4.20 Cannabis Light Cup (4.20 Hemp Fest, Milan)
A flower competition born inside a Milan hemp fair that began as a garden festival in 2016, grew into a trade show, and found itself at the centre of a political row by 2019.
- 15results on record
- 2019years in our data
- 1editions
- 6matched to strains
- Milanlatest location
01How a garden party in Milan got started
The Cannabis Light Cup lives inside the 4.20 Hemp Fest, an event that began in Milan in 2016. An interview profile on Zero gives 20 April 2016 as the festival's birth date and Milan as its birthplace1. The first edition was modest: a small festival in the garden of the Fabbrica del Vapore, with roughly 25 exhibitors and an evening music programme1. The name nods to a 1971 story of Californian teenagers who used 4:20 as their meeting time1. This page covers the Milan event only.
The founder is Marco Russo, already active in Milan for years with his Sir Canapa hemp shop and project. According to the interview, the festival grew out of earlier themed days he ran, called Halloweed and Mary Christmas1. Russo describes the first 4.20 as the first genuine event of its kind in Italy and in Europe, inspired mostly by his study of the American market1. The first two editions were one-day affairs held on 20 April, run as a marathon from 4:20 in the afternoon until 4:20 at night1.
02Bigger rooms, louder headlines
In 2017 the fest stayed a single day but moved to the larger Lambretto Studios. Exhibitors rose from 25 to 45, and Russo reports attendance above 5,0001. Newspapers on both left and right covered it, and he says some right-leaning papers framed it as a festival dedicated to drugs, which in his view brought extra visibility1. He also says Milan's mayor, Sala, responded that he could not stop an international circuit's celebration1. By 2018, Russo says, the event became a proper trade fair with about 100 hemp-market participants, mostly Italian that year and more European the next, including stands from China and the US1. The sources do not explain how this numbering fits AGI's description of 2019 as the third edition3.
The Cup itself gets only brief mentions. Russo calls the Cannabis Cup the first competition in Italy for light-cannabis flowers, setting aside one held inside the Canapa Caffè association in Rome1. The 2019 programme lists a judged flower contest, named the Cannabis Light Cup, alongside conferences, workshops, producer stands, a chill area and food2. The sources do not say outright that the two names mean the same contest. That edition ran from 3 to 5 May 2019 at East End Studios, Via Mecenate 88/A, from 11:00 to 23:00, with listed tickets at 21, 15 and 11 euros2. The Cup awards were scheduled for 18:30 on Sunday 5 May 20192.
Before the 2019 fair, Milan filled with posters of a big hemp leaf and the slogan "Io non sono una droga" (I am not a drug). Russo also mentions about 400 banners, 20 huge streamers and 7,000 hemp plantlets handed out, mostly with city consent1. AGI reported on 28 April 2019 that the campaign stirred politics across the spectrum. Mayor Giuseppe Sala asked organisers to remove the posters, and the city referred them to the advertising regulator Agcom3. Giorgia Meloni asked the interior minister and the city to block the event, and Mariastella Gelmini also called for a ban3. Sala said he did not think the event itself could be banned, only that the poster had to go3. Organisers answered that the slogan was one of several claims, and that the fair features certified hemp varieties with THC below legal limits under Italy's 2016 hemp law, 242/20163.
03Trade fair, activist meeting, and a DJ booth
The fair pitches itself as a 360-degree look at hemp. Its 2019 listing mentions industrial hemp, regulation, workshops, producer stands from across Europe, and music2. Russo describes the fest as halfway between a trade fair and an activist event, and says its conferences drew both industry people and ordinary citizens1. The 2019 programme included a roundtable on industrial hemp as a resource for the environment, with speakers from industry, law and politics. Chiara Lo Cascio moderated, and the guests included Rachele Invernizzi of South Hemp and Milan councillor Elena Grandi2.
Evenings turned festive, with DJ sets from 21:00 to 23:00 on all three days: Antonio Ponti, Alteria, and then Andrea Rock of Virgin Radio2. Russo says the audience skews adult, from about 25 or 30 up to 70, and that younger people are less drawn to low-THC cannabis1. Social media played a part as well: he says the team posted dozens of Instagram stories from people who shared the interest1. How the Cup is judged, and what its own crowd looks like, is not documented in the sources.
04Where things stand
The latest edition these sources document is the one held from 3 to 5 May 20192. The interview behind much of this page was published on 26 April 2019 and updated on 28 April 20191. No coverage of any 2025 or 2026 edition turned up, so the current status of the fest and the Cup is not documented here. The sources also do not describe the Cup's scoring method, its categories, its winners, or any year other than 2019, and they do not say whether it still runs. Cup-specific claims here rest on thin sourcing and should be read with that in mind.
05What comes next
No announced plans or outlook for the 4.20 Hemp Fest or the Cannabis Light Cup were found in the sources, so none are documented here. That includes dates for any future edition, any change of venue, and any plan for the competition itself. Check the organisers' own channels for anything more recent than what is described above.
The results, in our data
CannaLib holds 15 results from this cup across 1 years (2019 to 2019), 6 of them matched to a strain in the catalogue.
Recent first-place strains
| Year | Strain | Category | Entrant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Harlequin | Categoria Greenhouse – giuria popolare | The Weed |
| 2019 | Bubba Hash | Categoria Estratti (resine) – giuria internazionale | Weed Rush |
| 2019 | Rollex Og | Categoria Eccellenze – giuria internazionale | Flower Power |
Editions on record
- 2019 · Milan (4.20 Hemp Fest)
Sources
- La canapa non è una DROGA: 4.20 Hemp Fest | Zero
- 4.20 Hemp Fest – International Cannabis Expo | Zero
- La Fiera della cannabis di Milano agita la politica | AGI
Written from the sources above and checked on 2026-10-29. Spot an error? Tell us on the contact page.