Dope fest told to get off the grass
Council says event can’t be at reserve but plans hold firm
Acannabis festival planned for a public reserve is smoking ahead despite strong opposition from neighbours and the Dunedin City Council. A letter from council chief executive Dr Sue Bidrose asked the organiser not to proceed and said police had authority to ask people to leave and issue trespass notices.
Meanwhile, police said they respect people’s right to peaceful protest and will focus on public safety and preventing disorder, as opposition gathers steam ahead of the festival this weekend.
The Harvest Festival is set to start this Saturday at council-controlled Woodside Glen, near Outram, to coincide with 4/20 (May 20), a worldwide day of cannabis celebration.
Organiser Joe Nicolson said the cannabis and hemp festival was a more “professional” alternative to the
J Day cannabis smoking protest in the Octagon in previous years.
It is billed online as a celebration of all things cannabis, headlined by Tiki Taane, and featuring hemp and cannabis businesses, music, food, workshops and panel discussions.
Tickets start at $100, and for an extra $50 allows access to a “mind blowing R18 ‘Peaceful Protest Zone’,” according to the website.
Hundreds, possibly thousands of people were set to descend on the woodland glen, Nicolson said.
A two-day “Golden Bud” pass includes on-site camping.
“This is just our attempt at taking it away from the Octagon, which is embarrassing for the whole industry, and putting on a professional display, where it should be,” Nicolson said.
But Bidrose’s letter to Nicolson showed the council strongly disagreed with the event’s location.
“As you have been told verbally by myself, Joy Gunn and Robert West, [the council] is not prepared to have you use council-owned land for the purposes of hosting an event that has the intent of enabling illegal activity, in this case cannabis consumption.”
Without a permit neither an event nor camping could take place there, under the reserves and beaches bylaw,
When it’s public land you can’t block anybody off from [using] it so you can make a profit. Sue Bidrose, Dunedin City Council
Bidrose said. “You cannot charge members of the public to access the reserve and you cannot prevent anyone from accessing any part of the reserve at any time.”
Breaching the bylaw risked a fine of up to $20,000.
Bidrose said yesterday: “We [earlier] got in touch with him and told him clearly and unequivocally he could not use DCC land.”
In response, Nicolson wrote to numerous politicians including the Prime Minister to complain the council was inhibiting his freedom of speech, she said. “Even if he wasn’t breaking the law, I’m not sure we would have given permission for an event of the size he claims it’s going to be, in that spot.
“When it’s public land you can’t block anybody off from being able to use it so you can make a profit.”
Nicolson yesterday accused the council of bullying and claimed Woodside was where police had asked him to hold the event.
Inspector Wil Black, of Dunedin, confirmed police had met Nicolson.
But at no time did staff suggest or agree on a venue for the event, he said. “This is not something police has any jurisdiction over.”
Long-time Woodside resident Ray Beardsmore and his wife were dismayed the event was going ahead and say they have taken many calls from neighbours who were “absolutely petrified” of what might happen.
They had asked police for 24-hour protection during the festival and were worried about noise, damage to the reserve and the possible antics of drug- and alcohol-affected revellers.
“They’ve been told no but they’re going ahead anyway,” he said.
Another local, who asked to remain anonymous, said he supported drug reform but opposed the festival at the relatively small glen, a target of boy racers in the past.
“We can’t go away on holiday now because we’re going to have to stay and look after the farm and the house.
“The whole neighbourhood’s spewing.”