There is a specific kind of quiet in the brewery before an event. To us, the show's already started, our preparations began months ago. When folks show up, it's the next step. We are preparing for Hemp Fest '26 at Urban Artifact now. The tables are getting set, the cans are geting stacked, bright and cold.
Outside these walls, the regulatory currents are shifting. The political winds from Columbus and Washington are blowing erratic and cold, threatening to capsize an industry built by the honest labor of farmers, chemists, and brewers. There is talk of bans, of new definitions, of erasing the work of the last few years with the stroke of a pen.
It would be easy to let this uncertainty paralyze us. To wait for the fog to lift before we chart our course.
But a ship does not wait for the ocean to be kind.
We press on. Not because we are naive to the danger, but because the work itself has dignity, and our flavors are delicious. The hemp plant is not a political football; it is a crop. It is a product of the earth that, when treated with the craft it deserves, brings people together. It offers a different kind of fellowship: communal and grounded. This festival is an assertion of existence. We are building a local economy here in Cincinnati that relies on innovation, not permission.
Come January 24th, we will open the doors. We will pour the drinks. We will gather in the Reliquary and do what humans have done for millennia: find comfort in the company of others.
Let the legislators debate the definitions. We will be here, doing the work. Join us and our wonderful collection of industry partners as we taste, talk, and learn.
Tickets available at: https://www.cincyticket.com/hempfest26
