Hash Bash

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hash Bash is an annual event held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the first Saturday of April. This year's Bash will take place on April 7th, 2007, at high noon on the U of M Diag. The event is a collection of speeches, live music, street vending and the occasional civil disobedience centered around the goal of reforming federal, state and local marijuana laws. The first Hash Bash was held in 1971 to protest the 10-year prison sentence given to cultural activist John Sinclair for possession of two marijuana joints.

Ann Arbor has very lenient laws regarding the possession of marijuana – a $25 fine first $50 second $75 third offense -- and is a simple civil infraction rather than a criminal offense, such as misdemeanor or felony (see Marijuana laws in Ann Arbor, Michigan). Even so, the campus of the University of Michigan sits upon state property, and so anyone caught with marijuana on any campus location is subject to the more strict state marijuana laws. As this is the case, there is a separate but heavily related event following Hash Bash just off campus known as the Monroe Street Fair, where there is usually a live show accompanying the many street vendors selling extravagant bongs and other marijuana paraphernalia, along with a Michigan NORML booth.