CHAMPS and Smoke & Mirrors: A Week of Glass and Culture in Austin

By Joey Dulisse (@joeydots) and Greg Silverstein (@sourcatjack) for @newyork420week

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas spent the past seven months squeezing its hemp industry. This week, the people who make the pipes came to Austin anyway.

CHAMPS, the trade show that supplies the country's smoke shops, opened Tuesday at the Palmer Events Center. By evening, much of the glass world had moved across town to The Glassmith, where 64 artists were set to compete for $5,000.

The timing is awkward. This year Texas has pulled smokable hemp off shelves, made delta-8 a felony and raised the cost of a retail license to $5,000. Yet the week's calendar shows a scene that has shifted rather than shrunk, toward glass, toward live events and, by Sunday, toward a first-of-its-kind rosin competition.

A Buyers' Show, With Glass Up Front

CHAMPS runs through Thursday afternoon and is open only to business buyers 21 and older. Its top sponsors this fall are Demand Vape, a vape hardware supplier; Mellow Fellow, a Florida hemp brand; and MIA, a nicotine disposable maker.

The buyers it draws go well beyond the head shop:

• Smoke shops and head shops
• Vape shops and lounges
• Dispensaries
• Adult boutiques
• Novelty stores
• Convenience stores
• Mycology stores
• Gas stations
• Glass artists
• Hookah lounges
• Digital 420 shops

For glass fans, the draw is the row of independent artists. Six of them, including Burtoni Glass and Eternal Flame Works, are also in this week's Glass Man Standing bracket, so the people selling at a booth in the afternoon are on the torch that night. Thursday's Goblet Grab, the show's signature glass sale, closes things out.

The floor also hints at where smoke shop money is going: plenty of kratom, and two grabba brands with booths of their own.

The industry's legal fight gets its own time slot on Wednesday. Two seminars, open to show attendees, run upstairs in Meeting Room 5 of the Palmer Events Center. From 1 to 2:30 p.m., JD McCormick of the American Healthy Alternatives Association presents "December 11th: What's Next for Hemp?" From 3 to 4:30 p.m., the Texas Hemp Business Council hosts "The Hemp Republic: Texas, D.C., & the Fight for the Industry's Future."

From a Food Truck to the Official After-Party

The Glassmith started as a glassblowing studio in a food truck selling pipes to college students. This year CHAMPS named it the official after-hours home of the show's glass events.

The party there, Smoke & Mirrors, runs every night through Thursday with the bar next door, Half Full. It plays like a cross between a music festival and a county fair, with live bands, stilt walkers, fire dancers and a drag show. GRAV hosts the closing night.

Sixty-Four Artists, One Champion

The main event is the Glass Man Standing Invitational, a two-night elimination tournament. The winner takes home $5,000 and a trip to compete at CHAMPS Masters in Las Vegas.

Tuesday night cuts the field from 64 to 16. On Wednesday, the remaining artists go head to head until one is left.

The bracket is full of familiar names. Burtoni has the most fans in the comments, Eternal Flameworks has won CHAMPS qualifier games, and Dimitrios Patakos, known as Charisma, is competing before teaching a class at the same studio on Friday. The whole thing streams live under the name Glass Man Standing.

A Competing Party Downtown

On Wednesday, the tournament's final night, Blazed Magazine throws its second annual Blazedfest on the rooftop of Shiner's Saloon downtown. It's free, with live music, vendor booths and the magazine's Beverage of the Year awards.

The two parties are on opposite sides of town, so most people will have to pick one or split the night.

After the Booths Come Down

The trade show ends Thursday afternoon. The programming around it does not.

A Master Class at $600 a Torch

On Friday, Charisma, a sculptor known for intricate glass characters, starts a two-day flameworking course at The Glassmith, with Indo Glass assisting. A seat at the torch costs $600, and a seat to watch costs $200.

An Arts Festival Down the Road

About 15 miles south, the small town of Buda wraps up its annual arts festival on Saturday. It isn't a cannabis or glass event, but it's a good reset after three late nights: artisan markets, street musicians, live painting and a stained glass demo, mostly free.

A Rosin Competition, Under New Rules

The week ends Sunday where it began, at The Glassmith, with The Texas Oil Rush, billed as the state's first competition just for hemp rosin. Two local figures, Justin the Ganjier and High Pie, organized it. A dozen judges will score the entries blind, and Dr. Dabber is the main sponsor. Tickets start at $20.

Under Texas's new testing rules, how rosin entries qualify is an open question, and one the organizers' announcement didn't address.

Six Days on the Calendar

Put together, it feels less like a trade show with parties attached than a festival with a trade show in the middle. Texas has narrowed what smoke shops can sell. This week shows where the energy went instead: to the torch, the stage and the people who keep showing up.

The Week at a Glance

Joey Dulisse reported from Austin. Greg Silverstein reported from New York.

Sources

1. CHAMPS Trade Shows homepage (types of attendees)
2. CHAMPS Austin, October 2026
3. CHAMPS Glass Games, upcoming events
4. CHAMPS Austin Fall 2026 floor map
5. Smoke & Mirrors, The Glassmith
6. Find Your Voice with Charisma
7. Glass Man Standing competitor post
8. Demand Vape, About Us
9. Mellow Fellow, PressHook brand page
10. MIA ICONIQ 70K, Element Vape listing
11. Blazedfest, Austin Chronicle calendar
12. Buda Arts Festival
13. The Texas Oil Rush, Fat Nugs Magazine
14. Texas hemp ban, Axios Houston
15. Texas THC reclassification, KBTX