GREENFIELD — Festival season in Franklin County will kick off with a puff of smoke this weekend.

Toasted Jam 3.5 will feature 15 live musical artists, 60 local vendors and all manners of activities from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday at the Franklin County Fairgrounds. GreenMindEvents, a cannabis-focused events company, is organizing the event.

“We’re trying to put a spotlight on local vendors and local businesses,” said Event Coordinator Destiny Klein. “We’re really trying to get people out of their house as this is the first event of the season.”

Klein said organizers took “a little bit of taste from every genre or music” in selecting musical acts, including western Massachusetts talent like Northampton-based Shantyman and North Adams-based Woody & The Rebel Alliance.

Klein said the festival will feature a 21-only section to keep marijuana away from minors because the goal is to be a “good-vibe, family festival.” She added that the company is “straying away” from its marijuana roots as it encourages families to attend its events.

“We really tried to work hard on keeping (that area) separate to encourage people to bring their children,” Klein said. “We’re trying to the make the industry a little more light-hearted.”

Among the events planned for everyone on Saturday are a silent disco, rock climbing wall, a “kids zone” with a 44-foot slide, face painting and acrobatic demonstrations from Pole Control Studios. For adults, there will be marijuana products and High Olympics, which Klein described as games where people compete for prizes from Uniq Vape.

Tickets are $20 for general admission, $10 for minors under 21, $50 for a camping pass and $100 for an RV pass. More information and links to purchase tickets can be found at greenmindevents.net.

GreenMindEvents will also host several over events at the Franklin County Fairgrounds this year, with scheduled dates of July 2, Aug. 27 and Oct. 5.

Mike Nelson, president of the Franklin County Agricultural Society that manages the fairgrounds, said GreenMindEvents’ staff have been good partners to work with.

“They reached out to us as a Franklin County resource to start having some events in this region,” Nelson said. “It seems like a great group to work with.”

Nelson said the fairgrounds has never had a marijuana festival before, but one had been scheduled for April 2020 that was canceled due to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the fairgrounds is “happy to help” bring the product and industry to Greenfield.

He added that he would have been much more reluctant in working with a marijuana company just a few years ago, but the “incredible change in our culture” made him happy to host it.

“It’s more normalized,” he said. “Now, here we are, it’s legalized and people are opening stores on every corner.”

With festivals returning to their pre-pandemic size, Nelson said this is a great way to kick off the Franklin County Fairgrounds’ summer season.

“This is our first year that we’re back into the swing of a normal year,” Nelson said, adding that people can expect festivals to come back on a “grander scale.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.

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