Waking
up far earlier than is comfortable, the three of us drove
the van round to the Arena Hotel for the first day of the
16th Annual Cannabis Cup.
We arrived to find dis-order, and dis-array. Which is pretty
much what you'd expect from a stoner event, really.
After a while, we were shown upstairs to the Vendor's Hall,
and given our plot. It was a little smaller than expected.
Roughly half the size in fact. The map we'd been given beforehand
was a little on the misleading side. Eventually accepting
that no-one was willing to do anything about this, we attempted
to set up our stall.
I think that this is pretty much where the problems began...
I noticed whilst unpacking, that I had in fact, forgotten
the power cable for the PC I'd spent the last week setting
up.
Panic.
Idea.
I could use the laptop power cable for the TFT monitor, and
the monitor cable to power the PC!!!
Bang.
That'd be the end of the TFT monitor then.
Bugger.
Spliff.
We did the best we could and eventually managed to set up
our stall, the EDIT laptop taking place of our elaborate and
now defunct, computational setup. There were no lights anywhere
and we were in almost total darkness... but we were there,
and everyone else was in the same boat.
The lights eventually came on enough for us all to see, and
then the influx of freebie hungry Cannabis Cup judges and
visitors rushed through the doors in one massive sweeping
hurricane of destruction.
Each Cannabis Cup Judge had paid almost $300 for the privilege,
and each one planned to make that money back in free shit
handed out to them by the vendors and seed companies.
Space and I frantically put free lighters, joint holders,
stickers and the like into plastic carrier bags and gave them
out to the waiting hands of the public as fast as possible.
We also had on our stall, a selection of some of the best
engineered smoking products available, mostly from UK companies,
and of course three of the coolest bongs around, which were
there for people to sample as they wished.
Opposite our stall, was situated Sagamatha Seeds. Next to
us, Homegrown Fantaseeds. Between these two, Space and I didn't
have a single sober moment for the next week!
When the day on the stall was over, the three of us travelled
into Leidesplien, sampling food from one of the many restaurants,
and finding ourselves bloated and crashed out on a sofa in
the Dolphin bar. (Which I was pleased to discover, was once
again open 24 hours.)
A few spliffs of White Dolphin later, we made our way down
to the Melkweg to check out what was going on with the Cannabis
Cup crew. I noticed that this year, only Cannabis Cup 2003
pass holders were allowed into the club. I'm pretty sure that
last year, the public were also allowed in for a fee, but
I can't be sure... since I spent the entire time stoned.
We found a reggae band playing the main stage, and sat watching
them for a while before sitting in the bar area, smoking and
chatting to various randoms.
We eventually left, tired and stoned, and hailed a cab back
to the hotel.
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