POT FESTIVAL ORGANIZERS NOT HIGH ON CITY DECISION

Organizers of a Toronto marijuana festival say the streets will be
crawling with hungry, thirsty, blissed-out protesters if the city
doesn't change its decision to withhold a permit that would allow the
group to use the lawn of Queen's Park.

The Toronto Freedom Festival has been held since 2007 and happens at
the same time as the Global Marijuana March in early May, providing
food and entertainment to legalization protesters.

However, the festival appears to have become a victim of its own
success, with city officials telling organizers that the size of the
crowds - an estimated 40,000 people at last year's festival - is too
large for the park to accommodate.

Gabe Simms, the festival's vice-president of operations, said the city
cited several other problems in denying the permit this year,
including open alcohol at the festival, under-aged drinking,
complaints from the community about marijuana use by protesters and
the danger for the grass - the turf, that is - to be damaged or
garbage to be left at Queen's Park. The city was also concerned after
a man was injured by falling 20 metres out of a tree at least year's
event.

"We weren't naive to the growth of the event. We have faced new
challenges," he said, adding that the festival had already been
looking at the same problems the city raised.

He said festival workers check for garbage in the area and protect the
grass and that there were several ways to alleviate concerns over
clandestine and under-age drinking, such as performing bag checks on
people arriving at the festival.

Until January, the festival had no indication it would not receive a
permit for this year's event, planned for Saturday, May 7, Mr. Simms
said, adding that organizers weren't given the chance to address the
community's concerns before the permit was denied.

He said the festival had been unsuccessfully trying to reach an
agreement with the city or find an alternative venue over the past few
weeks.

City parks officials could not be reached for comment Friday
afternoon.

Organizers said the marijuana march itself would still go forward.
They argue that, without the festival's infrastructure - such as
portable toilets, security personnel and volunteers to pick up litter
- - the problems raised by the city would actually be worse.

"People are going to get together on May 7 anyway and so we make that
experience more enjoyable," Mr. Simms said. "When you have thousands
of people milling about, they need bathrooms and they get thirsty and,
in this case, hungry."

The Global Marijuana March is held in cities around the world in early
May. The event is particularly strong in Toronto, where it has been
taken place since 1999.

In the four years since it debuted, however, the festival has become
even more popular than the march itself, regularly pulling in crowds
of between 10,000 and 40,000 people.