CannaFest returns to Dixon in July as a two-day live music festival

DIXON – Glass blowers, vendors and live music are returning to Elks Page Park in Dixon in July for the second annual Herbal Roots CannaFest.

“Last year was amazing. I think we had about 1,200 people out here,” Guy Cooksey, event organizer for CannaFest, said in an interview with Shaw Local.

The first Herbal Roots CannaFest was July 8, 2023. The event – for those 21 and older – started at noon and ran until midnight. It followed a zero-alcohol policy, instead promoting “BYOB – bring your own bud” after the approval of recreational use of marijuana for those 21 and older in Illinois. For a $10 entrance fee, visitors could walk around rows of about 40 vendor booths, see glass artisans’ work in the lodge and listen to live music until 8 p.m.

[ Organizers: First ‘Cannafest’ a hit ]

Based on positive feedback, the event has expanded to two days with a camping option for patrons, Cooksey said.

Some people are coming to the festival from out of the state or southern Illinois. Expanding to a two-day event with camping “gives them a place to stay, hang out and get to know each other,” Cooksey said.

The event is scheduled from 2 to 11 p.m. Friday, July 12, and from noon to midnight Saturday, July 13. There is a $10-per-day entry fee, or patrons can preorder two-day passes for $15. Camping is provided by Elks Page Park, 7883 S. Lowell Park Road in Dixon, for $20 a night.

CannaFest donated 10% of the proceeds from the 2023 event to Rosbrook Studios to help raise funds to buy its historic building downtown and make needed structural repairs. Cooksey said the event plans to donate to the studio again this year.

Rosbrook Studios will provide live musical performances at the festival from 2 to 8 p.m. Friday and from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday. The studio has operated as a music and arts venue through donations and volunteers for more than a decade on the second floor at 107 S. Peoria Ave. in Dixon.

From 8 to 11 p.m. Friday night, Class Field Trip, a rock band based in Dixon, is scheduled to perform. From 8 p.m. to midnight Saturday, Roadhouse Gypsy’s will close out the festival.

Aside from music, there will be more than 50 vendors as well as local businesses selling art, smoking accessories and more. Glass artisans Mountain Pine Glass, KoalaT Glass, Kauchak Kreations and David “Homer” Reitz will be displaying their crafts live for attendees to watch. Ink Storm Rebels will have tattoo artists working at the event.

Additionally, there is going to be an overhaul of food and drink vendors. At the 2023 event, “we underestimated the amount of food” to provide and “ran out of food at 7 p.m.,” Cooksey said.

This year, he said, he has booked more vendors so as not to allow that to happen.

For the 2024 event, Cooksey wanted to include more interactive activities. Bags games will be set up throughout the festival grounds, and Whoop Your Axe in Sterling is bringing mobile units to provide ax throwing, he said.

Based on attendance last year and the festival’s expansion to a two-day event, Cooksey expects there to be more than 2,000 people in attendance.

To reserve camping spaces, call Elks Page Park at 815-440-9889.

For information, visit the Herbal Roots CannaFest Facebook page.