BorkBorkBork
Member
I haven't seen much on IC about the cup, happened to take some pics, so I thought I'd do a little writeup.
So here's my story and I'm sticking to it...
Happened to have a trip to NorCal scheduled for other matters, when I realized my trip coincided with the first High Times Medical Cannabis Cup! I was pretty fraking excited, having always wanted to go to the Dam for the cup. I figured this may be the next best thing...
Arrived late as fuck Friday night, got lost driving through Frisco, damnit. STOOPID GPS! Got smoked the fuck out by my brotha from anotha motha, and crashed hard.
Up early, and out the door we go. I was excited, but I had a baaaaaad feeling about this. Why?
Because when I pre-ordered our tickets, I simply got a notice that my "ticket numbers" would be e-mailed to me within a week....ticket...number?
Sure enough, about a week later (after having to ask why they hadn't arrived yet), I got just that. An e-mail with a couple of letters and numbers. That's it. No barcoded PDF to print out, no hard-ticket in the mail. Just a number.
How could this NOT end in disaster?
Sure enough, we arrive around noon, and there is a line snaked around the block. We stand in it, moving maybe ten feet in twenty minutes, when the guys ahead of us get called out of line by their friend ahead.
We follow, and find that there is a SEPARATE line for pre-purchase. No signs.
/sigh
Now we're in a much shorter line (which is quickly growing), and I suspect the line we were in would have taken us 1 1/2 hours to get to the front.
Get harassed by flyer-hander-outers while standing in line.
/sigh
Guy near us give his water bottle to a very old man standing in the other line, who looked about ready to pass out.
/sigh
Finally get in. Give my number to the chick, and she lets us in. You can't tell me this system didn't get abused.
Crowded as frak. And....why in the hell did you put the FOOD RIGHT BY THE ENTRANCE?!?!
/sigh
But hey, at least we're in, and since we pre-paid, we get some free schwag on the way in, a little black HT/BPG bag, grinder/storage thingy, sample of ital hempwick, program, and a free t-shirt...remember the free t-shirt....
Snapped a few shots of the expo...
Upstairs, entrance is in the upper left of the shot.
The "Spinner", which I think is a cool little unit (if overpriced). The engineering is pretty genius when you get an up-close look at how it works. Unfortunately, the salesmen were overselling PRICKS. I get the feeling their entire lives are riding on this venture. WAY over-agressive.
BC Northern Lights were there. Love the design of their boxes, and had seriously considered buying one many times.
Sigh....they still don't make a desktop sized version for us ~qp growers, lol. Ah well.
LOTS of vendors hawking LED lights.
Downstairs was the "215" section, I guess. Dispensaries and seed sellers, and the smoking area outside with hashbar (but it was closed by the time we got there, and I couldn't get outside anyways, being a non-card holder). TGA/Subcool had a big display set up as well, forgot to take pictures.
Oh, did I mention that to get downstairs, you had to take a tiny little staircase, which had traffic going both ways?
And that the venue was super cramped?
In other words....the Medical cup was non-handicap accessible.
/facepalm
WHO PUT THE STONERS IN CHARGE!?!? lol
We were there for a few hours, then we'd had enough. We were starving, headed to in-n-out burger, and had, swear to god, the best burger and fries of my life, lol. Maybe it was the jetlag, the high-grade weed, the near-starvation, or some combination of these, but motherfraker it was good!
Then we went home and smoked hash
To sum up: Had I gone on a trip STRICTLY to attend the cup as a non-card holder, I would have felt pretty ripped off. Many of the vendors were selling there wares at FULL RETAIL PRICE, WTF! One notable exception was the incredibowl, they had a nice setup with a case at a good price, the big one was like $125, still kicking myself for not getting it.
As a card-holder, if you got there before they shut the hash-bar down (you must have gotten in line pretty early!), and especially if you wanted to talk to a breeder, I think it would have been a good deal.
I was pretty soured on the experience, especially after buying another event t-shirt, forgetting I had gotten one for free, lol! And they're both white, I wanted black! Short-term memory has gone to pot
Now, the thought of going to Amsterdam in fraking NOVEMBER to attend another High Times clusterfark doesn't sound like a good idea at all. Know what does sound like a good idea though?
The 2011 ICMag 4/20 cup, that's what!
