harold and Kumar point the way to the California State Fair’s on-site consumption lounge.

12:15 p.m.

Somehow, without anyone in the crowd appearing to notice, one sign came off the double doors and a new one went up. The lounge opening was being pushed back another half hour to 1 p.m. Some in the crowd of 30-plus decided to busy themselves by retracing their steps through the collection of educational, weed-related exhibits. Others bided their time by adding to the Department of Cannabis Control’s nearby display (a large sign that asked “How do you enjoy your weed?” and invited answers by way of sticky notes). A few grabbed CBD-infused slushies from the bar or familiarized themselves with the recently announced 2024 California State Fair Cannabis Award winners whose names and products filled another entire wall.

people in line at a tented dispensary space

1:15 p.m.

The doors finally swung open to the cheers of a 60-strong crowd. A sign nearby proclaimed what they already know: “You’re making history today. You’re at the first State Fair in the world where cannabis is being legally sold.”

The first stop in making that history was a visit to the on-site dispensaries (outside cannabis products are not allowed) just on the other side of those double doors. One is run by Embarc, which features some of the 2024 gold medal winners honored in the exhibition (they’re noted with gold stars on the menus), and another is run by the Equity Trade Network, which showcases legacy and social equity brands. (Bringing cash is a smart idea. There are also ATMs throughout the fair.)

The vibe in this indoor/outdoor space was energetic, almost electric as people pointed fingers at the wares inside the glass cases and budtenders scurried about bagging orders. THC-infused edibles and drinks purchased here can be consumed without going elsewhere, but no one seemed to be taking advantage of the few couches in the space.

A cannabis joint in front of a bag that reads "High from California"

Instead, once their purchases were complete, most people slowly made their way to an exit where they could do one of two things: either hang a right and ease back into the rest of the fair with its fried foods, zooming rides and agricultural displays — but where cannabis consumption is very much not allowed. Or they could enter a gate (clearly marked by cardboard cutouts of stoner movie characters Harold and Kumar), pass through an ID check and then take a short (about .11 miles) stroll along a path that leads under a towering set of bleachers, around the edge of a sports field, ending in a remote tented corner of the fairgrounds that can’t be seen by the general public.

1:20 p.m.

At opening, the mostly empty tent was giving awkward wedding reception vibes. The ground inside was covered completely with artificial turf, and there was a raised stage at one end and two groupings of wooden box-like structures at the other. (Are they seats? Tables? Did it matter?) The propaganda film-turned-cult classic “Reefer Madness” played on a screen at the back of the stage. A few high-top tables were hastily set up when it became apparent there weren’t many suitable places for folks to post up and roll a joint. (Attendees planning to consume on-site should be prepared to roll their own or buy a piece of paraphernalia or papers on-site. Fair rules prohibit bringing your own smoking gear.)

“This is crazy. It’s getting it to where we want it to be — equalized [and] not just treating it like a criminal thing.”

— Ray Ochoa

1:28 p.m.

Ray Ochoa, 28, of Sacramento, stepped into the tent, sparked a CGO Hash Hole (a type of concentrate-infused pre-rolled joint) and became the first person to legally get high at the California State Fair. When told he was the first to fire up, Ochoa let out an enthusiastic whoop. His friends Yogi “Rollz” Romello, 27, and LaMar Mixon, 31, also from Sacramento, followed suit, sparking their own joints and marking the moment.

“This is crazy,” Ochoa said about having a dedicated place to smoke weed at the fair. “It’s getting it to where we want it to be — equalized [and] not just treating it like a criminal thing. We want to be able to smoke with the homies wherever everybody else goes.” His post-partaking plan? “I’m going to go get a little lemonade,” he said. “Gotta mix the terps with the terps. Then I’m just going to go walk around and chill and spend time with the homies.”

A hand against a wall of colorful sticky notes

1:35 p.m.

On the other side of the tent, a trio of men in wide-brimmed sun hats leaned against a table and got down to business. Pete Telles, 55, of Roseville, Calif., came to the fair with his father, Noel Telles, 85, visiting from Buckeye, Ariz., and their friend from Sacramento, John Matijasic, 73. The latter leaned his cane against the table and focused intently on rolling a joint of Pure Beauty New Jack City (a 2024 indoor flower gold medal winner).

