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Chalice Festival Rescheduled With No Official Announcement

Chalice Festival Rescheduled With No Official Announcement
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Chalice Festival Rescheduled With No Official Announcement

Local resistance to Chalice’s massive cannabis event could be forcing organizers to postpone this year’s festivities.

Word is beginning to circulate that California’s Chalice Festival, one of the largest glass, hash, music and art festivals in the United States, might not kick off as planned on July 13.

So far, there’s been no official announcement from the event’s organizers. But multiple signs online suggest Chalice will reschedule their legendary July event.

Chalice Festival Faces Resistance from Host City

From July 13 to 15, nearly 50,000 people were expected to gather on the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds in Victorville, California to enjoy food, live music and celebrate cannabis at the fifth annual Chalice Festival.

For years, though, Victorville has resisted playing host to the event. In 2016 for example, the first time Chalice came to town, the Victorville city council petitioned the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds board of directors to cancel the event.

The Fairgrounds’ board refused, citing the economic and social benefits of events like Chalice.

But the full implementation of California’s adult-use cannabis law has had the effect of giving cities like Victorville more control over whether and how the cannabis industry comes to town.

Prop 64 gives individual municipalities the power to restrict or outright ban commercial cannabis operations. And with the exception of medical cannabis deliveries, Victorville has banned any and all commercial cannabis activity.

And that includes “temporary cannabis events” like the Chalice Festival, which Victorville has strictly prohibited.

With just over a week before Chalice is set to commence, Victorville has refused to lift the band. Which means now, the event is in limbo and could very likely not begin as planned.

“The city has no choice in this matter,” said city spokeswoman Sue Jones. “We must follow our laws.”

Chalice Festival Rescheduled Due to Lack of Local Approval

About a month ago, the question seemed to be whether or not public cannabis consumption would take place at Chalice. Not whether the event would take place at all.

Holding a public cannabis event under California’s new legal weed law requires three things. First, the event has to happen at a publicly-owned venue. The San Bernardino County Fairgrounds satisfies that requirement. Second, all vendors on site must obtain the proper licenses to operate in California. And third, the event itself must receive approval and a license from California’s Bureau of Cannabis Control.

The problem for Chalice is that city officials can prevent the BCC from issuing a “temporary cannabis event” license. And so far, Victorville, the hosting city, has refused to give the massive hash bash its blessing.

So rather than risk holding an event that gets shut down before it even begins, Chalice organizers appear to be postponing the event.

But so far, organizers have made no official announcement.

Chalice Festival Rescheduled: Here’s Everything We Know

On the home page of the Chalice Festival website, a countdown clock still steadily ticks off the minutes until its Jul 13 start. Lists of vendors and performers still run down the page. The banner still says “tickets on sale now.”

But try to get tickets, and you’ll run into a wall. Instead of an Eventbrite page letting you make your purchase, you’ll be asked to enter a passcode. No one knows the code.

Yesterday, someone posted a screen cap showing “A message from Chalice.” The news isn’t good.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10213573397262781&set=p.10213573397262781&type=3&theater

The message, apparently posted on Eventbrite, reads: “we regret to inform you that we are officially rescheduling Chalice 2018.”

But the official rescheduling hasn’t come with an official announcement. Except for this message and the inability to buy tickets, nothing has changed on Chalice’s website.

In the message, Chalice explains how to get a refund for your ticket purchase. Just email them at tickets@chalicecalifornia.com.

But if you’re an optimist and want to hang on to your tickets, Chalice will reward you with a free extra ticket. Unfortunately, we don’t know when or even where the rescheduled event will take place.

Without mentioning Victorville specifically, the message does say that Chalice is facing discrimination as a culture. Organizers are vowing to take a stand for their event and the cannabis community.

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