4/20 organizer says the park didn't need to be closed at all

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The Vancouver Park Board estimated it would take six weeks to repair, but the lawn at Sunset Beach has quietly reopened just shy of a month after the annual 4/20 marijuana rally.

Fences surrounding the lawn along Beach Avenue between Jervis and Bute Streets came down Friday afternoon after the City of Vancouver deemed the grass was well enough to support activity again.

“Due to really what were perfect growing conditions, we felt that would be a good time to open the field up,” Howard Norman with the Park Board said.

The Park Board estimates it cost $3,000 to aerate and overseed the lawn.

“Last year was extremely wet so I think there was a little more damage last year,” Norman said. “And we didn’t have the perfect conditions after the fact.”

The board originally estimated the park would be closed for 10 weeks, then reduced it to six, however 4/20 organizer Dana Larsen said he didn’t think the park needed to be closed at all.

“[10 weeks] really seemed like a long time to me because they didn’t close it that long last year and the park was clearly looking a lot better this year,” he said. “Even when they closed the park for those four weeks, it wasn’t looking all that bad.”

More than 40,000 people flooded the park on April 20 for the pro-marijuana rally.

Last year, wet and cool weather caused heavy damage to the park and delayed the lawn’s regrowth. The park board said it cost $34,630 to repair, of which just $6,990 was reimbursed by the 4/20 organizers.

This year, rally organizers spent $30,000 on new ground covering mats, which Larsen says helped reduce the damage, in addition to the dryer forecast. He said he expects to expand the ground mat coverage area next year.

Larsen said his group is willing to cover all the city and park board fees, which he estimates at $50,000, but will not pay for policing.

“We don’t feel that as a protest we should be paying the policing bill to put this on,” he said. “The idea that you can’t hold an event in the city unless you give the police $100,000 seems kind of contrarian and partly because we just can’t afford it.”

Last year, the police bill at Sunset Beach was $127,245, while engineering cost $5,760 and emergency management cost $2,370.

This year, vendors were charged $500 or $750 to reserve a booth space on the matted area, a jump from $450 in 2017. Free spaces were available on the beach. The raise helped bring in more money for organizers.

Larsen said organizers donated $4,200 each to the Firefighters Snacks for Kids program and St. Paul’s Hospital.