Local partners carry on after 420 Festival is canceled
GLENVAR, Va. (WFXR) — The 420 Festival, which highlights the cannabis culture across the Commonwealth, has been canceled. Organizers dropped the news just days before the 3rd annual festival was supposed to be held at Garrett Farms Inc. in Roanoke County.
The organizer, Winton Marsden posted on social media that it was due to a $40,000 shortfall and low ticket sales. However, vendors say they were never told.
“It was a disappointment to find out through just one social media platform at the time and it was just one Facebook post,” said John Baxter, Founder of Half Skull Cannabis, a would-be vendor at the event. “Me and my grower Polk, we had just went to Walmart to get stuff to come up here.”
Local partners of the event — “Playlist 4 Life” who was set to provide the music and “Garrett Farms Inc.” who own the venue — say there was a lack of communication on their side as well. The Vice President of the farm saying that he was alerted by a vender on Tuesday, April 16th. He also claimed the organizer backed out after discovering ticket sales weren’t keeping up with what was budgeted.
“It’s just difficult for an upstart to get started, so when a bigger promoter came along and wanted to put on this big thing, there was no way we could say no, we wanted that exposure,” said Deanna Marcin, CEO and Co-founder of Music 4 Life Foundation. “He left us in the lurch, the easiest fastest thing to do since we were in Roanoke and all the questions came pouring into us. He was gone, so it only made sense that we had to save it.”
With ticketholders and vendors still interested, they’ve decided to host their own event at the farm anyway. Those vendors telling WFXR that they are thankful for the chance.
“We are just grateful to him that he allowed us to come up here and help him. We’re from Richmond, Virginia. It’s a three-hour drive from here, and we said, ‘we’re coming’.” said Baxter.
So far, Marcin and Ian Hill, vice president of Garrett Farms, said 11 bands will still be in attendance as well as 15 or more vendors. Gates will open at 1 p.m. on Friday, April 19, and at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 20.
They say there will be barbecue, hamburgers and hotdogs, as well as designated smoking areas. They tell WFXR that the event was highly anticipated for the area, so they’re just going to eat the costs.
“We had canceled the event. Everything was over and done with, and then all of a sudden, vendors started showing up and they started coming out and they said they had nowhere else to be. Bands started coming out and said they had nowhere else to play,” said Hill. “Enough people have spent enough money on this event, the money is out there. I’ve been talking money for the past two weeks now. I’m sick and tired of talking money. Everything is for free, let’s do it for free.”
WFXR reached out to the organizer for further comments on what led to the cancellation. On Thursday, April 18, the organizer posted on Facebook saying they’re in the process of getting vendors and ticketholders their money back, adding that it will take 90 days from the cancellation announcement for it to hit people’s bank accounts.
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