Errl Cup
An Arizona cannabis awards-and-festival event in Mesa, started in 2015 by Jim Morrison and Jay Neri, that grew from a product-voting idea into a twice-yearly crowd-puller with bong-speed tournaments and a ride-home booth.
- 1,009results on record
- 2016–2026years in our data
- 11editions
- 449matched to strains
- Scarizona/Thompson Event Center in Mesa, Arizonalatest location
01How it began
Errl Cup is an Arizona cannabis awards-and-festival event based in Mesa, co-founded by event organisers Jim Morrison and Jay Neri. Phoenix New Times reports that the pair set it up in 2015 with the aim of giving Arizona patients reliable, clean and safe products1. The name is a bit of wordplay: "errl" is slang for oil, meaning cannabis concentrate1. Morrison has said the project took on deeper meaning after he lost his sister to multiple sclerosis, and the two built the festival around patient safety and quality2.
The first concept was simple. Growers, dispensaries and other businesses would supply products, and attendees would sample them and cast votes1. Getting businesses on board was the harder part. Morrison recalls that early on, dispensaries saw nothing in a free event for them and expected no return on their investment. His persistence eventually won their interest, though the sources do not say exactly when the tide turned2.
02How the story unfolded
Over time the contest idea grew into a festival celebrating providers of top-quality cannabis1. Along the way, Morrison and Neri started a secret shopper program, in which volunteer patients buy ordinary shelf products to enter in the competition, and some dispensaries were not pleased to be entered without warning2. Morrison's reasoning was that some businesses had entered special strains the public could not buy, purely to win2. For testing, the Scottsdale lab Level One Labs checked entries for potency, flavor profile and contaminants, and had been doing so for several years by March 2022. Because Arizona had no cannabis testing rules of its own, the event borrowed requirements from Colorado and California2.
The playful side has its own timeline. Competitor Joseph Freeland, known as Bat Bong, says the Bong Wars contest began in 2019 and that he has taken part since the first one1.
There is also a Nevada thread. A 2017 Terpenes and Testing Magazine item describes an extraction-focused Errl Cup putting off a Nevada edition until early 2018 after Nevada and Clark County authorities cracked down on cannabis gatherings, because on-site consumption was essential to the plan3. That article names neither Arizona nor Morrison, so the link to the Mesa event is likely but unconfirmed. Whether the Nevada edition ever happened is not documented.
03What it feels like
Phoenix New Times has described Errl Cup as the biggest cannabis awards-and-festival event in Arizona, held at the Scarizona Scaregrounds in Mesa, with vendors travelling in from around the country2. Entry is free for Arizona adults and medical patients, and the merch stalls are the only things that cost money. Morrison ties the free format to Arizona's rules against selling cannabis outside licensed establishments2. Medal-style awards are decided by a mix of lab results and the preferences of judges who hold patient cards. The March 2022 categories ranged from flower, concentrates and vape pens to topicals, tinctures and handcrafted products2.
Then come the speed contests: Bong Wars, Vape Wars, Errl Wars and a fastest joint-rolling contest1. In October 2022, Bong Wars was a single-elimination bracket of 32 competitors, each with their own judge. Joseph Freeland (Bat Bong) beat a rival named Marco in the final1. That festival, held on October 22 and 23, 2022, also had live music including a reggae band, food trucks, and booths covering merch, soil, classes, NFTs and legal help with expungement. Organisers estimated 10,000 to 15,000 attendees, and on the first day the entry line at one point stretched a quarter mile1.
Safety shows up on site too. A booth called "If You Medicate Designate" gave attendees free rides home, something Morrison says he started six years before October 2022, and medical staff were on hand1. A sister gathering, Errl Camp, is a free weekend retreat in Camp Verde for the same community. Morrison contrasts the Cup, which is about glad-handing, with the Camp, which is about marshmallows and getting to know people2.
04Where it stands now
The newest dated source is a Phoenix New Times photo piece from April 8, 2024. It covers the spring edition held on March 16 and 17, 2024 in Mesa, and describes the event as running twice a year, drawing vendors, brands, entertainers and cannabis fans4. That edition handed out awards in 35 categories, including indoor flower, vape pens and edibles, and Vape Wars and Bong Wars were both still on the programme, with Bong Wars set at 0.75 grams per contestant4. Anything about the event after April 8, 2024, including later editions, ownership or venue, is not documented in the sources used for this page.
05What comes next
No announced plans for the Cup were found beyond the material above. As of November 1, 2022, Morrison said he wanted to add an edible-eating contest in 2023, a two-part race to eat quickly and then check back an hour later1. Whether it happened is not documented. In March 2022, Errl Camp was announced for September 23 to 25, 2022 at Jackpot Ranch near Camp Verde, and Morrison said he was looking forward to it2. The sources give no later announcements.
The results, in our data
CannaLib holds 1,009 results from this cup across 11 years (2016 to 2026), 449 of them matched to a strain in the catalogue.
Recent first-place strains
| Year | Strain | Category | Entrant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Gastro Pop | Flower-Hybrid | DRIP |
| 2026 | Chrome | Flower-Indica | Connected |
| 2026 | The Soap | Flower-Sativa | FENO |
| 2026 | Presidential Og | Concentrate-Sativa | DRIP |
| 2026 | First Class Funk | Concentrate-Isolate | DRIP |
| 2026 | Tigers Blood | Vape Pen LR-Indica | Mohave Cannabis Co |
| 2026 | Tropical Z | Vape Pen LR-SAtiva | Connected |
| 2026 | Herojuana | Vape Pen NonSolvent | DRIP |
| 2026 | Gastro Pop | Pre-Roll | DRIP |
| 2026 | Sour Diesel | Flower-Sativa | Tad |
| 2025 | Mimosa | Flower – Sativa | G.P. Farms |
| 2025 | Residual Sugar | Flower – Hybrid | Excel Gardens |
| 2025 | Bubba S Girl | Flower – Indica | CAM |
| 2025 | Jenny Kush | Flower – Sativa | Abundant Organics |
Editions on record
- 2016 · Tempe, AZ
- 2017 · Tempe Arizona
- 2018 · Arizona
- 2019 · Arizona
- 2020 · Arizona
- 2021 · Arizona
- 2022 · Arizona
- 2022 · Arizona
- 2023 · Scarizona, Mesa AZ (poster on results images)
- 2023 · Scarizona Fairgrounds in Mesa, Arizona
- 2024 · Mesa, Arizona
- 2024 · Arizona State Fairgrounds in Mesa
- 2025 · Scarizona/Thompson Event Center in Mesa, Arizona (ccw); poster reads 'Phoenix, Arizona'
- 2026
Sources
- Errl Cup Delivered a Weekend of Cannabeasts, Bong Wars and Pop-Up Smoke Shops | Phoenix New Times
- Light My Fire: Errl Cup's Jim Morrison Is All About Cannabis Consumer Safety | Phoenix New Times
- Errl Cup Nevada Postponed Until 2018 - Terpenes and Testing Magazine
- 18 photos from the Errl Cup's dope weekend festival in Mesa | Phoenix New Times
Written from the sources above and checked on 2026-10-29. Spot an error? Tell us on the contact page.