After weeks of discussions the city of Arcata on Friday morning sent Humboldt Green a list of conditions that must be met so the “Yes We Cann!” event could be permitted and that same morning the event organizers had a signed special event permit in hand.

The “Yes We Cann! Parade and Hullabaloo” on Saturday is a celebration of the local cannabis community and is being put on by Arcata-based marijuana business consulting company Humboldt Green.

“It’s a pretty big day,” Humboldt Green founder Stephen Gieder said Tuesday.

The parade will start on Saturday afternoon near Humboldt State University and wind through the streets to the Arcata Ballpark. The hullabaloo in the ballpark includes live music, educational speakers, food and craft vendors, a beer garden and an Area 215 medicinal market. No ingestion — eating, smoking, vaping — of cannabis will be allowed. When the hullabaloo wraps up at 10 p.m. three after-parties — at the Arcata Theater Lounge, The Jam and Humbrews — will take place.

“With our parade and hullabaloo, we want to celebrate cannabis culture and the community,” Gieder said.

The permitting of this event came up at the last two Arcata City Council meetings with comments made both for and against allowing a city facility to be used for a cannabis event.

“Arcata’s progressive-minded but it’s pretty conservative,” Gieder said of concerns raised by residents to the council.

“It felt like ‘Reefer Madness’ a little bit,” he added. “The questions sounded a little archaic.”

It was only after city manager Karen Diemer and city attorney Nancy Diamond delved into the rapidly changing landscape of local and state marijuana laws to ensure the event follows all current local and state laws that the permit could be issued.

“The review with the city attorney was really around the recent passage of SB 94,” Diemer said in reference to a California Senate bill that governs both medicinal and adult marijuana use.

Regulations to review special events must balance protecting public resources while maintaining the right to free speech had to be followed regardless of the event’s subject matter, she said.

The list of conditions, provided by Diemer through email, includes fee information for city facilities including the ballpark and rest rooms, 215 area rules, times for when alcohol sales must end, when amplified sound must end and when all attendees must be out of the park.

“I know that [the list of conditions] will look extensive, but it is fairly standard considering the event is a parade and festival all in one,” Diemer wrote in a Tuesday email.

Gieder said the event already met all but one requirement listed in the conditions. Edible medicinal cannabis products were going to be sold in the 215 tent but the city had concerns about the possibility of children, who get into the event for free, getting their hands on the products. He said this wasn’t a concern he has given the vetting people have to go through to get into the 215 area where these items would be sold but he and other organizers were happy to quell the city’s concern by not allowing edible sales.

“It totally makes sense,” Gieder said.

“There will be no distribution of edible cannabis,” the conditions state. “ … There will be no consumption of cannabis on site including no smoking, ingestion and or vaping.”

Diemer said she has yet to be approached by any other organizers wanting to get a cannabis event permitted but in the event of that likelihood, the list of conditions sent to Humboldt Green will likely be the framework for conditions of future cannabis events. She added that these conditions will need to be updated as state and local laws governing medical and recreational marijuana change.

“I think these will be used as a framework for continued community discussion,” she said.

Diemer added that this event will be a sort of litmus test to gauge the Arcata community’s openness to similar events.

“The way it was presented to the city is it really is an education opportunity,” she said.

More information on Humboldt Green is available at gohumboldtgreen.com, event information at yeswecannparade.com.

Hunter Cresswell can be reached at 707-441-0506.