NoCo Hemp Expo Moving to Estes Park in 2024

After a year in SoCo, the NoCo Hemp Expo is moving back north.

One of the country's largest hemp industry trade shows, the NoCo Hemp Expo was held at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs in 2023 after spending its formative years in Loveland and the Denver area. However, this year's convention, which is scheduled for April 11 through April 13, will take place at the Estes Park Events Complex in Estes Park.

"The Broadmoor is beautiful. It had awesome people and was an amazing venue. It's just a bit pricey for the hemp industry. Long story short, we just can't afford it. The industry can't afford it," says NoCo founder Morris Beegle. "Estes has been wanting us up there since 2018. With where the industry is now, the show has scaled back with less space."

Hemp had a hot start after Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, and soared even higher shortly after federal hemp legalization in 2018. The hemp industry quickly proved to be dependent on gray-area cannabinoids like CBD and Delta-8 THC, though, and both have heavily fluctuated in pricing and federal legality in recent years.

Until federal background checks and testing rules for commercial hemp cultivation are loosened, most farmers don't want to deal with the hassle of growing hemp for fiber, which fetches far lower prices than hemp grown indoors for smoking or extraction, Beegle says.

"Farmers are getting more interested in growing industrial hemp if we can get the regulatory side of things squared away to where it's less burdensome. I don't blame farmers for not wanting to grow it, though, especially with the shit show we've had with CBD and the bottom falling out," he adds. "When you've got bigger industrial companies trying to convince farmers to go through a background check, state registration fee and all of these testing rules just to make $300 an acre, it just doesn't make a lot of sense — as opposed to growing alfalfa, hay or corn and not having to deal with all of it."

According to a 2023 report from the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. hemp production value in 2022 totaled $238 million, down 71 percent from 2021.

The market hit has been reflected at NoCo Hemp gatherings since the pandemic put a pause on public events in 2020, but Beegle and his fellow organizers at Colorado Hemp Company have been able to keep the conference going even as they've shut down annual trade shows in Hawaii and Tennessee. Although the next NoCo Hemp Expo will be smaller than in recent years, Beegle still sees potential in construction materials, such as hempcrete, an environmentally friendly alternative to concrete, and hemp-based building insulation.

Organizers expect 2,000 to 2,500 to attend the expo over three days, with a trade hall and programming sessions similar to those of past conferences. And nutritional products outside of hemp and other eco-focused industries will have more of a presence to "make the expo more diverse, with hemp as the central pivot point," Beegle says.

Last month, BizWest reported that the Broadmoor had filed a lawsuit against WAFBA, Inc., Colorado Hemp Company's registered business name, for an unpaid bill after the 2023 expo. The complaint, filed on December 7 in the District Court of El Paso County, claims that WAFBA failed to pay over $160,000 "despite demand" from the Broadmoor.

"WAFBA/NoCo Hemp Expo has yet to be served with a lawsuit despite any media reports," Beegle says, adding that the company "has been working to resolve any outstanding issues" with the Broadmoor.

"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. You've got to take some risks. You have to not only pick up the dice, but roll ’em," he continues. "Life is not long enough to spend it on the sidelines. The hemp and cannabis industry has been forced to the sidelines time and time again...but no more."