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There will be no Hippie Hill 420 festival. Some San Francisco weed gurus say, so what?

Andrew J. Campa, Los Angeles Times on

Published in Lifestyles

San Francisco's Hippie Hill will not host the annual pungent, hazy and packed cannabis 420 festival whose roots trace back to the Summer of Love, event organizers announced Monday.

Whether the cancellation of the April 20 event will dampen 420 — a day that is observed by cannabis enthusiasts far and wide — is debatable, Bay Area weed advocates say.

Organizer Sound Bazaar posted on Instagram that the annual event held in Golden Gate Park would "not be happening as planned this year." Citywide budget cutbacks and financial struggles within the cannabis industry hampered fundraising efforts and led to the cancellation, organizers said.

San Francisco's Recreation and Park Department confirmed in a statement that budget cuts affected its ability to cover event staffing.

This year's festival was supposed to be the third since gatherings in 2020 and 2021 were scrubbed due to the pandemic.

The city and organizers returned with an estimated crowd of 20,000 in 2022. The event had been city-backed for years and featured music, cannabis, food and comedy acts.

 

Both the organizers and the department stressed that there would be no stage, live music or cannabis booth at Golden Gate Park, as there were 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 it up with a great event next year," 420 organizer Alex Aquino said in a statement.

The event's cancellation was met with cheers by William Dolan, CEO of San Francisco-based Hyrba Marketplace dispensary.

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