There’s a particular kind of heat rising off the East Coast right now, and it’s not just the humidity creeping through the concrete. It’s cannabis. Legal. Local. Loud. This October, Hall of Flowers is bringing that energy to its highest expression yet with a two-day B2B experience in the beating heart of the industry’s most complicated, poetic, and promising frontier: New York City.
Set at Pier 36 in Manhattan on October 8–9, the event is more than a trade show. It’s a crossroads for legacy and licensed operators, for old-school heads and new-school hustlers, for tri-state cannabis culture and global brand building.
It’s a moment. If you’re not there, you’re not in it.
High Times, High Stakes: The History of the Plant in NYC
Before corporate weed, before brand deals, before anyone had a license to sell a single eighth, there was High Times. And New York was its spiritual (and editorial) home.
Founded in 1974 by Tom Forçade, a journalist, underground publisher, and cannabis smuggler with a flair for disruption, High Times was launched not as a weed magazine but as a countercultural statement. It was born in the thick of New York’s revolutionary media scene, printed first in Midtown, and run by a rotating crew of activists, artists, pranksters, and true believers.
At a time when cannabis was being criminalized and caricatured, High Times put it on the cover. Literally.
- It covered Colombian gold and Thai stick like Wine Spectator wrote about cabernet.
- It gave serious column space to grow science, legalization politics, and psychedelic thought.
- It introduced readers to Ed Rosenthal, Jack Herer, Dennis Peron, Hunter S. Thompson, and the idea that weed wasn’t just a habit. It was a movement.
And it all grew from a small office stacked with bongs and manuscripts on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
By the 1980s and ’90s, High Times was throwing secret parties in SoHo lofts, producing underground Cannabis Cups, and publishing editorials that would later become case law. It was part magazine, part myth-making machine.
And even after relocating operations to the West Coast, its DNA remained distinctly New York: raw, fast-talking, unfiltered, and always ten steps ahead of the status quo.
The New York Writers Who Made It Personal
The magazine’s roots may have started with smugglers and satirists, but as the years went on, a new generation of NYC-based writers and editors gave it voice, humor, and heart.
Danny Danko
Few names are as synonymous with New York cannabis journalism as Danny Danko. Born and bred in Brooklyn, Danko served as High Times’ Senior Cultivation Editor, authoring the High Times Field Guide to Marijuana Strains and anchoring the Cannabis Cup coverage with grit and authenticity. His Free Weed podcast became a must-listen for growers and tokers alike. Through it all, he stayed grounded in East Coast realism, always championing the underground growers, home cultivators, and legacy operators who kept the plant alive long before it was legal.
Mary Jane Gibson
Another NYC staple, Mary Jane Gibson, brought theater training, journalistic chops, and a whole lot of soul to her work. A longtime High Times culture editor and co-host of the Weed+Grub podcast, Gibson wrote features that went far beyond strain reviews. Her storytelling touched on queer rights, racial equity, psychedelics, music, and the absurdities of prohibition—all with a voice as sharp as it was compassionate. She’s interviewed everyone from Snoop Dogg to Ayahuasca shamans, bridging scenes and subcultures with grace.
Others Who Carried the Torch
Writers like Steven Hager, who helped create the modern Cannabis Cup and brought hip-hop into the fold early, and Bobby Black, who championed stoner metal, party culture, and travel adventures in Amsterdam and beyond, also helped shape the magazine’s voice—much of it rooted in the chaotic, beautiful streets of New York.
These voices didn’t just document cannabis; they helped redefine what it meant to live with, grow with, and advocate for the plant.
What Hall of Flowers Means in That Context
So when Hall of Flowers lands in NYC, it’s not just a market expansion; it’s a homecoming.
It’s the return of cannabis commerce to the city that gave cannabis journalism its teeth. To the city that raised a generation of heads who knew the difference between an ounce of mids and a zip of gas long before THC percentages were printed on a label.
It’s a full-circle moment.
The plant that was once passed hand-to-hand in alleyways and basements is now sold legally by licensed retailers who used to read High Times under the covers. Conversations that once happened in code are now happening onstage. The people who were once hunted for growing are now celebrated for breeding.
And High Times? Still here. Still publishing. Still carrying the torch. Only now, it’s reflected in a skyline lit with dispensary neon where prohibition once ruled.
Why Hall of Flowers NYC 2025 Hits Different
Hall of Flowers is already a name synonymous with what’s next in cannabis. Since 2018, it’s been the anti-trade show: curated, creative, tightly focused on real business and real relationships. Less convention, more marketplace. Fewer panels, more product. Less carpeted chaos, more direct connection.
