Phish brought near-record crowds to this Fenway dispensary — but not a product shortage

Phish fans descended on Fenway Park this weekend, but one Lansdowne Street cannabis dispensary says it was ready for them. 

New Dia Fenway matched the sales and foot traffic from its record-setting 4/20 weekend during Phish’s two-night run at Fenway Park on Friday and Saturday, said Director of Marketing and Communications Jordan MacKenzie Whittaker. Despite the surge, New Dia Fenway never came close to running out of inventory. 

The Vermont jam band’s fan base has long been associated with cannabis culture, and New Dia Fenway leaned into the weekend by hosting Phish Phan Art, a traveling marketplace that follows the band on tour and features artwork and merchandise created by artists worldwide. Proceeds from the event benefited the Mockingbird Foundation. 

MacKenzie Whittaker said customers traveled from around the world, including fans who had followed Phish’s five-night run in Madison Square Garden and visitors coming to Boston for their first time.

“The energy was real high,” said MacKenzie Whittaker. 

The two Phish concert nights matched the New Dia Fenway’s busiest sales and foot traffic days of the year: this April’s 4/20 weekend, which coincided with Marathon Monday, a Red Sox game, and Yankees fans in town, according to MacKenzie Whittaker. 

The busy weekend extended beyond Phish. Tim McGraw performed Thursday night at Fenway Park and Fetty Wap at MGM Music Hall Saturday. Zac Brown Band is closing the concert-filled weekend at Fenway Park Sunday. 

MacKenzie Whittaker said the dispensary plans inventory around major Fenway event weekends, when Fenway Park, MGM Music Hall, and House of Blues can collectively bring tens of thousands of visitors through the neighborhood. 

“We’re fully stocked, and we’re prepared because really being in the heart of Fenway, at any given night, there’s 50,000 people walking by,” she said. “Last night, we had Phish here, but Fetty Wap was at MGM — both crowds that love to smoke some weed, so our vault wasn’t ever at risk.” 

MacKenzie Whittaker said the dispensary saw a similar rush when thousands of Scottish fans flooded Boston during the Tartan Army’s takeover of the city during the World Cup. 

While nearby bars struggled to keep up with demand, New Dia Fenway remained fully stocked — even offering $1 pre-rolls to customers wearing kilts at one point. 

“We had people from Scotland, from Brazil, from all different countries that were coming in and experiencing recreational adult-use cannabis for the first time, which was so cool,” MacKenzie Whittaker said. 

She added that the dispensary’s 11,000-square-foot location is designed to accommodate high customer volume while offering an interactive retail experience, including lounge spaces, a pool table, basketball net, and community events.

With Massachusetts voters set to decide the future of recreational cannabis this fall, MacKenzie Whittaker said New Dia Fenway is also encouraging their customers to learn more about Question 8.

Massachusetts voters approved legal recreational marijuana through a 2016 ballot initiative. Question 8 on the Nov. 3 ballot will ask voters whether to repeal that law. 

“We’ve seen the positive impact that it’s brought to communities, that the tax revenue has brought, and we’ve seen entrepreneurialism increase based on the license types and voting yes in 2016. Now that it’s on the ballot, it stands to risk all of that,” MacKenzie Whittaker said. “We’re doing everything that we can to make sure that we’re educating folks.”

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