“Experiential is really the key word for what we do with our events,” says Matthew Streich, co-founder of BAKED!. “We try to remove the stigma from a cannabis gathering where you go into a room with a bunch of brands just trapping, smoking, and nothing else really going on. We believe cannabis consumers like to go out and do nice/normal/fun things – comedy shows, trivia nights, whatever. Just to have a good time and consume cannabis while you do it. Then you can bring brands in and introduce them to new people.”
What Is BAKED!? Meet The Minds Behind Terp Basel
BAKED! was officially formed by Streich, Brian Moskin, and Steve Lezcano in early 2023 as an events and marketing company that seeks to encapsulate the best parts of cannabis culture and apply it to a range of pleasurable settings. Based in South Florida, the founding trio hit a high note with the inaugural Terp Basel in Miami, placing the event concurrent with Art Basel as that iconic celebration swept the city. The spectacular three-day-long gathering, co-developed with the TerpHogZ, brought brands from across the nation to a happy melting pot (pun intended) of activities and networking as never before seen in the Florida cannabis scene.
In December 2023, BAKED! went on to produce Terp Basel II, which outdid its predecessor by inviting 65+ brands into its incredible four-day plan, which included a fashion show, a live concert, fire dancing, and an adult wonderland set in a skate park, amid other intriguing elements. Presented by cannabis genetics pioneer Mario Guzman, AKA Sherbinski, Terp Basel II was marked by the presence of legends such as the hip-hop group dead prez, race car driver Randy Lanier of the Netflix series Bad Sport and leader of FreedomGrow.org, DeLisioso brand founder and prisoners’ rights activist Richard DeLisi, and Cannabiz Chris of SF Canna, just to name a few.
But lest you think BAKED! to be just another overnight sensation, think again. Streich, Moskin, and Lezcano have decades of experience between them in the cannabis, music, entertainment and events spaces. They are each as dedicated and innovative with the plant as the veteran giants they invited to take Terp Basel’s positions of honor.
How Did The BAKED! Team Create Terp Basel?
As Moskin and Streich explain, the company’s original name was Baked Foodiez! (actually starting in late 2022) derived from an old project in which Streich and Lezcano were briefly involved. Under that name, they initially started with an idea for elite infused dinners; when Jondo of TerpHogZ inquired with Streich about doing such a dinner in Miami during Art Basel, the brain trust of Baked Foodiez! had a completely new idea to present - Terp Basel. And when it was approved, not only was it manifested with care and expertise, but it exploded onto the scene with only six weeks of planning.
“It became a three-night festival, and Jondo really loved it,” Streich recalls. “That was the birth of [Terp Basel]. That was our first event. We got a lot of positive reception from the culture, love from the community, and that just gave us the momentum to keep going. So throughout 2023, we rode on the momentum of Terp Basel and put on 15 different events [in the year] between Terp Basel I and Terp Basel II under the rebranded company name BAKED!… Seemingly we came out of nowhere, but in reality we’ve been here for years, and we are just now putting our resources together to make things happen.”
BAKED! Presents... Many Different Genres Of Cannabis Events
They’ve certainly run the gamut doing that. In the twelve months between the two Terp Basels, BAKED! events have featured fashion and comedy shows, after-parties to major trade shows like CHAMPS Vegas and Hall of Flowers Santa Rosa, golf tournaments, and multiple trivia nights. Between now and Terp Basel III (December 6-7-8, 2024) they have maintained an equally busy and diverse schedule. In March they produced Freedom Feast in Miami, a limited-seating deluxe infused charity dinner benefiting FreedomGrow.org. Then they went on to produce Fenway Spark, an explosive unofficial NECANN Boston after-party where BAKED! introduced Oakland-based Original Dunkz to Massachusetts. Fenway Spark featured live performances by renowned hip-hop duo DJ 7L and Esoteric of CZARFACE, as well as a 35-foot neon-lit exclusive “Puff Bus” parked just outside the party on Lansdowne Street, complete with complimentary hand-rolled hash-holes for everyone on the bus, courtesy of the Original Dunkz crew.
For the week of 420 (4/17-4/21), BAKED! in partnership with Strange Music hit the road with hip hop legend Tech N9ne and Miami’s own ¡MAYDAY! for a five-city tour through California from Humboldt to Los Angeles. BAKED! sourced cannabis brand sponsors to activate/market their brand at each show. Some of those brands included Growing, Mad River Melts, Donutz, Culture Cannabis Club, Pacific Paradise, and Sweet Flower. Be on the lookout for a really exciting recap video of the tour on Instagram @CertifiedBaked.
