It's a Saturday in late summer, the farmers market two towns over is packed, and you're walking past the stands wondering whether your microbusiness could have a table there next season. Until this August, the answer was no.
A law signed on August 6, 2026, Chapter 207, changed that. A New York microbusiness with retail authorization can now apply to the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) for a Cannabis Showcase Event permit and sell its own products at an approved pop-up, farmers' market or public market. The showcase program itself opened statewide on May 4; this summer's law added businesses like yours.
Everything on your table has to be yours. Under OCM's showcase rules you can sell only what you produced yourself, and you can't bring in growers or processors as partners, the way a dispensary might fill its shelves. If your license doesn't include retail, you can still take part in a dispensary's showcase as a grower or processor, the way other brands do, and our guide to cannabis pop-up events for brands covers that side.
The paperwork begins at town hall, well before it reaches the state, and the order matters:
Now think about the market you were walking through, the one that only opens on Saturdays. Two limits decide how many of those Saturdays can be yours, and they count different things.
The first belongs to your permit. Each one is for a single location, and OCM's page says it lets the event run there for at most 14 consecutive days from the permit's start date. One Saturday sits easily inside that. A whole season of Saturdays doesn't, so expect to file a series of permits, each with its application in at least 45 days before it starts. The page doesn't say whether one permit can stretch across two Saturdays a week apart, so ask OCM before you plan around it.
The second limit belongs to the market. A location can be used for showcase events for no more than 45 days in a calendar year, and as we read the rule, every Saturday with a showcase there counts toward that, whoever is selling. That's a different 45 from the days of notice OCM needs, and the two are easy to mix up. Saturdays alone would take most of a year to use it up, but several sellers can hold permits at the same event, and the page doesn't say how a shared day is counted. Before you plan a season, ask the market manager how many days are already spoken for.
Free products aren't allowed at a showcase, so when a shopper picks up a jar, you can't send them home with a taste. What you can give them is the person who made it. As we see it, people remember a brand differently once they've talked to whoever makes it, and at a market table that person is standing right there, which is something no dispensary counter can offer.
So before your first date, decide who works the table. If the person who grows it can come along, bring them, and let them do the talking when a shopper starts asking questions.
Next summer, at that same market two towns over, the table you were picturing can be yours. Start with the town early, check the market's calendar, and put the grower behind the table, because on market day that conversation is the only sample you get to hand out.
If you'd like a hand with layout, staffing or paperwork for a market day, our event and pop-up production team can take some of it off your plate.
Can a microbusiness sell at a farmers market in New York? Yes, a microbusiness with retail authorization can sell its own products at an approved farmers' market, public market or pop-up once it holds a Cannabis Showcase Event permit from OCM.
How far ahead do you apply for a cannabis showcase event permit? OCM needs the complete application, including the municipality's signed approval, at least 45 days before the event starts.
How much is a cannabis showcase event permit in NY? The non-refundable fee is $300 for up to three days, $550 for four to seven days and $800 for eight to 14 days, with 50% off for social and economic equity licensees.
What isn't allowed at a cannabis showcase event? No one under 21 in the event area or on staff, no consumption, no free products, no alcohol, tobacco or nicotine, and no cash or cannabis left at the location overnight.
Source: New York State Office of Cannabis Management. For persons 21 and older. General marketing information, not legal advice.
