Growing up in the rural Emerald Triangle, there was one special event that everyone was aware of. In the height of summer, anyone and everyone who liked good music, good weed, and had a tolerance for camping would step away from the real world for a long weekend and make their way along Highway 101 to the Redwoods. There, they would all convene at French's camp, a rocky field on the banks of the Eel River. What followed was a unique cultural event centered around reggae music, community, cannabis, and appreciating the natural world around us. We're talking of course, about the legendary Reggae on The River.
Back in 1983, after the Mateel Community Center in Garberville CA was lost to fire, the community rallied around to organize a concert fundraiser for the rebuilding effort. Nancy Shelby, Jack Bruno, and Jack Arthur spearheaded the effort. Growers donated cash from their crop, locals donated equipment, radio DJ’s promoted it via the local station KMUD, and the Mateel crew brought in a selection of excellent reggae artists. This first event cost a few dollars and was only a day or so long, but over time the event has grown into a full sized modern music festival stretching over three days with multiple thousands of attendees and several hundred dollar tickets. Over the years, everyone just started to call it Reggae for short. Some years, the festival has been cancelled or relocated, notably due to conflicts between the organizing businesses, revenue shortfalls, and Covid. After restarting in 2024, Reggae is back on and flourishing just a mile or so down the river from its original location.
Reggae ‘93 Concert Poster
What makes Reggae so special is a heady mix of music, activism, community, and cannabis. Reggae music has always been synonymous with cannabis activism, and was brought to the Triangle by the many Jamaican Rastafarians who came to the region for its ideal growing conditions and unique genetics. Even before the festival, the Mateel was known for its reggae and world music shows alongside its role as a multipurpose community venue. Now world famous, Reggae on the River truly brings the Jamaican concept of “irie” positive vibes and community to life.
In addition to cannabis activism, the festival also tapped into the local culture of ecoactivism in response to corporate violence against nature, as exemplified by the events of the Redwood Summer, and various organizations such as EarthFirst! and EPIC. The event’s setting among some of the last remaining unspoiled old growth Giant Sequoias highlights the unique nature of this environment and the threats it faces.
The final piece of the Reggae puzzle is the community of cannabis growers in the Triangle. These resourceful countercultural outlaws grew, and still grow, some of the best buds anywhere, and were eager to collaborate with each other to promote an event where they could get together and show off their crop. Living out in these mountains far from cities and government support is difficult, especially in the pre 2000's era. Driven by the back-to-the-land movement and the hard working spirit of the local logging industries, these farmers combined self sufficiency and community effort to get things done. People here helped their neighbors out and knew who could lend a hand. It wasn't, and still isn't, a perfect system, as the geographic isolation does support a certain degree of antisocial behavior, but in general when shit hits the fan the country people of the Emerald Triangle know how to organize a solution, whether to respond to a wildfire or to put on a reggae festival.
The concert Bowl at the original French's Camp Location
The festival was always cannabis permissive, even in the pre-legalization days, when law enforcement purposefully overlooked consumption and sales. More weed trading business by weight has likely been done at Reggae than anywhere else in the world with the exception of the ancient hash markets of the Middle East.
Reggae holds a special significance for Higher Origins. We grew up going to these events, and have witnessed first hand the cultural impact that legalization and the subsequent State sabotage of the legal industry has had on the Triangle. We’re no strangers to the hot dusty campsites of French’s camp, the smells of jerk chicken and top shelf homegrown, and the rhythms from artists like Pato Banton, Jimmy Cliff, and Damian Marley echoing off the redwoods. Now that we’ve grown up and run a cannabis platform focused on helping get small farms to market, this connection is more important than ever.
Our founder Matt getting a better look at the stage at his first Reggae (1998)
As the California market shrinks and fails in the face of crippling over regulation and taxation, events like Reggae on the River are critical to preserving and promoting the cannabis culture that started it all. As the market gets worse, retail buyers increasingly gatekeep against outdoor flower, and the costs and complexity of moving flower South to the urban centers increase, the growers of the Triangle are being forced out of the legal market. Higher Origins was created to help growers with these challenges, so this year at Reggae, we’re trying to make a difference.
Here’s what we’re working on:
Supporting Onsite Sales: This year Reggae has collaborated with CanniFest to run an onsite farmer’s market so local growers can display and sell their products to consumers who can smoke on site. Since the current regulatory system of Farm-Distro-Retailer usually keeps consumers separated from the people who grow their herb, this provides an ideal opportunity for the two to meet in an authentic environment. We’ll be offering the menu and promo features of Higher Origins to these farms to help them reach as many consumers as possible at the show and afterwards.
Higher Origins for Events: This Reggae will be an exploratory test bed for how Higher Origins can help facilitate events and their impact on attendees and sellers. The idea is to work out a feature set that we can make into a standard package to use to improve the impact of future cannabis events. We have a few ideas:
Flexible Event Creation: Easily build detailed event pages with full schedules, venue information, and ticketing links.
Recurring Event Support: Manage ongoing markets, festivals, meetups, or pop-ups with flexible recurring scheduling options (weekly, monthly, or custom).
Integrated Vendor Participation: Businesses can link directly to events, allowing attendees to discover products, vendors, and services before, during, and after the event.
Increased Visibility & Discovery: Public events are featured across Higher Origins, helping attract attendees through integrated search, recommendations, and discovery tools.
Data-Driven Insights: Track event participation, vendor engagement, and attendee interactions to better measure event performance and guide future planning.
Vendor Page Integration: Vendors participating in events can showcase product listings, certifications, and business details directly from their Higher Origins pages.
Audience Growth Tools: Build mailing lists from event attendees and vendor participants for ongoing engagement, announcements, and future marketing campaigns.
SEO-Optimized Event Pages: Every event listing generates a search-friendly public page that helps drive long-term traffic, discovery, and awareness.
Telling the Stories: We want to showcase the stories of Reggae, from growers to musicians to longtime attendees. We’ll be onsite and will conduct interviews and a photo project to promote the culture, farmers, and history. These stories are critical for connecting with consumers and standing out in today’s fractured market. In a state where it’s difficult to know where your weed came from and the strongest connection most people feel to a brand’s story is the graphic design of their logo, personal stories, history, and cultural connection are some of the last options available for small farms to differentiate themselves from the faceless megabrands.
As part of this story telling, we’ll be profiling the farms involved with articles, starting with our own Mendo Mystic Farms. Cindy and Tony’s story traces back decades through the history of NorCal cannabis- stay tuned, you won’t want to miss it!
If you’re going to be at Reggae and have a story to tell, hit us up! You can reach us at [email protected], on Instagram @higher.origins, or in person at Reggae on August 1-3rd.
Happy Reggae, and stay cool!
-The Higher Origins Team
