Short history of Hemp Olympix

21 years!
Mardi Grass opening with the Hemp Olympix Torch carrying the eternal flame for the victims of prohibition!

21 years!
Hemp Olympix games with education and entertainment!

21 years!
Kombi Konvoy as a salute to the pioneers coming to the 1973 Aquarius Festival!

As more and more people came to MardiGrass (from 1993) and standing up for Drug Law Reform, we needed something to get the stoned crowd off the street. I was dreaming up to have some kind of special sports days for stoners on the 19/9/1999, inspired by the Prince song '1999', at my community with friends coming from overseas and staying till New Years Eve of 2000. So Bob, Mikel and I were talking about this and as I mentioned the Joint rolling the Hemp Olympix were born. Bob mentioned the smell of the tipped over Bong water and we had the second event.

As Nimbin is a very sport active place with lots of legends, at that time heroin was a lot in the media (1996), we worked out that it would be good to showcase the hard work it is to grow some good cannabis, while there is a weed inspector invading your property and 3 times a year the helicopter raids. So we invented the Iron Grower event, modelled on the Iron Men event.

As I was always impressed by the Olympic spirit and the carrying of the the olympic flame, we thought it might be good to have a Hemp Olympix Torch, coming from Lismore where our local court sits with it's devastating effect on the people. At that time in one of the biggest communities, Tuntable Falls, there were no men left to interact with the kids in some hamlets, because they were all in jail for drug offences. So we invented the Hemp Olympix Torch, the first one built by Geoff Moxham, a inventor and bio char advocate, to carry the Eternal Flame for the Victims of Prohibition.

As we are living in this beautiful area since the Aquarius festival in 1973, I thought it would be a nice salute to the pioneers who came with all kinds of cars and vans to Nimbin to invent a Konvoy of Kombis (VW bus) following the Torch bearer on his symbolic run from Lismore to Nimbin. It is such a special sound having them all coming down the main street. As there were Kombis coming from as far as WA and really old restored models, we moved the Kombi Konvoy from Friday night in the dark to Saturday afternoon, 4.20 before the big light up on the main street.