If you were at this event, please share your experience in this thread!
So here's my story and I'm sticking to it...
Happened to have a trip to NorCal scheduled for other matters, when I realized my trip coincided with the first High Times Medical Cannabis Cup! I was pretty fraking excited, having always wanted to go to the Dam for the cup. I figured this may be the next best thing...
Arrived late as fuck Friday night, got lost driving through Frisco, damnit. STOOPID GPS! Got smoked the fuck out by my brotha from anotha motha, and crashed hard.
Up early, and out the door we go. I was excited, but I had a baaaaaad feeling about this. Why?
Because when I pre-ordered our tickets, I simply got a notice that my "ticket numbers" would be e-mailed to me within a week....ticket...number?
Sure enough, about a week later (after having to ask why they hadn't arrived yet), I got just that. An e-mail with a couple of letters and numbers. That's it. No barcoded PDF to print out, no hard-ticket in the mail. Just a number.
How could this NOT end in disaster?
Sure enough, we arrive around noon, and there is a line snaked around the block. We stand in it, moving maybe ten feet in twenty minutes, when the guys ahead of us get called out of line by their friend ahead.
We follow, and find that there is a SEPARATE line for pre-purchase. No signs.
/sigh
Now we're in a much shorter line (which is quickly growing), and I suspect the line we were in would have taken us 1 1/2 hours to get to the front.
Get harassed by flyer-hander-outers while standing in line.
/sigh
Guy near us give his water bottle to a very old man standing in the other line, who looked about ready to pass out.
/sigh
Finally get in. Give my number to the chick, and she lets us in. You can't tell me this system didn't get abused.
Crowded as frak. And....why in the hell did you put the FOOD RIGHT BY THE ENTRANCE?!?!
/sigh
But hey, at least we're in, and since we pre-paid, we get some free schwag on the way in, a little black HT/BPG bag, grinder/storage thingy, sample of ital hempwick, program, and a free t-shirt...remember the free t-shirt....
Snapped a few shots of the expo...
Upstairs, entrance is in the upper left of the shot.
The "Spinner", which I think is a cool little unit (if overpriced). The engineering is pretty genius when you get an up-close look at how it works. Unfortunately, the salesmen were overselling PRICKS. I get the feeling their entire lives are riding on this venture. WAY over-agressive.
BC Northern Lights were there. Love the design of their boxes, and had seriously considered buying one many times.
Sigh....they still don't make a desktop sized version for us ~qp growers, lol. Ah well.
LOTS of vendors hawking LED lights.
Downstairs was the "215" section, I guess. Dispensaries and seed sellers, and the smoking area outside with hashbar (but it was closed by the time we got there, and I couldn't get outside anyways, being a non-card holder). TGA/Subcool had a big display set up as well, forgot to take pictures.
Oh, did I mention that to get downstairs, you had to take a tiny little staircase, which had traffic going both ways?
And that the venue was super cramped?
In other words....the Medical cup was non-handicap accessible.
/facepalm
WHO PUT THE STONERS IN CHARGE!?!? lol
We were there for a few hours, then we'd had enough. We were starving, headed to in-n-out burger, and had, swear to god, the best burger and fries of my life, lol. Maybe it was the jetlag, the high-grade weed, the near-starvation, or some combination of these, but motherfraker it was good!
Then we went home and smoked hash
To sum up: Had I gone on a trip STRICTLY to attend the cup as a non-card holder, I would have felt pretty ripped off. Many of the vendors were selling there wares at FULL RETAIL PRICE, WTF! One notable exception was the incredibowl, they had a nice setup with a case at a good price, the big one was like $125, still kicking myself for not getting it.
As a card-holder, if you got there before they shut the hash-bar down (you must have gotten in line pretty early!), and especially if you wanted to talk to a breeder, I think it would have been a good deal.
I was pretty soured on the experience, especially after buying another event t-shirt, forgetting I had gotten one for free, lol! And they're both white, I wanted black! Short-term memory has gone to pot
Now, the thought of going to Amsterdam in fraking NOVEMBER to attend another High Times clusterfark doesn't sound like a good idea at all. Know what does sound like a good idea though?
The 2011 ICMag 4/20 cup, that's what!
If you were at this event, please share your experience in this thread!
