[420 Girl]

Organizers created something a little different this weekend in a town known for fashion, skiing, stars and scenery.

More than 1,000 people are expected to fill the ski town of Aspen this weekend for the first ever Western Slope Cannabis Crown Festival. Organizers say it is like a beer tasting festival, only with marijuana.

The festival is being held at the St. Regis Resort and is complete with hemp fashion shows, booths showing the benefits of medical marijuana, even the advantages of security cameras for marijuana-grow operations.

But the part of the festival that got a lot of attention was an area where about 100 growers showed their marijuana strains for competition.

"You can actually see the different strains, and that's the word strains, that contestants have entered," Pia Reynaldo, one of the festival organizers, said.

Anyone with $25 can pick up a ticket and head into the convention area. To actually head into the part where the marijuana tasting is located, people have to first fill out paperwork, show their medical marijuana card, and then get a wrist band.

Rules of the event also include no smoking marijuana on the streets of Aspen or at the hotels. Organizers also remind those attending that having pot without a medical marijuana card is illegal.

The Aspen Police Department says as long as people obey the rules, there should not be any problems.

Organizers say the festival is more about information, which is why Bart Gunderson says he plans on growing his budding event next year.

"It is a growing industry. It's an industry that's exploding in an economy that's ripe," he said.

And it is all in a town Gunderson says is made for a marijuana festival.

"People can come here and feel relaxed, medicate," he said.

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