[420 Girl]

The official herbal holiday, April 20 (known in some circles as 4/20 Day), has come and gone, but the city’s biggest celebration of personal freedom is upon us this weekend with the third annual Toronto Freedom Festival.

While the Freedom Festival’s flagship event is the May 2 Global Marijuana March, it’s not specifically a pot party. More than anything, it’s a celebration of the freedom to make lifestyle choices and the willingness to accept responsibility for those choices. Festival organizers Gavin “The Gerbz” Bryers and Neev Tapiro explain that the idea was to create an event that the city could get behind in order to stimulate the public discussion about drug-law reforms.

Since its inception, Freedom Fest has grown to being one of the largest free spring festivals in the city. And though it’s still operating without any kind of government funding, the fact that they held the launch party right in the heart of downtown shows that at least some councillors — like festival supporter Kyle Rae — are on board with the tolerant atmosphere. Bryers hopes that this year the festival will bring out enough people that it will be impossible to ignore.

The lineup should serve this purpose rather well. On the main stage, performers like Snoop Dog and Dr. Dre’s DJ Jam, Spookey Ruben and Juno winner Humble will follow in the footsteps of previous years’ breakout acts like USS and Down With Webster. Legendary Toronto DJ Kenny Glasgow is one of the many acts to grace the electronic music stage and EYE WEEKLY’s own Voices of Freedom speaker stage plays host to the one and only “Prince of Pot,” Marc Emery, Alison Myrden from the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, as well as a poetry slam. This year also features a film component, called F3, where a program of short films and a special screening of Ron Mann’s Know Your Mushrooms will be playing at 5pm.

And, of course, the big draw is hanging out in the northern half of Queen’s Park for an afternoon among a freedom-loving crowd — or as the cartoon version of Cypress Hill’s Sen Dog once said, “That and getting toasted, nicely toasted.”

Freedom Festival line-up

Main Stage:
Kidd Rasta and the Peacemakers
House of David Gang with Juno award winner Humble
Ko Kapches
Dylan Murray
Chris Assaad
Spookey Ruben
Gryffyn
Sweat Shop Union
The Good Times
Planet Earth
Quest for Fire
Rebel Emergency
Snoop Dogg’s DJ JAM
DJ Dopey

Electronic Music Stage:
Manzone & Strong
Addy
Kenny Glasgow
Nitin
Jonny White
Neno
Julien Loreto
Nik Nik

Drum and Bass Stage:
DJ True Troopa
DJs Chilton Gains & Stick Everest with MC Hydee
DJs Brockout & Grizzy with MC Bakes
DJ Raw Design with
MC Black Magic
DJs Mischief & Mayhem with MC Scarbred
DJ NC-17 with MC Bandit
DJs Jayline & Mainak with MC A2Z & Dro
DJ RPM with MC Lucky General
DJ P Dot Ill with MC Zee
DJ John Rolodex with
MC Zee
DJ Prime Ill with
MC Dexy G

EYE WEEKLY Voices of Freedom Speaker Stage:
Buzz Worthy — Eric Wood
Cannabis Culture — Marc Emery
Conspiracy Culture — Patrick Whyte
NDP — Dana Larsen
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition — Alison Myrden
Toronto Ravers Info Project — Erin Lewis
Documentary Filmmaker — Stuart Samuels
BC Bud Depot — Nancy Shook
Canada Action Party — Dr. Andrew J. Molden
CUPE 3903 — Tyler Shipley

Poetry Slam hosted by Lady Lox featuring:
Tommy Bewick
Memo
Sankofa
Heron Jones
Truth Is
Spin
Yogi
The Storm
David Silverberg
David Delisca

Short Film Program
Hollyweed:
Movies and Marijuana — Stuart Samuels
Fuel — Adam Bialo
Know Your Mushrooms — Ron Mann

11th Annual Global Marijuana March (GMM)
The march will leave the north end of Queen’s Park at approximately 2pm.


http://www.420magazine.com/forums/in...-festival.html