Just a few days away from the event, venue Polson Pier has told organizers of Toronto’s Karma Cup that they’ll have to find a new host.
Organizers have been scrambling since the announcement trying to find a new location for the third annual medical cannabis competition. The previous venue was to hold over 100 vendors at the 45,000-plus square foot venue.
As of early Thursday morning organizers Tracy Curley and Sarah Sunday were still hoping to find a new place to hold the Karma Cup, such as a warehouse, conference centre or parking lot, as hundreds of attendees and vendors began to travel to Toronto.
Craig from Expert Joints, who had flown to Toronto to cover the event, said the City of Toronto’s stance against cannabis and dispensaries likely led to the venue reneging on hosting the cup.
“Within the last 24 to 48 hours, city officials have come down heavily on Karma Cup organizers, trying to prevent them from continuing with the events,” Craig said.
He said the city reached out to organizers and told them they couldn’t hold the event due to a mixture of issues on consumption of cannabis on the premises and the vendor tents that organizers had planned to erect around booths.
“A lot of time and money has gone into the event and it’s unfortunate that the City of Toronto has taken a very negative cannabis stance, unless it’s licensed producer cannabis, and the trend is continuing here and, unfortunately, everyone else is being made to suffer who shouldn’t be,” Craig said. “The way that the city’s gone about this, it’s unfortunate to see that the trickle down from Claudia and all this stuff from May is still continuing.”
NORML Canada, who had been scheduled to hold its annual conference on the speaker stage of the Karma Cup, have already announced a venue change to Vapor Central. Organizers have said that Karma Cup ticket holders and judges will be able to attend for free.
Craig said organizers are scheduled to appear on his live broadcast later today at 4:20 pm Pacific Time, where more information and the future of the event will be determined.