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#1
22-04-2004, 20:58
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Cannabis Festival * Postponed * New Date = June 5th
Tuesday 4th May, 4.30pm Latest news:
***NEWSFLASH*** Festival Postponed until June 5th We have had to postpone the 6th Annual Cannabis March and Festival until Saturday 5th June 2004. This is due to a very waterlogged park. The forecast is rain with thunder over the next few days, so after a meeting with the Parks Dept at noon Tuesday we have had to Postpone the event. Many apologies for this late change but we have no choice. regards Shane Collins Event Licencee www.thecannabisfestival.co.uk ****************** ORIGINAL MESSAGE: +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ==============Cannabis Festival - Emergency Appeal To All Supporters and Sympathisers!============== We now have a huge dilemma - although this Tuesday we were granted the entertainment licences for the event in two weeks time (Sat 8th) but it is now entirely dependent on coming to some agreement with Lambeth over the massive fees and deposit being demanded by their Parks Department for the "use of the park". Last year Parks charged us 52p per head of expected crowds. This year it has gone up to £1.40p per person. If we were granted the 50% non-commercial discount then we would be fine. Currently Lambeth want £7,000 'use of park' and £5,000 'deposit'. Normally the deposit is 15% of the fee, but for us it is around 80%! They have said they want this by Friday 23rd - although we should be able to extend this to Monday morning - or they will not allow the event (although the march will still be going ahead). *****UPDATE: Friday 4pm: Raised so far = £2,700***** *****We are £2,600 short on the fees and needing another £3,000 deposit!***** PLEASE HELP After the court case taken out by Lambeth Council against the festival organisers last year, and now the huge rise in costs of use of park and deposit increases we really get the feeling that someone might be out to get us out. And it looks like the Council Executive of LibDems and Conservatives are doing it. We have set ourselves until Monday to raise the £5,300 and still have sufficient funds to responsibly start the festival and be able to pay for services, toilets, stewards etc. The full, publically-available budget is set out website here: http://www.thecannabisfestival.co.uk/budget_2004.html. As you can see the figures include the asked for not-for-profit charges and a 60% deposit and the whole event is very finely balanced to break even. If we don't get the money in - or Lambeth refuse to be reasonable - we can't really go ahead without being in debt all year and taking hugh risks with the weather and turnout etc, but whatever happens the march *will* still take place, and a large picnic, but little else. An appeal to the people and councillors of Lambeth We are appealing to Lambeth councillors to grant the discretionary 50% not-for-profit rate to the event and apply the normal 15% rule on deposits. It is our belief that the majority of councillors and of the local public support this free event. All the concerns and objections - from local and park user groups, the police and emergency services and council officers - have all been met for this event and money and volunteers have been raised and recruited to put this event on. It is only the unreasonable demands for money - increased from 52p per head last year to 140p per head this year - plus an additional 85% deposit rather than the standard 15% for all other events in local parks - that now threatens to kill the event. An appeal to everyone who supports or sympathises with this event We are appealing to everyone who sympathises or supports this event to help us with the fees and/or deposit. We have set up a special "Save The Festival" fund for people to loan or donate. Money given specifically for the returnable deposit will be returned to donors when Lambeth return the deposit (the festival has never lost any of its deposit in any previous years) * If you feel able to make a straightforward donation/gift we need £5,300 more for this. * If you can only help with the returnable deposit - we need £3,000 more for this - please mark your payment "For the returnable deposit" (either on the back of any cheque or post it as an additonal message when making the online payment). Payment methods By post: Cheques payable to "Cannabis Coalition" can be posted to: David Crane, 87 Goddard Place, London N19 5GT Online: Credit/Debit/Switch Cards can be used by clicking here: http://www.accessallareas.org/cannabisfestival/ (via Access-All-Areas) If you can't use any of these methods, or you are having any problems or queries please call: 0208 671 5936 Other ways of helping If you feel hard done by, cos we do, then do email the Lib Dem Council leader PTruesdale@lambeth.gov.uk and ask him to recognise us as a not for profit group and please to not price us out of Lambeth. We are also awaiting a legal opinion from Liberty on prohibitive charging. We are currently doing some targeted fundraising today/tomorrow/this weekend at ‘rich and famous’ celebrities, musicians, liberal lawyers, ‘senior police officers’, politicians and anyone else who has gone on record positively about cannabis or would be likely to be sympathetic and able to help. If anyone has any contacts who may be able to help or if you can suggest anyone it would be worth contacting please send PMs to teejay or shanec - or you could even email them this info yourselves maybe! Please feel free to cut and paste this around any other forums, or email it to all your mates. every little bit helps. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PS I will be updating this post as and when new information comes in, and will indicate that I have updated it with another post at the end of the thread. Last edited by TeeJay; 04-05-2004 at 15:30. Reason: latest news 
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#5
22-04-2004, 23:30
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I've done Squat Juice & Psy-Forum UK. Hope you dont mind me cut n pasting you.