BAKED! And Gas*tron*o*my Present Highest On The Runway May 30th
Their next event will be back in fashion – literally. Highest On The Runway is an event devoted to the integration of cannabis and fashion during Miami’s official Swim Week. On May 30th, BAKED! will partner-up with Gas*tron*o*my again to present the latest iteration of this groundbreaking show where models consume on the runway, this time clothed in the Resort 24' collection of Da Bohemian Bazaar. But beyond the visuals, it’s set to be an evening of sensory bliss. Brand sponsors include Florida license holders Green Dragon, RISE, and MUV as well as Blazy Susan, Touch Suite, Dazed Canna and The High Ya Doin Show podcast flying-in from Boston, MA to join the festivities. (Get your tickets here!)
Cannabis For A Cause And BAKED! Goes Global
As seen through their collaborations with Freedom Grow, Last Prisoner Project and other nonprofits, BAKED! is highly focused on utilizing cannabis for a good cause. Their Chief Community Officer Kelly Cannon currently heads strategy for the company’s developing nonprofit arm, Teach Peace, and has a lot in store for 2025.
Partly due to Steve Lezcano’s passion for Colombian cannabis culture and increasing involvement in the South American cannabis scene overall, the BAKED! team also acquired Colombia's famed Copa Medellin competition, which they will begin to officially re-operate annually starting fall/winter 2024.
“We had an opportunity to acquire it, rebrand it, restructure it, bring some American sponsorship and influencers into it, all in an effort to celebrate the South American cannabis scene while at the same time bridging North and South American cannabis cultures,” Moskin shares. “We’re going to do the same thing in Europe; we have some very interesting plans there for 2025.”
We have to look at the international landscape, he adds, because “Cannabis is global. It always has been, for thousands of years. Just because somebody changes the record of law, it doesn’t mean that cannabis hasn’t been everywhere, all in between.”
Which Experiences Did BAKED! Offer At Terp Basel 2023?
True enough, although ultimately with BAKED!, all roads lead back to Terp Basel. Moskin, who takes the organizational lead on many of the company’s projects, waxes rhapsodic about the design of 2023’s main “fairground” of the skate park.
“At Terp Basel, we had a rolling competition hosted by MJ Mazzei, blunt sculptures by Weavers, a fashion show, an intimate hip-hop concert, DJ's, live art, fire dancers, massage therapy, sound healing and meditation,” he describes. “We had all these different activities/experiences which are all things we personally like to do when we're high. So we created our own dream world in the skate park, which is multilevel and multi-terrain and feels very much like a playground. I was a skater when I was a kid. I quite literally had a mini skate park in my basement growing up in New Jersey. I also had bigger ramps that we used to pull out of the garage into the street. Skating was my life back then. And so what better environment than a multitiered skate park, loaded with cool art and graffiti,, with a sick pizza shop in it, and open-air in the center of Miami, to do this in? It was us creating our own alternative dream world where everything we loved was all happening in one place for a few days."
Which Brands Were Represented At Terp Basel 2023?
Moskin and Streich emphasize, “We had 65+ brands from all over the country come to Florida to participate in person. Everywhere from Michigan to California, Colorado, New York, all over the place. It was a nice variety, which makes Terp Basel unique as it brings such a diverse range of different brand types together. We had great hash brands, flower brands, a mix of some of the best categories in the accessory realm like MoodMats, Dab Rite and Mystic Timber [now Sesh Tree] dabbers. We had a spreadsheet that we worked off of that kept track of everyone, from brand sponsors to artists, that were going to be involved which ended up to be about 150 different groups of people [represented at] Terp Basel II.”
This was enhanced by special limited-edition collab items only available at Terp Basel, many with Sherbinski's imprint (as he was 2023’s Diamond sponsor). MoodMats released a limited Terp Basel x Sheefy Mcfly x BAKED! dab mat, Mystic Timber made custom imprinted dab tools and there was even a Sherbinski x Terp Basel skateboard. Those hundred or so people who were lucky enough to attend the exclusive dead prez x Voice of the Plant afterparty at The Flowery's office only gained access if they had been given a custom-made limited-edition Sherbinskis x Terp Basel x Voice of The Plant freshly minted metal coin.
Moskin notes, “The whole idea of Terp Basel is to bring the best brands to a new market, promote them to an excited new audience, have them network with other great brands and owners from other markets, capture amazing content and show your existing audience/fan base that you're going to new places, expanding brand awareness into new territory and having a blast with your team while you do it. All of that takes a brand's culture and team dynamics to new heights."