A few attempts later, Matijasic had a functional joint that he proudly lit up and passed to his friends. “I’m smoking dope at the California State Fair,” he said with a sense of bemusement. “After this, I’m going to just sit down and watch people.”

Two men in straw hats smiling and smoking a joint.

“This is the exact reason why I’m here today,” Pete Telles said. “To have the ability to purchase and consume and be with like-minded people — and to be with my father, who is a legend to me. We’ve been coming to the fair every year since the mid-’80s.” The younger Telles described being able to consume cannabis legally in public with his father as the best feeling in the world. “It’s like heaven,” he said.

A few puffs later, Noel Telles looked out from under the wide brim of his Ace Hardware sun hat and offered his own assessment. “This is wonderful,” he said. “It doesn’t get any better than this!”

1:53 p.m.

The tent felt less cavernous. Part of that had to do with the 31 people here, most of them smoking up in couples, troikas or quartets, but it also had to do with a handful of folding chairs that materialized out of nowhere. “Reefer Madness” continued to play, but the dialogue was all but drowned out by the social smoking scene. I ducked out of the consumption lounge briefly to stroll the fair. Even though I was very much not high, I managed to eat a sausage the length of my forearm.

3 p.m.

When I returned, Ochoa was gone (presumably on his quest for lemonade), but his buddies Romello and Mixon were holding court near an industrial-sized fan that was circulating their smoke like dry ice vapor across a film set. They were joined by a bunch of friends wearing matching T-shirts emblazoned with the name Frosted Flavors, a Sacramento-based social equity brand specializing in indoor cannabis grown under LED lights.

“[I]t feels like we’re living in the future a little bit …”

— Heidy Santamaria

A woman with long fingernails rolls a joint.

Dustin Mahoney Villafuerte lights up a joint on the first day of legal on-site consumption at the California State Fair.

LaMar Mixon is one of the first three people to light up legally at this year’s state fair along with buddies Ray Ochoa and Yogi Romello (not pictured).

4:15 p.m.

Heidy Santamaria, 26, and Stefania Gagnon, 21, both from Sacramento, sat on folding chairs in the middle of the room. Santamaria was attempting to roll a joint from a jar of Sync SF Strawberry Runtz flower in time for a 4:20 p.m. celebratory smoke. It was a task made more challenging by her exquisite nail art. “This is cool,” Santamaria said about the ability to buy — and consume — cannabis on-site. “I was telling her inside at the little bar[-like] dispensary that it feels like we’re living in the future a little bit. Because when we were growing up, we never thought we’d be able to do something like this.”

A group of people smoking and celebrating on stage.

4:20 p.m.

The smoking tent’s population grew to 53, the highest (literally and figuratively) of the day so far. Rick James’ song “Mary Jane” started playing as a handful of celebrants, including the Frosted Flavors guys, took to the stage with joints in hand.

“Welcome to 4:20 for the first time legally at the fair!” someone yelled into the microphone. “Light ’em up!” Everyone in the tent obliged, inhaling deeply and then exhaling one very large — and now very legal — communal cloud of smoke into the air.

Know before you go

There’s no guarantee you’ll have the same level of lounge experience that I did, but if you’re planning to visit the cannabis exhibit at the California State Fair (Cal Expo, 1600 Exposition Blvd., Sacramento), here are a few things you should know:

Bring a government-issued photo ID card. (You must be 21 to enter.)
Don’t consume cannabis products outside of the designated lounge.
If you leave the dispensary or lounge with any opened cannabis product packages, they’ll need to be sealed inside a tamper-proof bag by security personnel upon exiting.

The cannabis exhibit is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday through July 28. Also, the hours for on-site cannabis sales are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily (except for July 19), and the consumption area is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily for the duration of the state fair (except for July 19).

Single-day tickets for the fair are $18 for adults and $14 for seniors 62 and older.

Oh, and one more thing: Once you’ve had your history-making smoke, skip the fried foods and carnival rides and instead go right next door to Expo 4. You’ll get to enjoy the visual feast that is the Animation Academy. You can thank me later.

