This year’s expo, the first since legalization in October 2018, will feature Canada’s first legal cannabis competition, the Hempfest Cup, and organizers’ expectations are high.

“What we’re kinda going after is something like the SIP awards in the liquor industry, where craft alcohol producers can send in a bottle and be judged, so that’s what it’s trying to model,” expo organizer Sacha Hockenhull said. “Cannabis producers can now enter a competition that ranks them against each other.”

The competition, which will run alongside the expo on Oct. 11 and 12 at the Big Four building at Stampede Park, is open to any Canadian who can legally grow cannabis, from personal-use growers to licensed producers (LP).

For a fee, entrants can fill out the form online and send 10 grams of their product in to Keystone Labs in Edmonton for review. From there, the product is tested for “cannabinoid profiles and to ensure it meets the same requirements that licence holders have to meet.”

Five judges, whose backgrounds range from being a pro-pot media influencer to being a medical cannabis executive, will then sample the goods before the show and all of the criteria will be combined to determine a winner in each of the nine categories:

• Top female grower
• Best outdoor greenhouse sun grown (personal)
• Best indoor grow (personal)
• Best hybrid flower
• Best sativa flower
• Best indica flower
• Highest THC flower
• Highest CBD flower
• Best medical cultivar (licensed producer)

Hockenhull said in addition to prizes, swag and a glass bong award, a win could come with some serious opportunities for budding growers to make it big.

“Let’s say someone is legally growing their four plants (and) wins a category; they could be picked up by a LP to get a job as a master grower,” he said. “So, it’s an opportunity for someone to possibly have their strain or plants get into the industry.”

Registration for the Hempfest Cup closes Sept. 12.