Mardi Grass in Nimbin is a movable feast: of colour, music and social networking along with mind-bending substance ingestion. The marijuana harvest is in and the green hills and valleys of Nimbin are awash with the best buds known to man. I used to live in Nimbin in the early nineties and always try and make the pilgrimage to Nimbin at this time if I'm in the country. Consequently, I've been to quite a few Mardi Grasses, not that I can claim to remember too much of what went down. I was in Nimbin at the first Mardi Grass in 1993. Compared to today it was a modest affair, with perhaps a hundred people in attendance.
I remember Bob Hopkins dressed as a nun; and Jimmy Willing and his horse-drawn gypsy cart; and an assortment of Nimbin musos playing all kinds of instruments. We assembled at the Bush Theatre and walked across the old Mulgum Creek bridge, with the Big Joint (made out of bamboo and cloth) to the police station, stoping on the way for exuberant jams. Bob, who was the main inspiration for the Mardi Grass, presented himself for arrest, puffing away on a joint. Memory tells me that the police just noted his contact details and we continued to party at the Rainbow Cafe.
Mardi Grass began as a small community event: a protest at the marijuana laws as well as a celebration and sharing of the ganja harvest. One vintage year Mark Rodriguez and I made several hundred bliss ball and distributed them to all and sundry so the village of Nimbin wore a big smile. Mardi Grass sees Nimbin at its best as a caring community with much to be happy about and it's not just the abundant ganja. Nimbin has been a pioneer in the sustainability movement from the early seventies, seeded by the Aquarius Festival of 1973. Cannabis culture and activism was a key component of this movement and this flowered into the Mardi Grass. Despite Bob Hopkin's misgivings over Mardi Grass and marijuana hijacking Nimbin, Mardi Grass is now part of Nimbin lore and here to stay. Some years Mardi Grass was washed out due to torrential rain and Nimbin was cut off from the rest of the world. Many lost money on food stalls and infrastructure but we musos didn't care as we continued our marathon, all-night jam sessions in the street outside the Rainbow Cafe.
One year Nathan & Shelli from Nimbin's sister village Woodstock were down with a documentary on Nimbin. Another year it was the reporter from High Times magazine. The word went out on the grapevine that something magical was happening in Nimbin in May. What started out small soon grew mega and Mardi Grass began to attract punters in their thousands. The police response to this was over-the-top, with saliva-testing vans on the roads and riot police, mounted police and sniffer-dogs in the village. Nimbin has been scapegoated for its radical views on drug prohibition and its people have paid a price via constant police harassment and becoming fodder for the criminal justice system. This has been especially heavy on the young and on the aboriginal community, who are both at risk of ending up in prison for minor possession of marijuana offences.
But the tide could be turning. The police response this year was, by all accounts, less aggressive. Coming into Nimbin on Friday via the narrow, winding Tuntable Creek Road, we were pulled up by a copper in his car who did a u-turn to chase us down. He administered a breath test. It could have been worse. Perhaps the recent Australia21 report, authored by leading academics, health, legal and law enforcement experts, calling for an overhaul of the government's drug policy and an end to prohibition, has already begun to bite. There seems to be consensus on the important issue of medical cannabis, among other initiatives (See the report at www.australia21.org.au).
Nimbin has been at the cutting-edge of this push for change and her people deserve our respect. Strange things can happen at Mardi Grass. One year, I looked up from my bongos at the jam session on the street and there she was: I was smitten. I don't remember much else of that Mardi Grass. That was a long time ago and I have learnt many a lesson in love since. This year I stuck to my faithful djembe and did not let my vision stray. Apart from the music - there were some cool young bands featured through town - and the musical jams - we had a few cranking ones at the Oasis Cafe and on the street - and the workshops and talks, and an amazing parade - as always, the Ganja fairies stole the show - and the Hemp Olympics, moderated by two stand up comics, Mardi Grass is alway a great time to catch up with old friends. There's Chibo, valiant barer of the Hemp Torch; Donato, musician and artist extraordinaire; Tonya and Allen, whose studio at the Bush Theatre is my home-away-from-home; Leif and Inez and Dermot and Doug and Biscuit (Queen of the Mardi Grass in '94) and Surfing Steve and Chantico and the musos at the Oasis, my watering hole. On my last day in Nimbin I bumped into Neil Pike. Neil is the quintessential hippie, a cyber-activist-musician, almost an elder statesman of the community. Like most hippies I know, Neil is a busy man. Neil was busy getting arrested at Terrania Creek at Australia's first successful anti-logging protest in 1979. He has been busy playing in bands, including the Pagan Love Cult. Busy producing documentaries for the Rainforest Information Centre on projects in India. And busy being Australia's foremost unofficial pundit on hallucinogenic plants. Right now, in between juggling his music projects, he is busy looking after his father, the writer Arthur Pike. Neil - who seems to temper his innate cynicism by wearing rose-tinted sunnies - was happy to see so many young people at this year's Mardi Grass. It was a feeling I shared.
While the overall numbers seemed down from earlier years, the presence of the young is a sure sign that there is a whole new generation who are tuned in and there's no way to stop the change. Chibo's Hemp Torch has many claimants among GenY! We left Nimbin on Monday evening with the sound of Johnny Ganja singing in our ears and the sun going down behind Nimbin rocks and the valley bathed in marmalade light . Thank you Nimbin. See you at Mardi Grass 2013, your 21st. Next year will also mark the 40th anniversary of the Aquarius Festival. Won't that be a party! PS: According to the Jungle Patrol and Polite, Nimbin's own police force, there was one traffic accident at Mardi Grass: an aging, stoned hippie on his electric bicycle managed to collide with another aging, stoned hippie. Am happy to report that no bongs were broken.
By Harsha Prabhu
