My Experience at Great Harvest 2023
After hosting a booth at multiple events these past several weeks, I was ready to attend an event as a spectator and not a vendor. The Great Harvest 2023 event at the Mackinaw Valley Vineyard Thursday night gave me the opportunity to relax after months of unavoidable outside-work stress. So I did just that.
I rooted for this event to do well (not that I had any doubt) because I wanted Phil Cooper and High-Minded Events to host more events in central Illinois. The Great Harvest 2023 delivered exactly what I expected for a High-Minded Events event, a professional, well thought out, and entertaining celebration. And instead of driving nearly a 3-hour drive and three tollbooths to a Chicago event, the trip lasted about an hour.
Hundreds of budtenders and other industry workers attended the event that hosted 40 leading Illinois brands, cuisine, music, and several cannactivities, including creating pipes, experiencing a rosin press activation, glass blowing, and rolling stations. Many of these craft grow and social equity brands have just started with a handful of others about to. The Mackinaw Valley Vineyard, in its 26th year, was a perfect location and venue for a fall cannabis (or any) event atmosphere.
Because of family obligations, I arrived a little late without eating lunch or dinner, so I headed straight for food, which included catered coleslaw barbeque at one table, and fruit, crackers, dip, macaroni and cheese, and salad with a hot bacon dressing at another table. After eating and running into a couple people I know, I made my way to each booth, but I was in no hurry and eager to hang out and just relax. The late arrival and lackadaisical effort to reach each booth, though, made me miss out on one of my favorite obsessions, donuts.
As with all High-Minded Events, I picked up some nice swag (including fall pumpkins and mums), talked to several people I know, met a few new people, and completed my goal of just relaxing and living in the moment with no obligations. Along with its website, High-Minded Events can be emailed at phil@highmindedevents.com and be found on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram @highmindedevents. To find cannabis-friendly events in Illinois, visit here.