This Saturday, tens of thousands of people will gather in Civic Center Park to participate in Denver’s annual Mile High 420 Festival — a celebration of our city’s deep-seated cannabis culture and the historic journey that got us here.
While the event today is a raucous party complete with food trucks, pop-up bars, and a legendary live music lineup, its beginning was much more humble. The first iterations of the festival were not actually a festival at all, but a political rally staged by local activist Ken Gorman. The Vietnam War veteran and former Colorado gubernatorial candidate was a staunch advocate for the legalization of marijuana. In 1992 he organized what would be the first of many annual 4/20 “smoke-ins” on the lawn outside the state capitol building. The number of people attending the yearly “Denver 420 Rally,” as it became known, grew exponentially each year, reaching the thousands by 2011.
As for the man who started it all, friends and fans affectionately nicknamed Gorman “Governor Pothead” for all his work to move the needle on marijuana legislation. Tragically, Gorman would never get the chance to see what his annual 420 event would eventually become. He was murdered in his home in 2007. Today the case remains open and unsolved.
After Colorado voters legalized cannabis in 2012, the Denver 420 Rally became more of a celebration than a political statement. The first post-legalization gathering in 2013 saw some 80,000 attendees from all over the country. In more recent years, the festival has hit a few snags — facing controversy and permitting battles with the City after celebrations in 2017 left Civic Center Park completely trashed; and then being canceled due to the COVID pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
Today, the festival touts itself as the largest marijuana festival in the world — and for that hard work we will raise a joint to you, Gov. Pothead 😶 🌫️🌿
