Officials again forced to close Sunset Beach, repair damage from 4/20
The Vancouver park board is again asking the public to keep off the grass while its staff repairs damage to the field where the 4/20 cannabis event was held Friday.
Saturday morning, crews from the park board cleaned up remaining trash and assessed what one spokesperson called “significant damage” to the field at Sunset Beach following the April 20 protest and cannabis market, which police said had roughly 40,000 attendees at its peak.
The park board put up fencing around the field and estimates it will be closed to the public for 10 weeks.
Compared to last year’s event, when the entire field turned to mud, the damage looked far less severe when Postmedia News visited the site Saturday morning. Organizers said they spent $30,000 for rubber matting that covered hightraffic areas. Despite their efforts, there was still too much damage, the park board said.
Last year, after the park board said the field would be closed for up to five weeks, the board recouped $6,690 from the organizers after giving them a bill for $34,630 to cover repairs, staffing and other costs.
Park board chair Stuart Mackinnon said 4/20 organizers can again expect a bill, though he hasn’t crunched the exact numbers. He said the rubber mats offered “limited help” but didn’t cover the entire field, so areas left uncovered may have been made worse by pooling water.
“It may not look like it was bad as last year but one of the problems we’re having is this is the third year in a row and the seeding that we’ve done in the past two years is not taking 100 per cent,” Mackinnon said.
“That’s damage year after year. We don’t think that field can take much more.”
Repairs, which will include aeration, top-dressing, seeding and fer- tilization, can’t begin until the field is completely dry, Mackinnon said.
“The word I have from our staff is we’re really hopeful that it will be open by Canada Day,” Mackinnon said. “If we have dry weather, it could be sooner than that.”
He said the board maintains that 4/20 shouldn’t be held in any city park and would be a better fit with the convention centre or Pacific National Exhibition grounds.
“We wish for them to find another place that’s better suited for them and for us,” he said. “It’s nothing to do with what they’re selling or smoking — that’s going to be legal in a couple of months. It’s just, as I say, a trade show is not an appropriate activity for a park.”
Meantime, Vancouver police say they made two arrests at 4/20 but that there were no major incidents. Sgt. Jason Robillard said one youth was arrested for assault and weapons charges, and one man was arrested for breaching his release conditions. Both were arrested at Sunset Beach.
Robillard said police were also watching the vendors at 482 tents set up at Sunset Beach. But police did not arrest anyone selling cannabis, mainly because of a public safety concern.
“The decision to arrest at any large scale public event is up to each individual officer and based on their subjective observations,” Robillard said in an email.
“The officers have to use a problem solving approach that reduces the likelihood of a confrontation. Our actions at large scale events must be the least intrusive and the impact of our actions must be proportional to the need of police intervention.”
Emergency Health Services attended to 23 medical emergencies, 10 overdose calls and eight people were taken to hospital for further treatment, he added.
B.C. Ambulance on Saturday reported no major medical incidents at 4/20.