Lifestyle

Mundane, magic, maybe both — a new book explores ‘The Writer’s Room’

Published

1 hour ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Mundane, magic, maybe both — a new book explores ‘The Writer’s Room’

There’s a three-story house in Baltimore that looks a bit imposing. You walk up the stone steps before even getting up to the porch, and then you enter the door and you’re greeted with a glass case of literary awards. It’s The Clifton House, formerly home of Lucille Clifton.

The National Book Award-winning poet lived there with her husband, Fred, starting in 1967 until the bank foreclosed on the house in 1980. Clifton’s daughter, Sidney Clifton, has since revived the house and turned it into a cultural hub, hosting artists, readings, workshops and more. But even during a February visit, in the mid-afternoon with no organized events on, the house feels full.

The corner of Lucille Clifton’s bedroom, where she would wake up and write in the mornings

Andrew Limbong/NPR

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Andrew Limbong/NPR

“There’s a presence here,” Clifton House Executive Director Joël Díaz told me. “There’s a presence here that sits at attention.”

Sometimes, rooms where famous writers worked can be places of ineffable magic. Other times, they can just be rooms.

Princeton University Press

Katie da Cunha Lewin is the author of the new book, The Writer’s Room: The Hidden Worlds That Shape the Books We Love, which explores the appeal of these rooms. Lewin is a big Virginia Woolf fan, and the very first place Lewin visited working on the book was Monk’s House — Woolf’s summer home in Sussex, England. On the way there, there were dreams of seeing Woolf’s desk, of retracing Woolf’s steps and imagining what her creative process would feel like. It turned out to be a bit of a disappointment for Lewin — everything interesting was behind glass, she said. Still, in the book Lewin writes about how she took a picture of the room and saved it on her phone, going back to check it and re-check it, “in the hope it would allow me some of its magic.”

Let’s be real, writing is a little boring. Unlike a band on fire in the recording studio, or a painter possessed in their studio, the visual image of a writer sitting at a desk click-clacking away at a keyboard or scribbling on a piece of paper isn’t particularly exciting. And yet, the myth of the writer’s room continues to enrapture us. You can head to Massachusetts to see where Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women. Or go down to Florida to visit the home of Zora Neale Hurston. Or book a stay at the Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald Museum in Alabama, where the famous couple lived for a time. But what, exactly, is the draw?

Previously unknown poems show Woolf as a fun aunt. She's pictured above in 1902.

Lewin said in an interview that whenever she was at a book event or an author reading, an audience question about the writer’s writing space came up. And yes, some of this is basic fan-driven curiosity. But also “it started to occur to me that it was a central mystery about writing, as if writing is a magic thing that just happens rather than actually labor,” she said.

In a lot of ways, the book is a debunking of the myths we’re presented about writers in their rooms. She writes about the types of writers who couldn’t lock themselves in an office for hours on end, and instead had to find moments in-between to work on their art. She covers the writers who make a big show of their rooms, as a way to seem more writerly. She writes about writers who have had their homes and rooms preserved, versus the ones whose rooms have been lost to time and new real estate developments. The central argument of the book is that there is no magic formula to writing — that there is no daily to-do list to follow, no just-right office chair to buy in order to become a writer. You just have to write.

Lifestyle

Bruce Johnston Retiring From The Beach Boys After 61 Years

Published

2 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Bruce Johnston Retiring From The Beach Boys After 61 Years

Bruce Johnston
I’m Riding My Last Wave With The Beach Boys

Published
March 4, 2026
6:28 PM PST

Bruce Johnston is riding off into the California sunset … at least for now.

The Beach Boys legend announced Wednesday he’s stepping away from touring after six decades with the iconic band. The 83-year-old revealed in a statement to Rolling Stone he’s hanging up his touring hat to focus on what he calls part three of his long music career.

beach boys getty 4

“It’s time for Part Three of my lengthy musical career!” Johnston said. “I can write songs forever, and wait until you hear what’s coming!!! As my major talent beyond singing is songwriting, now is the time to get serious again.”

