San Francisco’s Hippie Hill will not host the pungent, hazy and crowded annual 420 Cannabis Festival, which traces its roots to the Summer of Love, event organizers announced Monday.
Whether canceling the April 20 event will put the brakes on 420 — a day observed by cannabis enthusiasts around the world — is debatable, Bay Area weed advocates say.
Organizer Sound Bazaar posted on Instagram that the annual event held at Golden Gate Park “would not go ahead as planned this year.” Citywide budget cuts and financial woes within the cannabis industry hampered fundraising efforts and led to the cancellation, organizers said.
The San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department confirmed in a statement that budget cuts were affecting its ability to cover event staff.
This year’s festival was supposed to be the third since the 2020 and 2021 gatherings were canceled due to the pandemic.
The city and the organizers came back with a crowd estimated at 20,000 people in 2022. The event had been supported by the city for years and featured music, cannabis, food and comedy acts.
Organizers and the department emphasized that there would be no stage, live music or cannabis stands in Golden Gate Park, as there was in previous years.
The park department will fill the void at Hippie Hill with a volleyball and kickball tournament.
“We understand the disappointment and hope to make up for it with a big event next year,” said 420 organizer Alex Aquino. said in a statement.
The event’s cancellation was met with cheers from William Dolan, CEO of the San Francisco-based company. Hyrba Market dispensary.
Dolan said the 420 festival had become “corporatized and over-regulated” and had moved away from the spirit of the early Hippie Hill gatherings.
“The 420 at GG Park has a long and storied history dating back decades before the fences, ID checks and litany of restrictions that accompanied a city-sponsored, corporate-supported event,” said Dolan in an emailed statement.
Hippie Hill’s proximity to the popular Haight-Ashbury neighborhood has transformed the site, which is in the Robin Williams Meadow section of Golden Gate Park.
The Beatle George Harrison is said to have played his guitar at Hippie Hill in 1967 and led a march from the park to the Haight.
The neighborhood became a meeting place for artists, anti-war protesters, poets and others in the late 1960s, noted Brian Applegarthfounder of Bay Area-based Applegarth Strategies, a data-driven cannabis consulting firm.
Applegarth called the event’s cancellation “unfortunate” but said it would not hinder cannabis travel in San Francisco, which the consultancy tracks as part of its services.
About 52 million Americans used marijuana in 2022, according to a published report by the Center for Advancing Health, an organization of health experts specializing in medical research and reporting.
Applegarth estimates that about 40% of what he calls the “active leisure audience” design their trips with cannabis in mind.
He described these travelers as appreciating “the culture and history” of a destination, “as well as the product.”
Like they do at Hippie Hill, he said.
“In terms of a destination, Hippie Hill has been an attractive place for 420 for decades, long before it was a ticketed event or had food vendors,” Applegarth said. “People will continue to visit and celebrate activism, history and grass before and after 420.”
As for 420, Obsidian dispensary owner Alex Asefaw said he still expects the town to be buzzing.
“A lot of people are still going to go out and celebrate this day, whether there is a festival or not,” he said. “We expect the same crowds here and there’s not much else to change.”
Aquino, the festival organizer, encouraged spectators to “support their local brands, dispensaries and salons on 420 as we all celebrate plant medicine.”
Applegarth suggested those wishing to take part in the celebrations visit during San Francisco Weed Weekfrom April 13 to 20, or visit some of the dispensaries, galleries, parks and other sites featured on Oakland’s Cannabis Trail.
“In reality, the 420 was not canceled; it was revived,” Dolan said. “This gathering belongs to the people and our cannabis community, and I am sure we will see one of the best 420s ever in 2024.”
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