 Good luck
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#8
23-04-2004, 07:13
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sample letter for peter Truesdale, LibDem leader of Lambeth Council
(email addy; ptruesdale@lambeth.gov.uk ) Dear Mr Truesdale I am appalled at the prohibitive charges you propose to levy on The Cannabis Festival. This event is run on a not-for-profit, non-commercial basis, and is a popular feature of the Lambeth Cultural year. I would expect a member of a party which is still nominally Liberal to take a positive and co-operative (I hardly dare to hope for 'progressive') attitude to this event. The costs due to Lambeth Council for Jayday are NOWHERE near £7,000 (and the proposed £5000 is a baffling 65% greater proportion of the fee than is your normal policy & practice). Be assured the voters of Lambeth will interpret this as a deceitful, 'backdoor' attempt to remove the festival from Lambeth, coming as it does after a failed prosecution which the Judge himself criticised. Now the festival's licence has been granted, I implore you to recognise the not-for-profit nature of the event-and levy charges in line with last year's. Please reply (by email) with your comments on the above Yours Faithfully
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#9
23-04-2004, 09:21
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Just sent this peter guy a piece of my mind. Also it's really easy to make a donation at AccessAllAreas,
Go on peeps, if every one chips in ,it'll happen AccessAllAreas-Canabis Festival Last edited by DJWrongspeed; 23-04-2004 at 09:24.
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#10
23-04-2004, 09:33
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i've just cut'n'pasted your original post (with a wee bit of tweeking) on www.dogsonacid.com - there's a lot of london based tokers there!!
good luck! 
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#11
23-04-2004, 11:26
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Thanks to people who have reposted the post on other forums. Every little bit helps and you never know - even on the most unlikely forum there might be someone who donates £5 or £10. The best thing would be if one of the newspapers or other media got hold of this and mentioned it in the papers or on air. I am not very experienced in this but I did email all the newsdesks I could think of last night in the hope that maybe someone would get onto the story today. If we can make a big noise today and tomorrow then by Monday morning (I think we may well have bought a little time off the council - and that is also when the festival event people are getting their heads together to decide if they can risk going ahead) we might well have got some kind of positive result. Anyway, thanks again to everyone who has helped out getting this around, and again - if anyone can repost it, let us all know where you have put it (by way of a bump).
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#12
23-04-2004, 11:58
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Ummm-yeah good idea!
I'm also having a Cannabis Festival this weekend. If anyone can drop me like £5,000 before tomorrow I might make it a Coke-Fest too! 
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#14
23-04-2004, 13:07
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Maybe people could bump it by posting messages of support? I'm a bit embaressed about asking for a sticky in general as it might set a precedent for everyone to ask for one. I'll leave it up to the mods to decide - but it would be really good just for 24 hours maybe. I am interested in knowing what people think about this, so maybe the thread needs some kind of question at the top of the first post, so that people will respond rather than just read it without posting? I will edit the first post to invite comments.
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#16
23-04-2004, 14:02
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I've c&p posted the call for help on the Evening Standard's notice boards now.
TeeJay, racking me bleedin' brains mate, to think of any other celeb to nab.
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#17
23-04-2004, 14:10
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Quote:
Or at least that was the case this morning, they may have sorted it by now (I emailed them about it) Because of the above, I have now snail-posted a cheque -- it won't arrive til tomorrow at the earliest, but hopefully the fact that I registered the donation on their website will mean they are able to count it as a commitment. Like wiskey, I have also crossposted this information "elewhere" (ie on efestivals) and I asked their webmaster to make it a more prominent news item rather than just a thread on their Other Festivals bulletin board. I have also PMed TeeJay with a couple of suggestions of sympathetic celebrities (well semi celebs really) who may be able, and certainly would be willing, to help.
