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And along with that growth in retail services, the 4/20 event has become a commercial enterprise. Virtually every one of the 187 trade show booths, at $300 a pop, are sold out. The organizers, who say they are a non-profit run by volunteers, are also putting up more than 160 free vending spots on the beach on a first-come, first-serve basis.

A protest movement that 20 years ago drew 200 people to Victory Square now is expected to lure as many as 50,000 for a toke-in. That’s 7,000 more than those who turned out Sunday for The Vancouver Sun Run.

The real estate the organizers of 4/20 have commandeered is extensive; despite the city’s objection and its no-smoking bylaw, the event will stretch across the Sunset Beach parking lot onto two beaches and the grass field to the north. There will be everything from a giant music stage to T-shirt vendors to pizza-by-the-slice tables to pot sellers to those trying to sell high-end bongs.

Photo by Jason Payne / PNG

Dana Larsen, one of the event’s organizers, defends the commercialization of a movement seeking to legitimize marijuana.

“There will be a lot of business going on, a lot of cannabis being bought and sold, that is true. But there are lots of expenses to putting this on,” he said. “It is still an act of civil disobedience. If you look at history, all the bong shops in Canada are acts of civil disobedience. All the dispensaries are. We do business as civil disobedience. That is how our movement has grown.”

Vancouver Coun. Kerry Jang, who has helped steer the city’s controversial plan to give business licenses to some dispensaries by April 29, sees the 4/20 movement differently.