The Hester Street Fair, a popular weekly flea market gathering in New York’s Lower East Side, is known for offering local artists, makers, bakers, and shakers a chance to sell their creative wares and tasty fares. But recently, those wares and fares were limited to a different kind of vending—one that celebrates CBD!
Featuring vendors selling everything from CBD lotions, oils, and balms to gummies, chocolates, ice cream, and cocktails, the “Hester Street CBD Festival” was a first for New York City, and with its hugely successful turnout, likely won’t be the last.
“I know a lot of people have CBD in their coffee shops and everyone’s talking about it, said fair founder David Komurek. “I just thought it’d be great to somehow put all that in one place.”
“All that” included East Village herbalist specialists The Alchemist’s Kitchen, drinks and edibles by Matcha/CBD shop Maman NYC as well as a CBD-only beverage menu from popular Lower East Side coffee staple Round K, extracts, balms, and topicals from CBD wellness brand Leef Organics, and hemp flower and products from “NYC’s first CBD-centric brick and mortar” shop, Hemp Lab NYC.
“With living in New York comes a lot of stress, so we just try to educate people on how to combat that stress,” said Zoe Reda, co-owner of Potion CBD and one of the festival’s vendors. “We use these [Potion CBD] gummies every day to promote feelings of relaxation, soreness, getting a stiff neck from working at a desk all the time, and try to combat those everyday stressors that you have.”
Moving forward, festival co-founders Komurek and Carma Flores want to take the CBD festival on the road to other cities and build on the momentum. As for here in New York, any cannabis-themed festival is a welcomed addition to the often underground cannabis scene, and we look forward to more festivals and events just like this one as cannabis continues to become more acceptable, both legally and socially.