Johnston famously stepped in for co-founder Brian Wilson in 1965 for live performances, becoming a staple of the Beach Boys’ touring lineup ever since. Now, he says he’s shifting gears toward songwriting and even some speaking engagements … with occasional touring member John Stamos helping him craft what he’ll talk about onstage.

beach boys getty

“I might even sing ‘Disney Girls’ & ‘I Write The Songs!!’” he teased.

But don’t call it a full-on farewell tour just yet. Johnston made it clear he’s not shutting the door completely, saying he’s excited to reunite with the band for special occasions, including their upcoming July 2-4 shows at the Hollywood Bowl as part of the Beach Boys’ 2026 tour. The run celebrates both the 60th anniversary of “Pet Sounds” and America’s 250th birthday.

beach boys getty 3

“This isn’t goodbye, it’s see you soon,” he wrote. “I am forever grateful to be a part of the Beach Boys musical legacy.”

Lifestyle

On the brink of death, a woman is saved by a stranger and his family

Published

13 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

On the brink of death, a woman is saved by a stranger and his family

In 1982, Jean Muenchrath was injured in a mountaineering accident and on the brink of death when a stranger and his family went out of their way to save her life.

Jean Muenchrath

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Jean Muenchrath

In early May 1982, Jean Muenchrath and her boyfriend set out on a mountaineering trip in the Sierra Nevada, a mountain range in California. They had done many backcountry trips in the area before, so the terrain was somewhat familiar to both of them. But after they reached one of the summits, a violent storm swept in. It began to snow heavily, and soon the pair was engulfed in a blizzard, with thunder and lightning reverberating around them.

“Getting struck and killed by lightning was a real possibility since we were the highest thing around for miles and lightning was striking all around us,” Muenchrath said.

To reach safer ground, they decided to abandon their plan of taking a trail back. Instead, using their ice axes, they climbed down the face of the mountain through steep and icy snow chutes.

They were both skilled at this type of descent, but at one particularly difficult part of the route, Muenchrath slipped and tumbled over 100 feet down the rocky mountain face. She barely survived the fall and suffered life-threatening injuries.

When Olivia Joffrey's dad was too sick to attend her sixth-grade Father's Day softball game, her unsung hero, Bob Scowcroft, showed up to support her.

This was before cellular or satellite phones, so calling for help wasn’t an option. The couple was forced to hike through deep snow back to the trailhead. Once they arrived, Muenchrath collapsed in the parking lot. It had been five days since she’d fallen.

”My clothes were bloody. I had multiple fractures in my spine and pelvis, a head injury and gangrene from a deep wound,” Muenchrath said.

Not long after they reached the trailhead parking lot, a car pulled in. A man was driving, with his wife in the passenger seat and their baby in the back. As soon as the man saw Muenchrath’s condition, he ran over to help.

”He gently stroked my head, and he held my face [and] reassured me by saying something like, ‘You’re going to be OK now. I’ll be right back to get you,’” Muenchrath remembered.

For the first time in days, her panic began to lift.

“My unsung hero gave me hope that I’d reach a hospital and I’d survive. He took away my fears.”

Within a few minutes, the man had unpacked his car. His wife agreed to stay back in the parking lot with their baby in order to make room for Muenchrath, her boyfriend and their backpacks.

The man drove them to a nearby town so that the couple could get medical treatment.

“I remember looking into the eyes of my unsung hero as he carried me into the emergency room in Lone Pine, California. I was so weak, I couldn’t find the words to express the gratitude I felt in my heart.”

Joann Moschella had just been hit by a car when an unlikely hero came to her rescue.

The gratitude she felt that day only grew. Now, nearly 45 years later, she still thinks about the man and his family.

”He gave me the gift of allowing me to live my life and my dreams,” Muenchrath said.

At some point along the way, the man gave Muenchrath his contact information. But in the chaos of the day, she lost it and has never been able to find him.

”If I knew where my unsung hero was today, I would fly across the country to meet him again. I’d hug him, buy him a meal and tell him how much he continues to mean to me by saving my life. Wherever you are, I say thank you from the depths of my being.”

My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.