Planning Meetings for Hempfest 2011

It takes a full year of planning and preparation to put on a Hempfest, and we have already begun to plan for the Hempfest 2011 event. Please join us when we resume Volunteer Meetings. Send an email with the subject ‘Volunteer Meetings?’ to emeraldempirehempfest@hotmail.com for meeting info.

Poster Contest Coming Soon. You might be the Emerald Empire HempFest 2011 Poster Artist. Stay Tuned!!


What Happened To Emerald Empire HempFest 2004?

The short story: The event was cancelled due to lack of insurance. Our insurance carrier notified us 36 hours prior to the event they couldn’t insure us because we “were having camping onsite”.

The long story: We didn’t have the $2000 as needed in January ’04 to reserve Alton Baker Park for the third weekend of the year and someone else got Alton Baker Park that weekend. We decided to have the HempFest at Washington-Jefferson Park.

We turned in our Special Use Permit Application on June 3, 2004.

In a letter postmarked June 10, 2004 they told us our application was incomplete. This is standard operational procedure because we didn’t have our insurance, site plan and other required paperwork completed yet.

We were working on the required paperwork when we were notified that the permit was going to be denied. The Eugene Police Department deemed our event a “danger to the public” due to the amount of illegal activities (according to them) that occurred at EEH03.

We contacted the Eugene chapter of the ACLU for help.

The Eugene ACLU arranged a meeting that was attended by two ACLU personnel, EPD (the single person between us and the permit, also the head of the RDU (Rapid Deployment Unit)), the city attorney, two park officials, the supervisor of private security at EEH03, our attorney, David Moule (Great Guy!!), Eileen Erdelt and I representing the EEH.

It turned out that all the EPD wanted was assurances that we would have tighter security, i.e., zero tolerance. ANY use or sale of ANY illegal items would result in expulsion from the event. We think that we could have worked out an agreement with the EPD, however late in the meeting I asked the Parks Dept about a discrepancy in the paperwork.

In our paperwork we submitted we clearly stated we were going to have a beer garden and in the notice they sent back they asked us for our OLCC Permit (which is supplied by the beer vendor) and a Certificate of Liquor Liability Insurance (which is also supplied by the beer vendor). No problem, but on another sheet it said “No alcoholic beverages allowed in Washington-Jefferson Park”.

The city attorney looked at our notices and asked the park dept personnel about this and they didn’t know. They had to look it up and low and behold, alcoholic beverages are not allowed in Washington-Jefferson Park.

Then almost as an after thought, one of the Parks personnel said, “By the way, you have the event set up on the wrong side of the tracks. You need to have it on the North side of the tracks. We don’t want 2500 people on the grass.”

Between having to re-write the safety plan, re-draw the site plan, create a traffic plan (not required in this Park in the past, but it is now), the loss of the beer garden revenue and lack of time, we decided to take up one of the offers we received for private land to hold the event.

We had started the appeal process as spelled out in city code. When we actually submitted the appeal, the city didn’t know what the fee was. The city manager didn’t know. The city attorney didn’t know. We filed with out a payment and were planning on running this the full course. However we realized that we just didn’t have any time left so stopped the appeal. I don’t think we ever did find out what it would have cost.

I can’t say, nor do I really think that it was a ‘conspiracy’ by the EPD or the Parks Dept. We are at least in part to blame for our troubles by starting this process so late. We could have overcome all of the obstacles, except the loss of the beer garden revenue, if we had more time, and quicker & accurate input from the Parks Dept.

We Decided To Change The Venue:

We had four offers of private land to hold the event on. We picked the only one that would work. When the county learned of the event, they insisted in requiring a “conditional use permit” ($2800). Our attorneys, David Moule and Brian Michaels wrote to the county pointing out that this requirement was not legal, but the county wouldn’t back off. We found a sponsor who would loan us the money, so this wasn’t a ‘deal breaker’.

We were trying to complete a contract between EEH and the venue owner when the insurance company notified us they couldn’t insure the event because we were having onsite camping. It seems that it’s difficult to find an underwriter who will cover events with onsite camping.

If all this weren’t enough, our website was down and then we lost our www.emeraldempirehempfest.com domain address.

We had to cancel the event and turn people away at the venue. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

Now What?

We’ve had successful events at the Washington-Jefferson Park for five consecutive years, 2005 -2009. For 2010 we will be moving the event to a different venue. We are also considering changing the dates.

Stay Tuned!!

Dan Koozer
Executive Director
Emerald Empire HempFest (OR Non Profit # 134257-98)
PO Box 10957
Eugene, Oregon 97440-2957
(541) 517-0957
emeraldempirehempfest@hotmail.com

www.emeraldempirehempfest.com