By Benjie Cooper
IG: @nuglifenews
YouTube: Lucid’s Vlog
The 4th annual mega sesh known as the Chalice Festival blazed into Victorville, California to occupy the San Bernadino County Fairgrounds on a hot July 7-9 weekend. Thousands of cannabis, music, glass, and art enthusiasts flocked to the massive yearly event, also known as the Coachella of Concentrates, for a veritable playground of free dabs, endless rows of marijuana vendors, attractions, glassblowing, and big name music.
To call Chalice a takeover of the fairgrounds would be a pretty accurate statement as everything on the property was renamed for the event. On the official festival map, event buildings, tents, and the walkways in between all bore sponsor names like Dr. Dabber Way, Nectar Stick Crossing, and SC Labs Lane.
In the non-medicating areas of the fairgrounds, festival guests enjoyed food from a wide variety of vendors, including turkey legs and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. In addition to the educational seminars and music stages that were available to those without medicating area wristbands, the Chalice event added attractions for everyone to this year’s event. A giant Ferris wheel and a two-drop log ride were in operation throughout the day and night. With the triple-digit summer heat that was bearing down on the event, the Big Splash log ride saw a relatively steady stream of customers looking to cool off.
Glass blowing is an integral part of Chalice and artists come from near and far to showcase their creations and provide live demos. Rows of colorfully intricate and sparkling custom-made pipes, bongs, dab rigs, decorative art pieces and various types of jewelry from a large number of blowers were all on display in the Hitman Glass Village. Tables equipped with torches adorned one end of the village, where a row of skilled glass artists used the searing flames to showcase their abilities.
The medicating areas were primarily confined to the various event halls around the property, although some of the tents were set up outside on Puffco Passage and Rocca Road. The medicating areas were wonderlands of THC as booth after booth of offered up free dab samples and special festival deals for the eager cannabis patients and marijuana enthusiasts.
Aside from cannabis being one of the major draws behind the festival, Chalice is also known for bringing well-known music acts to its main stage. Wu-Tang Clan, Obie Trice, E-40, Talib Kweli, and The Pharcyde have all performed at the festival in previous years. The 2017 music lineup was just as big and included performances by Cypress Hill, Ice Cube, Berner, and Warren G.
In light of the recent controversy regarding the Del Mar Fairgrounds over the possibility of holding an educational cannabis event (The Goodlife Festival) on the premises, it begs the question; how can a large THC-focused event such as Chalice happen annually at a county fairground without interference from the federal government? It’s the quandary that the Del Mar Fairgrounds Board of Directors was facing back in May when they held an open meeting to figure out how to proceed without getting into trouble with Uncle Sam. At the end of the day, they decided to cancel the event until they found a way to hold it without allowing medicating at the fairgrounds. Seeing as this is the third year that Chalice has taken place at the fairgrounds in Victorville, the people running the facilities there seem to know something that they don’t in Del Mar. The same could apply to the Sonoma County Fairgrounds which has hosted large cannabis events like Hempcon and the Emerald Cup.
Megaseshes are on the rise and Chalice is firmly establishing itself as a crown jewel in the world of cannabis events. In four years, the festival has quickly grown to be one of the biggest shows in the industry and is definitely the popular spot to be when it comes around. With the California recreational marijuana system gearing up to make its debut in 2018, next year’s Chalice Festival has the potential to be the biggest cannabis event the state has ever seen.
