Pier 36 filled up fast on Friday, Sept. 18, as exhibitors and buyers from across the country came out for Revelry Buyers’ Club, New York’s homegrown cannabis trade show hosted by On the Revel. This year’s edition ran a single day instead of the usual two, drawing a sizeable crowd to Manhattan’s Lower East Side to close deals, make introductions and see what’s new in cannabis.
That mix of commerce and connection set the tone on the floor. Licensed operators said business is on the upswing, and their confidence showed up in two ways. First, they’re winning customers back from the illicit market. The second was less expected. A federal ban on most intoxicating hemp-derived THC products takes effect Dec. 11, after a funding bill signed Sept. 2 pushed the deadline back from Nov. 12. But instead of celebrating a rival’s setback, many operators were extending goodwill to hemp businesses. The two seemed connected: those most secure in their position had the least to prove.
PHOTO Revelry Buyers Club
Business Day, Community Feel
Passes sorted the crowd into exhibitors, retail buyers, sponsors and press, and the hall ran warm on a bright, sunny day. Exhibitors and buyers worked the aisles between custom-built booths, some with interactive activations, while a Microbusiness Showcase put some of New York’s smallest licensed operators on the same floor as national names like Cookies, STIIIZY and Wyld.
New York’s Office of Cannabis Management and seed-to-sale tracking company Metrc each hosted booths, and the two teamed up for an afternoon “Ask Me Anything.” Outside, a lineup of DJs played near the food vendors. Upstairs, a networking lounge with a bar overlooked the show floor, where The Plugg TV, a cannabis culture and lifestyle network, conducted live interviews with exhibitors.
PHOTO Revelry Buyers Club
Growing With Confidence
New York legalized adult-use cannabis in 2021, but licensed retail didn’t take off until 2024, once a wave of court challenges cleared. Ask operators and brands how business is going now, and the reason for their optimism is visible at the counter, where more customers are showing up as they move away from unlicensed, untested sellers.
Joseph Irizarri, owner-operator of Oasis Cannabis, a vertically integrated microbusiness in the Buffalo, NY, area, has seen the shift firsthand since opening his dispensary about six months ago. “We see at my dispensary more and more people coming in from the black market, because they want that COA, that comfort of knowing that the product is tested,” Irizarri said, referring to the certificate of analysis that documents a product’s lab results. For operators who went through the licensing process, he says, the moment feels “sort of liberating.”
Stone Swiess, senior field sales manager at PAX Labs, put it more bluntly. “If you’re going there expecting to find quality, it’s a crapshoot,” he said of unlicensed shops.
PHOTO Dana Mu
