Copa Medellín
A two-day cannabis culture fair and growers' competition held near Medellín, Colombia, in April 2016 under the name Copa Cannábica "El Copo".
- 23results on record
- 2019–2021years in our data
- 2editions
- 17matched to strains
- Colombialatest location
01A field, a fair and a big idea
Copa Cannábica "El Copo" took place on 16 and 17 April 2016 near Medellín, Colombia. El Universal described it as an educational and cultural cannabis event1. Vice placed the venue in a pasture about the size of a football pitch, around 51 kilometres southeast of the city2. The sources used here do not say when the project started or whether anything came before this edition, and this page covers only the Medellín fair.
Vice called it the first large-scale "authorized" space in Colombia for buying and selling cannabis-related products, putting the word authorized in quotation marks2. Alexander Zuluaga is named as one of the organizers2. According to El Universal, the organizers spoke of working toward a new Colombia where education, tolerance, peace and inclusion come first1. The pitch was civic and cultural as well as commercial.
02Awards, crowds and visitors from abroad
The fair included a growers' competition. Vice reported that the organizers received 56 samples, a mix of sativa and indica types, and gave awards to top growers ahead of the public open day2. The report names six winners: Juan Pineda, Juan David Arango, Santiago Duque, Nicolás Montenegro, Juan Esteban Ramírez and Pilar Sánchez. Most were little known on the scene, but Sánchez was linked to the Ganja Farm brand2.
Vice reported about 800 tickets sold in presale and roughly 600 more sold at the event2. El Universal counted 9 sponsors, 2 of them foundations, plus 12 collaborators1. Guest experts from Mexico, the United States and Amsterdam came to speak1.
03Learning first, lighting up second
The fair's slogan was a Spanish pun, "Venimos a aprender, no a prender", which means roughly "we come to learn, not to light up"2. Vice saw very little smoking on site, which matched the message2. Growers and agronomists staffed more than 40 stalls, and some of them had reportedly worked for decades, often out of public view2. Alongside the talks there was live art and music, so the fair was a cultural gathering as well as a market1.
Mila Jansen, known for Mila's Journey, was both a judge and a speaker1. Vice compared El Copo with fairs in Amsterdam, a city it said already had 26 years of experience with events of this kind2. An expat who had lived in Colombia for 20 years told Vice it was the first time the growers had come together2.
Many attendees told Vice they believed Colombia had huge potential in the global cannabis industry. One vendor argued that the country first had to move past a street-level marijuana culture2. The fair was partly a conversation about how Colombia sees itself, as well as a showcase for growers.
The results, in our data
CannaLib holds 23 results from this cup across 2 years (2019 to 2021), 17 of them matched to a strain in the catalogue.
Recent first-place strains
| Year | Strain | Category | Entrant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Tangie Runtz | Sativa | Andrew Burbee |
| 2021 | Sugar Cane | Con Solvente | Stiven Montoya |
| 2021 | Smorez | Sin Solvente | Colombia Exoticz |
| 2019 | Sorbet | Indica | Dan Andeson |
| 2019 | Desfr N | Sativa | Andres Tellez |
| 2019 | Golosa | Extraction | Delicious Seeds (genetics); grower not named on page |
Editions on record
- 2019 · Medellín, Colombia
- 2021 · Colombia
Sources
- Encarando el tabú de la marihuana, la feria Copa Cannábica "El Copo" en Medellín (El Universal)
- Fui a la primera Copa Cannábica colombiana (y no se sintió el pisquero) (Vice)
Written from the sources above and checked on 2026-10-29. Spot an error? Tell us on the contact page.