The Farmers Cup is San Diego's people's-choice cannabis competition series — themed cups where the public buys a judge kit, scores it at home, and the awards follow. It started underground in 2015 as the San Diego Cannabis Farmers Market and went on to stage the county's first licensed cannabis event. Next up: the concentrates-only 710 Edition, September 26, 2026.
Judging From the Couch
Anyone 21 or over can judge. You buy a kit for the category you want, pick it up at an assigned dispensary, and get seven to fourteen days to work through it on your own schedule — the organizers' argument being that a judge at home, unrushed, gives a truer read than one working a loud convention floor.
One rule holds the format together: no voting for yourself or for any brand you are associated with. Kits are limited with no restocks, and education sits alongside the scoring — the stated mission is that end-users should know exactly what they are spending their money on, not just which label shouted loudest.
Four Cups, One Calendar
The series runs themed editions rather than a single annual show: a 420 Cup covering every category, the concentrates-only 710 Cup, a flower-only Harvest Cup and an edibles-only Valentines Cup. Single-category cups are the quiet genius of the format — hash gets judged against hash, flower against flower, instead of everything against everything.
The winners archive is sixteen editions deep and stretches back to Winter 2020, with the themed calendar settling in from 2021 — so a Farmers Cup plaque on a dispensary shelf has a real paper trail behind it.
From Underground to a County First
Co-founder and CEO Joshua Caruso started the project in 2015, and for years it ran as an underground competition while San Diego County offered no legal path for cannabis events. The path finally opened through Vista, where voters approved retail cannabis in 2018 and the city gradually became the county's most workable cannabis town.
The payoff came on March 15, 2025: the Farmers Cup Awards Sesh at Moonlight Amphitheatre in Vista became the county's first state- and locally-licensed cannabis event, with legal on-site sales and consumption, three thousand tickets sold, live reggae and a Vendor Village more than fifty booths deep.
A decade of grassroots credibility capped by a county first is a rare combination, and it is why the cup's winners carry weight with the people Caruso calls the end-users.
The 710 Edition
The current cycle is concentrates only, run in honor of the number that reads OIL upside down. Brand entries closed August 19, judge kits pick up August 22 through 25 at assigned dispensaries, and the Award Ceremony Sesh lands Saturday, September 26, 2026 in San Diego, 21 and over, with tickets handled through EventHi.
Kit pricing scales with the category, running from $100 up to $750 for the deepest concentrate lineups — real money, which is exactly why the kits sell to people who take the scoring seriously.
Read the Winners List Like a Menu
People's-choice cups earn skepticism when the rules are loose. This one keeps them tight where it counts — fixed kits, a set judging window, a self-voting ban and single-category editions that put hash next to hash instead of gummies next to flower. Read the winners list as a shopping list: these are verdicts from San Diego consumers, not a panel.
Ten years after it started underground, the cup's biggest flex is that it no longer has to be underground at all. Kits, tickets and dates run through the official Farmers Cup site, and our events calendar tracks the rest of the season.