Grass Greener In Groningen

An especially toasty offer to organisers of this year’s Eurosonic-Noorderslag came from the owner of a local Groningen “coffee shop.”

Coffee shops in The Netherlands do sell coffee but are probably better known for offering various varieties of cannabis.

Photo: Carlos Osorio, File/AP

Meme's Green Dream business in Burton, Mich.

This is perfectly legal in The Netherlands.

The owner of a coffee shop called The Flying Dutchman (where else?) offered “a free joint” to all musicians playing the showcase festival.

All they had to do was to visit his premises and show their festival wristbands.

The Eurosonic team didn’t feel it appropriate to take up the offer, but The Flying Dutchman wasn’t deterred.

He started to send samples of his goods for the festival organisers to hand out.

Eurosonic co-founder Peter Sikkema told regional newspaper Dagblad van het Noorden he was running a music festival and didn’t want to get mixed up in distributing cannabis.

He also advised musicians not to smoke too much of the stuff before going on stage.