VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) — The cannabis community in San Diego celebrated a milestone on Saturday as the city of Vista became the first in the county to host a publicly licensed cannabis event.

The Farmer’s Cup not only celebrated the local cannabis culture but also demonstrated the evolving attitudes towards cannabis use and its economic benefits for communities.

The all-day event at the Moonlight Amphitheatre featured reggae-style bands, cannabis competitions, and vendors from across the state showcasing their products.

Attendees were also allowed to purchase and enjoy cannabis products openly in public.

Darren Story, with Santa Cruz-based company Coastal Sun, was happy to be a part of San Diego’s groundbreaking event.

“It’s hard to believe this is the first event in San Diego County,” Story said. “I feel like the people [here] really love cannabis. They love the healing properties of it and the recreational properties.”

Even locals, like Vista resident “Raider Randy” shared his excitement and said, “I never thought we were going to pull this off, but glad we did.”

The man behind the Farmer’s Cup is the CEO and founder, Joshua Carusou.

Caruso first sparked the idea of the Farmer’s Cup in 2014 when he said he saw a strong need for an event like it in the community.

“It’s been a long time coming for us,” Caruso said. “We voted for this back in 2018, even before that in 1996 with the recreational or the medical laws. We really dug into the regulations, and we saw that the regulations were not friendly to us at all. So ever since then, it’s been a mission and a passion of mine personally to get this stuff going because cannabis brings us together.”

Vista’s journey to hosting this event began in 2018 after Measure Z passed, allowing legal dispensaries to operate within the city.

Caruso said taxpayer dollars did as well.

Carusou said that in 2024 alone, Vista generated approximately $7 million in tax revenue from the cannabis industry, helping the City Council see the industry’s potential for economic development. This revenue reportedly contributes to local law enforcement and student scholarships.

“There’s a bunch of positive stuff from it, so we’re just happy to be able to be the first ones to do this in our city and hopefully this will open it up for everybody else,” Caruso said.

Caruso also mentioned former councilman Joe Green, saying Saturday’s event would not have been possible with him in the joint venture.

“We just pushed, pushed, pushed, networked our butts off until we got to this point,” Caruso said.

Fast forward to the first Farmer’s Cup in March, Caruso said they sold three thousand tickets to buyers.

Caruso said he hoped the event would continue to grow and even expand to other cities in San Diego County next year.

“Everybody knows there’s a cannabis culture in the Bay Area, Northern California, but there is a very deep cannabis culture here in San Diego, and we really want people to get together,” Caruso said. “Hopefully, we’ll all come together and do more things like this.”