“And not just a new audience,” Moskin is quick to point out, “but a very authentic audience. That’s why we’re able to bring the brands we bring and why the whole event went the way it did. We go after the best of the best first and foremost. We knew which brands or types of brands would be right for this."
How did they focus-in on picking these respective brands? “Because they're the brands we love personally!” Examples of some of these favorites: “Dab Rite is the connoisseur standard. Mystic Timber created the first square-shaped dab tool. We all have MoodMats for our glass. Flower Mill changed the grinding/rolling game completely."
“Another focal point for us is to continue to source brands outside cannabis that are willing to work with cannabis companies,” Streich mentions. “It’s important to identify which brands are for the cause. Brands like Liquid Death and Gel Blaster sponsored Terp Basel, putting tons of cans in hands and hundreds of blasters in VIP gift bags, and we hope to find more brands like them that aren't afraid to support cannabis events. The ones who see the same future we see.”
What Were The BAKED! Team's Favorite Moments From Terp Basel 2023?
When it comes to favorite moments from Terp Basel, Streich immediately enthuses over the dead prez concert and says what really touched him was Guzman’s tribute to BAKED! on stage while he was introducing dead prez. “On night one, Mario got onstage and showed us a lot of love as a team, what we were doing. He publicly shouted us out. That was a really meaningful moment.”
Chart-topping artist Trinidad James was another integral participant in Terp Basel last year. “He was there all four nights and he was just awesome,” Streich asserts. “On the last night, he created a nail salon installation inside the skate park and had technicians doing all kinds of awesome artistic nail painting right there at Terp Basel, with legit nail salon equipment!"
Ultimately, what the BAKED! team loved most about Terp Basel was the camaraderie. “For four days you got to hang out with all these cool people from all these different markets,” Moskin says. “The brands that really took advantage of that fact were the ones that said 'This is amazing. I met x-person and we’re doing this project now…I connected to y-person for the first time and now we're friends…I met this media connection and we're going to do an article next month, etc." Brands can walk around and meet other actual brand owners at Terp Basel, not just the brand's sales reps or marketing team. "You've got the coolest environment to walk around and talk with everyone (media included), so bring your product, hand it to them, give it out. It is not just a ‘come make your money and go' type of event. It's a potent, cultural, experimental event."
Wrapped up in the memory, he points along the floor map from Terp Basel II. “Sherbinski himself there, Dave [Polley] from Preferred Gardens there, Dan [Wynick] from Dab Rite there, the MoodMats guys, Sam and Brendan, there, Tim from Super Dope there, Jondo from TerpHogZ there, Fidel there. You can just go say hello, hand them a jar, or a card, invite them to your booth or to an afterparty. Anything can happen."
BAKED! also had a blast with the quartet of Matt Jackson, Jimi Devine, Adam Ill, and Jon Cappetta. Though all are standout knowledge purveyors and content creators, the four had never been handed an opportunity to stay in a house together for nearly a week during a massive cannabis festival. So for Terp Basel, BAKED! set them up with their own Airbnb, fully-loaded up with Gel Blasters, and they had the time of their lives blasting up the entire house and each other on day one. After that, they pretty much roamed Miami and Terp Basel like a bonded wolfpack.
What's Next For BAKED!?
What’s next for BAKED!? Following their present slate of events for 2024 and 2025, Moskin and Streich claim that the sky’s the limit here…“The concepts and events we've developed so far are just the beginning for BAKED!,” Moskin states. “They’re like songs. We'll play the hits. But we're always focused on writing and releasing new material."
So, while BAKED! continues to fill their world full of pure imagination, we’re just grateful for the golden ticket to glimpse inside.
For more about BAKED! and upcoming events, follow @certifiedbaked on Instagram or visit CertifiedBaked.com.
(C) BAKED! and Sam C. Long / Honeysuckle Media, Inc. @tissuekulture
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Written By:
Jaime Lubin is Honeysuckle's Editor-At-Large. Her writing has appeared in HuffPost, Observer, Billboard and more. Also an actress and singer, she can be found on Twitter and Instagram.
@jaimelubin (IG)
@jaimelubin (Twitter)
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Featured image: BAKED! founders Steve Lezcano, Brian Moskin, Matthew Streich and Chief Community Officer Kelly Cannon at Terp Basel 2023 (C) BAKED!
