Summer festival-goers can now have legal cannabis delivered to them as they enjoy the music, says a lobbyist for the licensed industry.

In what’s being called a first for Canada, live event fans will be allowed to have cannabis beverages, edibles and other distilled pot products couriered to them in festivals’ designated areas, said Nathan Mison, president of Diplomat Consulting.

“This is a big deal — Alberta has been very willing to have unique and beneficial conversations on this,” said Mison, formerly a cannabis retailer.

The change was made possible when the province green-lighted private pot retailers to sell online and deliver purchases — a policy that came into effect Tuesday — and by months of discussions with Alberta’s associate minister of red tape reduction, he said.

Under the new model, festivals and live events will offer fans a designated consumption area where products will be delivered and consumed with food or beverages, as long as the service isn’t being sold or combined with alcohol.

It would still be subject to municipal policy, he noted.

Smokable cannabis is being excluded, said Mison, adding he hopes that will change.

“We do believe we can get there, that we can push for that . . . we know in the long term there’ll be a combustible garden,” he said.

“We do know (allowing smoking at festivals) would be another reason for government consternation.”

In 2019 and for the first time, the Calgary Folk Music Festival worked with Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis and city bylaw officials to offer a designated cannabis-smoking space in the rear of the site.

Festival officials — whose event was cancelled over the past two years due to the pandemic — said they’d gauge the success of that pilot project before deciding whether to repeat it.

And they were reluctant to comment on how they’d approach the latest development.

“We are not at that stage in our planning cycle,” said executive director Sara Leishman, who also oversees the winter Block Heater festival.

Provincial regulator AGLC said its role in the matter is limited, but noted the change is the result of legalized delivery for Alberta’s legal pot market.

“Since public consumption is permitted in Alberta, a delivery service can deliver cannabis to a consumer anywhere it’s legal to do so,” the agency said in an email.

“AGLC has no role in this other than ensuring delivery must come from an online endorsed licensed retailer.”

Mison said a stigma over pot remains an obstacle to expanding the cannabis tourism and hospitality industry.

“We’re still making decisions based on the perceptions of the past,” he said.

But he said it’s only a matter of time before that mindset erodes, adding he fully expects to see cannabis cafes and a smorgasbord of culinary marijuana offerings in Alberta in the near future.

“It’s an incredible opportunity — we haven’t even started to figure out what the opportunities are,” said Mison.

A major obstacle to that in Calgary remains the city’s ban on public smoking of marijuana, say those working to build cannabis tourism attractions.

In contrast, Edmonton has no such total restriction.