Park Board requesting cancellation of Cypress Hill at 4/20 event

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The Vancouver Park Board wants to pull the plug on 4/20 Vancouver’s headline act. At a meeting Monday night, Park Board Commissioner John Coupar raised a motion to ask event organizers to cancel Cypress Hill’s performance. That motion passed, and a meeting will now be convened to review safety issues that could come up at the 4/20 festival.

Park Board staff will also contact the organizers of the festival to request they cancel the group’s performance.

“Cancel Cypress Hill because that’s a big escalation,” he says. “It’s almost like they’re saying, ‘Okay, you think it was big last year? We’re going to really make it bigger and there’s nothing you can do about it.’ I think in the interest of looking after the park as a park commissioner, we have to be aware of those types of things.”

RELATED: 4/20 organizers react as Park Board works to have headline act removed

Coupar says the popular band will only draw even more people to Sunset Beach Park, and could cause extensive damage.

“If you compare it to, say, Celebration of Lights, they pay all the fees, they pay [for] all the policing,” he says. “We don’t allow 250,000 people to come down to English Bay and drink openly on the beach.”

The event is scheduled for this coming Saturday, but the motion could lead to a major downsize.

“I’m hopeful,” Coupar says, “But I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

If the 4/20 organizers don’t cancel the performance, he says, it’s important for them to consider the ramifications for future 4/20 events.

“We’re sending a message. If they want to work in the future with any of the agencies of the city, I think they should consider a reasonable request from the Vancouver Park Board. I’m hoping they step back and take a reasoned look at it.”