Chalice Festival Daily Lineup 2018

Chalice music & marijuana festival postponed for four months

The 2018 edition of “glass, hash, music and art” fest Chalice Festival has been postponed after being denied a permit that would allow onsite marijuana sales and consumption. Organizers of the Victorville, CA festival released a statement announcing the postponement, “for approx. four months,” for the following reasons:

-Compromised Safety of guests, vendors, and sponsors
-Issues with Victorville City Council not welcoming the cannabis culture to their city
-Confusion between state and BCC regarding the definition of “local jurisdiction” on state property
-Chalice Festival’s unwillingness to thrown an event that does not meet our brand’s standards

Their statement continues,

We must take a stand that cannabis culture and business brings value to cities. we are a huge stimulus in the economy. We bring over 30 million to the areas we throw events. As a culture we should not grace anti-cannabis areas with the positive impact that our events bring.
We have a history of creating and maintaining a safe atmosphere and we will continue to provide this culture with a safe place to be who you are without fear of arrest or discrimination for being a cannabis consumer.. The City of Victorville has put us at risk.

The lawsuit with the BCC is moving forward and we will be continuing to fight for the rights of the community. Our sponsors, vendors, artists, and brand owners are our personal friends- as well as you, the community, and we do not want to put you at risk.

Our main focus is to professionally handle and address the people who have tickets to Chalice, the vendors, the sponsors, the people who make the event what it is. We would be nowhere without the support of all of you. Every person who has ever been to one of our events or
supported our cause. You are most important to us.

You can expect more info on the rescheduling in the near future- dates, new location, etc. We ask that you ride with us through this turbulent atmosphere that is legalization year.

If you are a ticket holder for 2018 Chalice Festival, here are the options.
1. Request a refund ([email protected]) and receive refund within 14 days
2. Apply ticket to next show plus 1 free extra ticket

Festival owner and founder Doug Dracup posted to Instagram about the challenges leading up to this year’s event:

After 2017 chalice, we set our focus on being the first fully licensed and compliant cannabis festival in america. In December, we were first in line to be issued a cannabis event promoter license, which gives us the right to throw up to 10 events a year. The law said for each event we need a temporary event license issued by the bureau of cannabis control. So January 1st, pioneering new territory, we set out with a group of attorneys and professionals to interpret the laws written on throwing cannabis events- verifying we were fully compliant, and that we were operating lawfully. The law asks for “local jurisdiction approval” and for events to be thrown on DAA property (district agricultural associations), of which there are under 100 of in California. The location we throw @chalicefestival is a compliant DAA that is licensable. After review, the attorneys deemed that the fairgrounds itself was the local jurisdiction, and that it was sovereign to the local ordinances. We submitted an application to the BCC before the 60 day cutoff, our application was complete and met all legal criteria.
The BCC denied my application due to the city of Victorvilles disapproval of cannabis activity in their jurisdiction. We went and tried to get on the agenda at the Victorville city council meeting, they refused to put us on the agenda. It is not their jurisdiction. We are trying to be respectful.
We throw our event on compliant state property and are fully entitled to the BCC issuing us our retail sales license for the event.
In conclusion, I’m suing the Bureau of cannabis control, and filing an injunction for the court to force the BCC to issue the permit.
Stand behind us as we fight. While we pursue our state claim, the city of Victorville needs to hear our voices of protest! We have a city council meeting today at 530 in Victorville! Come out and support!

A spokesperson for the city, Sue Jones, told Victorville Daily Press that Victorville had taken legal advice and was following its own laws with its decision.

Particularly, the legal opinion prevented the city from green-lighting the marijuana-themed art and music event because it conflicted with a city ordinance, in effect since Dec. 7, that forbids most commercial cannabis activity within city limits, Jones said.

“In years past, the fairgrounds could rely on their sovereign rights as a state facility to host cannabis-themed events, despite the city’s ordinance,” she said. “Now, the new state requirement to obtain local jurisdictional control effectively waives the fairgrounds’ sovereign rights, therefore making them adhere to the city’s ordinance.”

She added that city code does not allow for temporary cannabis events through conditional use permitting. But she also sought to clarify that the city has not banned smoking cannabis in private use as “some have mistakenly assumed.”

Ludacris, Bassnectar, Bone Thugz-N-Harmony, and Curren$y were all on the musical lineup for Chalice Festival, which was originally scheduled for next weekend, July 13-15. Organizers have not commented on whether they’ll perform if and when the festival is rescheduled in four months.