Hempfest - Seattle

We just attended one day of Hempfest in Seattle. As first time attendees, we had some mixed reactions to the (admittedly sampled randomly) event:
Venue: Unfortunately, the park was in the midst of what appeared to be a huge building site. No trees, no shade, and sere brown grass on a very hot (california-style weather) day. The heat caused some health problems - a young man passed out in front of me, mostly due to dehydration. Keeping hydrated is not in the forefront of Cascadians' minds, apparently, like it is for Californians.
Organization: However, the organizers did a bang-up job. A very attractive girl on stilts responded to the young man who passed out, and literally flagged in a nurse and an EMT to look after him. (she was also handing out water bottles to people so they could keep hydrated in the sun). Two of us were enlisted to provide shade while the young man was attended to. This level of organization was general - litter was picked up, garbage cans were regularly emptied, and the whole event was orderly. Of course, this would not have happened if the attendees (huge crowd!) were not well-behaved. I saw no bad behaviour of any kind, not even a discouraging word! Contrast this to the behaviour of people at a similar event who have been drinking.......
Music: is why we were there. And what we experienced was ok, except for the rap. (Call me a fogey - I don't care). We got in a little dancing, not too strenuous (space a bit tight). Then walked a bit of the event, talked to some of the vendors, and were actually headed out when the siren call of female vocals pulled us into the Casbah Teahouse, under a huge hemp tent, with rugs and cushions for lounging, very tasty music, and delicious food. By that point I had run out of money, having spent my US and Canadian funds, but I had thirty Euros, which they were happy to take for a box of food (falafel, vegetarian stir-fry, salad, hummous, tzatziki, chai, fruit drinks - way more than we could eat). We gave most of it away to hungry youths. But - music - two bands, one from Bham (can't remember the name, female vocalist (does a good janis-style yell, also more mellow stuff), three piece band, and another vocalist Annia O'Neill, guitarist, and Conga) - was very entertaining and relaxing. Incidentally, the MC, Ngaio, was very entertaining in an understated way.
Speakers: One negative - the speakers seemed a little too confrontational, a little too aggressive, a little too doctrinaire to our taste. Ed Rosenthal's rant ("fire all the policemen and start again!") stands out in this genre. And the audience was not at all incited by it - quite the contrary, they were generally heading for the exits when the music stopped and the speakers began.
And - we missed hearing from Norm Stamper, who is very much a voice of reason rather than confrontation. Next year....
Overall, good for Vivian and crew to put on the festival in such an organized, orderly, professional manner. Keep up the good work.