Your Guide to Hall of Flowers Week: Pier 36, the Pre-Parties and the Afterparties

By Greg Silverstein (@sourcatjack) for @newyork420week

Last October, Hall of Flowers showed up at Pier 36 for the first time and the city wasn't sure what to make of it. The booths were clean, the aisles were quiet, and half the room had flown in from California. It was a trade show in a city that had never really had one for weed, at least not one that looked like that. People compared it to Revelry. Some of them meant it as a compliment.

This year it's back, October 21 and 22, and the people who run it have figured out the thing that was missing. New York doesn't just want a trade show. New York wants the week around it. So Hall of Flowers has grown a whole calendar: a comedy show on Monday, a mixer and a High Times meetup on Tuesday, Puffco and Astor Club taking over a Bushwick warehouse Wednesday night, and Third Thursday closing it out on The Delancey rooftop. Four days, six events, and most of them are open to anyone who RSVPs.

The show floor itself is still locked down. If you're a licensed retailer, you get in free. If you're a brand, you were vetted months ago. If you're a service provider trying to work the room, Hall of Flowers has made it pretty clear they don't want you there, and honestly the parties are where you'll do better anyway.

Here's how the week lays out.

Monday: weed history at Caveat

The week opens Monday, October 19, at 9 pm at Caveat on Clinton Street with David Bienenstock's The History of Weed. If you don't know the name, you know the work: he was an editor at High Times, he made Bong Appétit for VICE, and he hosts the Great Moments in Weed History podcast. The show is an hour of slides, jokes, and stories that run from ancient hotboxes to Willie Nelson smoking on the White House roof, with a Q&A at the end. Danny Danko is MCing. Caveat holds about 120 people, so it's going to feel like a living room. Tickets are through Caveat, and there's a $5 early-bird promo code floating around on Instagram if you look.

Tuesday: two parties, a few blocks apart

Tuesday is the night to be downtown. Hall of Flowers' own mixer runs 5 to 9 pm at Nittis, presented by Gold Standard and AlpineIQ with Salt and Beard Bros Pharms. The practical reason to go is badge pickup: grab your credentials Tuesday night and walk past the Wednesday morning line. The address comes with the RSVP.

Then there's the one everybody's actually talking about. High Times' Legacy to Legal crew, The Movement, is throwing a Hall of Flowers pre-party at Champagne Problems on the Bowery from 6 to 11 pm. Cash bar, open dab bar, and a flyer stacked with Magic Garden Botanicals, 5boro, Dr. Dabber, Kaleidoscope Collective and SkyHigh. It's pitched at budtenders, buyers and brands, and the guest list already looks like the show floor. When I checked, over 400 people had RSVP'd and fewer than 100 spots were left. Entry is RSVP only, through Partiful, and the list closes Monday. Do that today.

There's also a Haunted Sesh executive networking night the same evening, 6 to 10 pm, location on approval. It isn't on Hall of Flowers' official schedule, but it's listed in The Other's fall guide if that's more your speed.

Wednesday: the floor, then Bushwick

Doors at Pier 36 open at 10 am Wednesday and the floor runs until 5. Two hundred-plus brands, more than a hundred of them showing only at Hall of Flowers, indoors and out along the river. Day one is buyers' day. Rama Mayo, who runs the show, says the whole floor plan is built so a dispensary buyer can walk it, sample, and write orders without getting pitched on POS software every ten feet. Sampling is on site. Bring a notebook, or at least a phone with battery.

Wednesday night is the big one. Puffco and Astor Club are hosting the official Hall of Flowers afterparty at 99 Scott in Bushwick, 6 to 10 pm. Puffco's line is: bring your crew and your favorite headies and come sesh, which is about as much description as you need. Astor Club is the Lower East Side members' club. It's 21+, private, ID at the door, no alcohol and no weapons, and you have to RSVP through Puffco. If you've been to a Puffco Experience in another city, you know the glass that shows up. If you haven't, this is the night. This is the place to be Wednesday night! Nothing else compares.

Thursday: day two, then the rooftop

Day two on the pier is the same hours, 10 to 5, and historically it's the looser day. The buyers who wrote their orders Wednesday come back to hang out, and the brands who had a good Wednesday are in a very good mood although sometimes people just show up to day one.

At 5 pm the whole thing moves to The Delancey, where Highest Standards and Third Thursday are throwing the official closing party with Vertical Supply Co. Third Thursday has been the monthly meetup for New York's licensed community since before most of these stores had doors, and they ran Revelry's pre-party in September too. The Eventbrite is promising free food, an open bar, brand activations, and 400-plus industry people across both floors and the roof. It's a free RSVP, 21+, and it was marked "going fast" a week out.

Getting in

The show floor is the only hard door of the week, so here's the honest version. Licensed New York retailers get a free pass; apply on the HOF site with your OCM paperwork. Everyone else in the industry is looking at a $595 two-day Industry Ticket that requires an application and approval, and HOF says flat out it's not for agencies, service providers or anyone planning to solicit. There's also a Day 2-only ticket for Thursday, $295 early bird or $395 standard, no application, limited supply. Despite what a few event-listing sites are saying, there is no public consumer day in New York. That's the California show.

The parties are easier. Caveat is a ticket. Nittis, the High Times pre-party and the Delancey closing party are free RSVPs. Puffco is a private RSVP that closes the afternoon of the event. Every one of them is 21+ and every one of them will check ID.

My personal recommendation is to go Wednesday for the show and stay for the nighttime vibes with Puffco and Astor Club.

The week at a glance