But New York hits different. This isn’t California’s established machine. This is the East Coast finding its rhythm in real time—where New Jersey dispensaries, Pennsylvania cultivators, and NYC legacy operators all walk the same warehouse floor.
At this year’s show, expect:
- On-site sampling of flower, pre-rolls, vapes, edibles, tech, and tinctures
- Hundreds of brands, many with equity and legacy stories woven into the product
- Buyers from every borough, plus the Jersey Shore, the Poconos, and beyond
- Breeders Village, AXIS Lounge, and a series of very unofficial afterparties where the real convos spark
This is a market waking up—eyes wide open.
Confirmed NYC Retailers: The Real Ones Are Showing Up
This show isn’t about industry fluff or big-budget distractions. It’s for licensed professionals only. And the people showing up are the ones moving actual weight, building culture one eighth at a time.
Confirmed shops and buyers include:
- Housing Works Cannabis Co., NYC’s first legal dispensary and still one of the most mission-driven
- Terp Bros, Bronx Joint, Coney Island Cannabis, The Flowery, Green Apple Distribution
- Boutique operators like Catskill Botanicals, Frass Box Cannabis, Culture House NYC, and Mottz Green Grocer
- Heavy-hitter chains like Cannabist NY, The Cannabis Place, and The Travel Agency
These aren’t mall-front dispensaries in name only. These are community builders. Buyers. Curators. Retailers who listen to their audience. They’re coming to taste, test, and stock shelves for Q4.
The Tri-State Equation: Why NJ and PA Will Be Out in Force
Don’t sleep on the tri-state presence.
- New Jersey is booming, with dozens of dispensaries and some of the most agile operators on the East Coast. Their retail game is tight, their branding is fresh, and they’re not afraid to cut a PO on the spot.
- Pennsylvania, still holding the line with medical-only laws, is brewing with legacy cultivators, processors, and wellness entrepreneurs already laying the groundwork for legalization.
- Together with New York, this is the economic and cultural core of East Coast cannabis.
Hall of Flowers is the only place they’ll all be in the same room, same day, same frequency.
For Brands: This Is Sacred Ground
If you’re a brand, especially one rooted in storytelling, quality, or consciousness, this is the arena.
This is where:
- Your mylar bag and your backstory get equal play
- Retailers want the why behind your rosin
- Culture still matters as much as potency
- You’ll meet investors who know what a good logo is worth—but care more about what’s inside the jar
This is not the place to fake it. It’s the place to show up with your whole chest: design dialed in, team ready, story sharpened.
Event Details
- Location: Pier 36, Manhattan, NYC
- Dates: October 8–9, 2025
- Entry: Licensed cannabis retailers, brands, investors, and media only
- Retailers attend for free with a valid license
Why I’m Showing Up: A Note from Kyle Rosner
This one’s personal.
I started my career in cannabis at High Times back in 2018, helping lead video production during one of the wildest and most transitional chapters in the magazine’s history. I was filming interviews, capturing the culture, and documenting a movement that was finally being taken seriously. It was surreal, chaotic, and completely formative. That job lit the fuse.
But my roots go back further. I’m a Jersey kid, through and through. My first real sessions were grav bong hits in a Rowan dorm and sneaking joints on the beach in Cape May, trying not to get caught while pretending to be smooth. I didn’t know it then, but those moments were early ceremonies. Quiet initiations into a lifelong relationship with the plant.
After High Times, I helped found 420interactive, cutting my teeth in California cannabis, working with legacy brands and new-school operators. I saw the full scope—successes, flameouts, big ideas, small margins, and the people in the middle trying to make something real. It taught me what works and what doesn’t. What feels authentic and what’s just a pitch deck in a hoodie.
Now, seeing Hall of Flowers plant itself in New York, surrounded by people who remind me of where this all started, feels like a full-circle moment. The Jersey crews. The New York lifers. The Pennsylvania growers on the edge of their big shift. It’s not hype—it’s history unfolding in real time.
So yeah, I’ll be there. Not just for business, not just to cover it. I’ll be there because I was raised by this culture, built my career in it, and still believe in where it’s going.
Let’s show them how we do it on the East Coast.
This article is from an external, unpaid contributor. It does not represent High Times’ reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.
The post Why Hall of Flowers NYC 2025 Is the East Coast’s Can’t-Miss Cannabis Event This Autumn first appeared on High Times.
