The Closest Cannabis Lounge to LAX Is Throwing an El Tri World Cup Watch Party

“You get off the plane at LAX and you’re like, I want to experience California,” says Adriana Hemens, marketing director at The Artist Tree. “Probably one of the first things that you’re gonna think of to do is go to a dispensary or lounge.”

The Artist Tree is about the same distance from SoFi Stadium, where some of the biggest World Cup matches will play this summer, as it is from LAX. And the Hawthorne location is getting in the spirit with a World Cup party that’s far different than what you’ll see in the packed bars around the city during game days.

Watching El Tri’s opening match with a joint in hand

Photo: The Artist Tree

June 11 is the first day of the 2026 World Cup, and the tournament opens in Mexico City with Mexico versus South Africa at Estadio Azteca, kicking off at noon Pacific. A watch party will be in full swing at The Artist Tree.

Hawthorne, like much of LA, has a strong Mexican and Mexican-American population. The cheers for Mexico’s national team, El Tri, will surely be heard from The Artist Tree to East LA and beyond. Hemens says it’s no coincidence that the lounge’s party coincides with Mexico’s opening match. The Artist Tree’s Hawthorne location actively works to be part of that wider community.

“In Hawthorne, there’s a big Hispanic population, and you can really see that reflected in the artwork” hung around the lounge, Hemens says.

Photo: The Artist Tree

During the match, cannabis brands like Papa’s Herb, Emerald Sky, and Status are sponsoring the event, with activations like edibles tastings, a juice tasting, and juice-and-flower pairing. The game, with sound on, will broadcast from multiple screens. It’s like being at your chillest friend’s house, but if they lived in a space with all of the top cannabis gear and invited a cohort of local and international visitors to cheer on a single team.

To get there, you pass through The Artist Tree’s dispensary to the moodier lounge with a tile-fronted cannabis bar, rotating local art on the walls, and a projector screen in front of tables and chairs. Anything sold on the dispensary side can be ordered in the lounge and brought to your table. At the bar, you can also rent a mini bong for $15, a Puffco for $20, or a Stündenglass gravity bong for $40, with staff on hand to help if you’ve never worked a gravity bong in your life. Or stick to rolling your own at your leisure.

The cocktails are alcohol-free and THC-infused, dosed at 10 milligrams and priced at $19. They skew local and punny: an infused agua fresca called the “POGuafresca,” pineapple-orange-guava-lime with a chamoy and Tajín rim, is about as fitting a drink as you could pour. There’s a Hash-Chata built on a rice-milk and condensed-milk base with cinnamon and nutmeg; a South Bay Lemonade in peach, strawberry, or lavender; and a piña colada riff called “To the Moon” with butterfly tea and toasted almond.

The case for a lounge instead of a bar

Photo: The Artist Tree

For a lot of World Cup visitors, cannabis is the draw and the novelty at once. Plenty of fans will arrive from countries where cannabis is illegal, or where it exists as a joint passed on a street corner rather than a designed room with a menu and a budtender.

“We hear it all the time,” Hemens says. “People are coming and they’re like, ‘Wow, I didn’t even know you could get cannabis in this form,’ or, ‘I didn’t even know they had these crazy looking gravity bongs.’”

Photo: The Artist Tree

Hemens makes a broader case for lounges, too. “There’s really a need for that third space, just in society,” she says. “Like, we go to work, we go home, but what else is there?” Bars are great, she adds, “but they’re not always the center of our social lives.”

Licensed consumption lounges are still rare — Hawthorne’s was the first to open in LA County outside of West Hollywood, and it remains one of a small handful in the region. This is a niche way to watch a game, not a mainstream one.

Photo: The Artist Tree

If you’re in town for the World Cup and you want one watch party that isn’t a sports bar, this is the closest one to the airport. The host nation kicks off the whole tournament. Show up with your ID, a designated ride, and, if needed, leave your suitcase at the bar.

If you go

• The Artist Tree Weed Dispensary & Lounge Hawthorne: 4756 W. Imperial Highway, Hawthorne, CA 90304 — at the corner of Imperial Highway and South Inglewood Avenue, where the 405 and 105 meet.
• Hours:: Open daily, 7 a.m. to 9:50 PM. June 11 watch party: 12–3 PM, timed to the noon Pacific kickoff.
• Entry:: No reservations. You must be 21 or older with a valid government-issued photo ID, and you buy what you consume on-site.
• Getting there:: Ample parking, rideshare is common straight from LAX, and the Metro C Line runs nearby.
• Cost:: Device rentals run $15–$45 depending on the rig; THC cocktails are $19 (non-infused coffee $5–$7).