Emily Kenny

Photographer

www.emilykennyphotography.com/

CNY Hemp Festival

Location: Syracuse, New York

Biography: I'm a recent graduate from Syracuse University where I earned my master's degree in photojournalism. Before coming to SU, I graduated from Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa with a double major in digital media and psychology. I am... MORE

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Festival attendees learn about the different parts of the hemp plant.

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Harvest festival organizer, Rob Robinson, is a CNY marijuana legalization activist interested in social justice and environmental reform. Some of his advocacy is inspired by the mantras of the gay rights movement: “We’re here, we’re high, get used to it,” he says.

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Farm owner, George Knarich (center in black), answers questions about his first year of growing hemp after festival organizer Rob Robinson’s speech welcoming everyone to the harvest. “You guys are beautiful — let’s harvest some hemp,” said Robinson (right in colorful jacket) to the crowd from his pickup truck pulpit.

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A vendor at the Hemp Festival cleans a dab rig used for vaporizing cannabis concentrates.

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Sprout and her son, Chainsaw, hang out while she creates art for people attending the festival to purchase.

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Buffy smokes a bowl while wearing a crown of hemp taken from the farm field.

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George Knarich discusses the plants with Zach Howard, a regular marijuana user.

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Festivalgoers pile George Knarich’s truck high with harvested hemp that the farmer and his team will process into CBD salves, oils and other products.

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John Kimberly, a festival attendee from New Jersey, smells a hemp flower, then cradles it in his hands. “Is this how you look at a child for the first time?” he says.