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#18
23-04-2004, 14:11
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Can someone alert Dub to this thread? He may have one or two celeb ideas!
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#19
23-04-2004, 14:15
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Not quite as good as Jezza's but hey...
Dear Mr Truesdale, I understand that this years Cannabis festival in Brockwell Park may not go ahead because of actions by Lambeth council concerning the licence. It is my understanding that the deopsit for the park itself should be 15% of the actual fee - so why are you charging the orgranisers £5,000. I would also like to know why you have decided to neartly triple the cost-per-head for the use of th epark, from £0.52 to £1.40. I am a local resident of Brockwell Park (I live off Tulse Hill), and would like to know why the rules seem to have been changed for this event, especially inlight of the work done to assuge fears and concerns of local groups and the Police. I look forward to receiving your reply. Best regards My real name... Registered Voter. And donated too...
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#20
23-04-2004, 14:18
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Quote:
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#21
23-04-2004, 14:19
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Quote:
 Oh well they'll get a cheque now
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#22
23-04-2004, 14:24
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Quote:
She sadly wasn't the only one who seemed a bit confused. The chair, Cllr Crichton-Stuart (LibDem) asked several times whether the parks department was being consistent over the deposit and the officers replied that they had a standard policy of charging a deposit of 15% of the fee. despite all the councillors having the figures in front of them it was left to one rather baffled councillor to finally point out that £5,000 was not equal to 15% of £7,000, at which point the public gallery started having hysterics. The overall impression of Lambeth councillors is that even if they are well-meaning, they have almost as hard a time getting any kind of reliable and honest information out of the bureaucracy as members of the public, and unless they actually know the facts themselves (for example one of their constituents is able to sit down and discuss what is going on) they are at the mercy of the "experts" (ie council officers) and their "exective leaders" and the 'cabinet' which has now replaced the full council as the primary decision making body. Unfortunately this executive, unlike committees such as the licensing committee - does not have a balance of cllrs that reflect their numbers as elected and in the full council. Just to illustrate this in more detail, the 'executive cabinet' is as follows: Cllr Peter Truesdale (LibDem) = leader Cllr John Whelan (Con) = deputy leader Cllr Andrew Sawden (LibDem) = community safety, regeneration and transport Cllr Clare Whelan (Con) = environment Cllr Anthony Bottrall (LibDem) = education Cllr Ashley Lumsden (LibDem) = finance Cllr Keith Fitchett (LibDem) = housing Cllr Roger Geiss (LibDem) = social services As can be clearly seen, the Lib Dems have a massive majority in the cabinet yet they are hiding behind Clare Whelan and trying to imply that she can over-rule them. The fact is that we have it on very good authority that this matter was discussed and approved by the executive last monday, although when I asked for the minutes of this meeting from Democratic Services I was told that no such meeting had taken place - officially. And so there are no minutes. When asked directly whart their views on the festival where, all the members of the cabinet that bothered to reply simply passed the buck to Clare Whelan, despite the fact that the cabinet has collective responsibility on this, and it is their policies and charging schedule that she is apparently using. It is also notable that even though I have seen a copy of the document that contains the schedule of charges for Lambeth parks, as I understand it this document is not publically available, or even to normal Cllrs apparently seeing as most of them seem unaware of the contents. This is entirely typically of the secret and closed way that Lambeth council has operated for years now. The composition of the "executive cabinet" - where apparently the two Conservatives call all the shots on this issue - should be contrasted with the full council: LibDem = 27 councillors Conservative = 7 councillors Labour = 29 councillors As can be seen, the LibDems plus Conservatives have 34 votes - a majority of only five. If this decision was put to a full council session and voted on democractically, it would only take 3 Lib Dems to switch over in favour of the festival and it could go through. In fact something like this happened on Tuesday night in the licensing committee. The committee was as follows: Cllr Marietta Crichton-Stuart (LibDem) = (chair) Cllr June Fewtrell (LibDem) Cllr Clive Parry (LibDem) Cllr Janet Grigg (Conservative) Cllr Peter Bowyer (Labour) Cllr Alex McKenna (Labour) Cllr Peter O'Connell (Labour) So in theory the chair should have had no trouble in passing her proposal to limit the festival hours on the recommendation of the Parks Department (Whelan again!). However, one of the Labour Cllrs proposed an amendment to allow the full opening hours as requested by the organisers, and this was supported by a LibDem "rebel" - Cllr June Fewtrell, menaing that it passed 4 to 3. When the LibDems saw this and voted on the full license (as amended), yet another LibDem "rebelled" against his own chair and even the LibDem and the lone Conservative (who by this time was looking very angry!) only abstained rather than vote against it. This gave 6 votes for, 2 abstentions and none against. So what is the point of bringing all this up? Well the fact is that the voting public of Lambeth have voted mainly Labour and LibDem, but they are stuck with one Conservative Councillor dictating the park fees and effectively trying to ban the cannabis festival, and the LibDem leadership is allowing this to happen - presumably because the Conservatives can blackmail them and threaten to vote doen all their other legislation in the full council chamber. In other words they have had to make a deal - let the Conservatives do certain things, and in return get their 7 votes allowing them to run Lambeth. However it is very clear to me that if this matter was laid before the full council for a democratic and free vote, we would win. Enough local LibDem councillors have privately expressed support, although none have been able to go on record. Unfortunately there is no full council session before 8th May, and in any case the Kafaesque bureacratic system at the town hall is being used to keep information and decisions away from ordinary councillors - after all they are only ther people who are representing the democractic wishes of the poeople of Lambeth - what right do they have to say how the park is used or if there should be a free festival?  To tell you the truth, this kind of abuse goes on all the time as a matter of course in Lambeth. I haven't even gone into the way that the accountants and lawyers have the power to dictate council policies and decisions, and how central government and the national political party heirarchy can simply make a phone call and get things changed. It is sad, but probably true that, that normal councillors just provide a fig-leaf of democracy, but are not given enough information at the right time, and are not treated with honesty and respect by the massive bureaucracy, to the point that they probably find doing their job almost impossible anyway. If they were organised together they could probably exercise some power but individual members who step out of line can typically find their life made very difficult, and they really need to be motivated and bleive in what they are doing. There are some Lambeth councillors who fit this description, but they have to watch their backs, so I won't name names here. They know who they are. The final thing is not about party politics - its about the bureaucracy and vested interests that run Lambeth day-to-day. The typical way in which councillors are kept out of decision making is because it is impossible for them to know what is going on. Noone ever seems to have any information - even if they want to give it to you. If you don't believe me, just try phoning Lambeth Town hall and asking about this festival. Noone will have a clue. I have repeatedly, over the last three weeks, phoned the town hall resquesting documents, informations and so forth, and been promised that someone will get back to me or things will be sent by post and email. But I haven't got a single thing. The only real way that you ever get information is when council officers leak stuff to you "off the record". I have, in the past, got hold of documents, policies and various drafts, or been told what is really happening verbally, and realised that there are only a handful of people who have this information - ceratinly not many councillors, maybe one or two. Given this, is it any wonder that councillors are unable to take decisions - even if they were allowed to? Often it is consultancies, outside agencies and other 'professionals' who seem to be making all the decisions, but none of this information is availablt to the public. 
Last edited by TeeJay; 23-04-2004 at 14:44.
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#23
23-04-2004, 14:34
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Oh the majesty of the democratic process...
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#24
23-04-2004, 14:55
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Some good news! I have just been on the phone to the festival people and so far over the last two days, from fund-raising efforts around the country (inc. club nights etc) from extra stall space coming in, and from donations, there has been an extra £2,700 raised. This means we now have £2,600 to go with the fees (and another £3,000 for the returnable deposit).
Thanks you everyone who has responded so far and keep the momentum up over this weekend. If we can keep this going then by Monday we will have sorted this out. I justy need to caution these figures though since the bulk of this amount was from things that were already in the pipeline or where some money has been advanced slightly, so the main thrust this weekend really should be getting online donations (inc. celebrity supporters) and if possible some fundraisers tonight and tomorrow night telling mates and maybe getting some money together between them. The donations side of things is still small apparently but it started growing yesterday. Hopefully it should pcik up over the course of the weekend and as the word hits the streets. (aha "The Streets"! Now there's an idea )And getting the media to look into the behaviour of Lambeth council of course! (I will be updating the first post) Last edited by TeeJay; 23-04-2004 at 15:07.
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#25
23-04-2004, 17:20
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just a thought-dance record labels benefit indirectly from any event where musicmaking talent gets the chance to strut it's stuff. could they not be tapped up, on the grounds of vested interest?
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