It’s going to be a day of fun, music, education and cannabis.

The 16th annual Ohio Hempfest will take place from noon to 1 a.m. Saturday June 7 on the South Oval.

The Students for Sensible Drug Policy, an group dedicated to educating people on drug-related issues, is organizing the event.

“It’s a great time for students to educate themselves, take a stance on the issues and basically get the facts,” said Eric Rudd, a senior in Japanese.

Jayme Richards, a junior in social work at Columbus State Community College, said SSDP is trying to provide more information about marijuana and the drug war so other students can form their own opinions.

“Hempfest is just a community festival. SSDP wants to get the information out there about marijuana and the drug war. We want education instead of incarceration, so we want people to get out there and inform themselves,” Richards said.

The festival will host three stages with a diverse lineup of music, food vendors and crafts.

Speakers will also talk in between bands, offering yet another viewpoint for the audience.

The theme for this year’s Hempfest is “Hempfest: A higher peace in this time of war.”

Speaking on the issues will be such experts as Dan Salano and Loretta Nall.

Salano, a retired police officer from Detroit, will speak about how the drug war is a problem in some police departments because it keeps the officers from focusing on other issues.

Nall, the founder of the Marijuana Party, is working on creating a political party based around the cannabis issue – creating a voting block which will help push the issue more into the political arena, said Sean Luse, a senior in political science.

“We do have a lot better speaker lineup, more experts in the drug war coming from around the Midwest to speak. It’s always interesting to hear a police officer say we need to legalize drugs,” Luse said.

Although there were about 5,000 people at last year’s festivities, SSDP is hoping for an even larger turnout this year.

“It’s been an ongoing tradition at Ohio State and it’s been getting a lot larger the last couple of years. We’ve put a lot into it, a lot more organizing and more promotions, so the festival has been growing rapidly and we expect a record turnout this year,” Luse said.

“It’s not going to be a whole lot different (from previous years), just bigger. There are going to be more vendors, more bands, more people, more fun,” he said.