Now that things have settled down a bit, I wanted to give a special thanks to many who helped make this year's 420 Grower's Cup a big success!
But...where to start.....yes, I think it all starts with Gypsy and his desire to put on such an event to recognize the hard work, dedication and risks taken by so many who choose to grow our favorite plant, without Gypsy's support none of this would even happen. Big hugs!!!!!
There were alot of folks that did so much, many from behind the scenes, but without their help and assistance things would not have happened for the Cup. It was most difficult and challenging to coordinate this event from the UK but we did okay in the end.
RED....her assistance provided locally in the shop, from helping sort out the goodie welcome bags to ordering all the items necessary, and making sure everything was on hand, to contacting folks necessary to arrange our venue at Fat City....quite a job well done. On many many phone calls and emails over the past few months, Red would reassure me and say ‘don't worry...I've got it handled‘....she did very well, so big thumbs up to Red.
Old Pink....who flew in early and helped us get all the judge sample packets sorted. This was no small task...30 entries requiring photos, labeling, weighing and making around 900 smaller judge samples....hey, it took 5 sets of hands to get it done but OP was our level headed, never get stressed rock of Gibralter through it all. Also flying in with OP were the official 420 Posters, and quite heavy to haul!
Assisting us with the judge samples was Mr. Haze and Thumpha....yes, Thumpha....running around town moving this and that about, setting up electrical cords, bagging samples, taking tons of movie footage where ever something was happening, nothing asked of him that he wasn't happy to do, so a very special thank you to Thumpha! Mr. Haze...well, what can I say, he sure knows how to weigh up samples and divide beautiful whole buds into equal portions....but those of us who know him also know he's got mucho mucho experience in this area. :wink:
The entire crew at Fat City....those folks showed such hospitality and made the venue a welcome place for everyone, always serving with a smile and staff working very hard to make sure everyone's experience was a positive one. As with any event, if the staff of the venue isn't accommodating, well...you'll wind up with some unhappy campers but such was not even remotely the case. Good job Fat City crew! Thank you, thank you....thank you! The only problem seemed to be on awards night with so much thick smoke....but what would anyone expect when there's about 200 people all toking up inside one place at once! We were at capacity and the air cleaning ventilation system was just a bit unable to keep up with all the massive toking!
Ah yes, and Trichomefarmer with his bicycle tours!!!! TF's tours have become a 420 cup tradition. Truly the best way to get around the city!
Thanks to the team at Positive Grow for their hospitality during our grow shop tour. Many attendees had the opportunity to see just what a full blown no holes barred grow shop is all about! As easy as visiting your local Wal-Mart. :wink:`
A bit of a journey, but we made it, via the train, from Amsterdam to Haarlem...where we were met by our gracious host Nol (Cannabinol) and welcomed to his Willie Wortel's Sativa coffee shop, followed by a walk through town to his larger coffee shop Willie Wortel's Sensimilla. Nol went out of his way to make everyone's 420 experience truly memorable....right down to the trays and trays of dutch style munchies. When it was time to make our way back to the train station, everyone received a present handed out by Nol as they left down the tall flight of stairs leading back to the street from the upstairs Sensimilla. Thank you Nol! We loved being there and can't say enough how much your hospitality is appreciated!
Lucky enough we were able to pursuade some senior cannabis community members, namely Bushy Older Grower and Soma, who gave a very interesting and informative seminar for all of us to enjoy.
Green Lantern.....our computer guru webmaster....without GL creating a special program for the tallying of all those hundreds and hundreds of numbers we'd still be trying to figure out who won! We had a bit of a glitch...and it goes like this: All cup entries were placed into the data base of the program GL created and blind ID tags were generated. Judges score cards were formulated and given out with the sample packets. At 4:30pm on 420 after I received all ballots and voting was over, I was off on a 5 min walk to the apt with Gypsy and an anonymous member from the press (as witness). I fired the computer program up and we started entering all the numbers into the special program's database. Everything was going well and I had all the numbers finally entered into the database by around 7:30pm (awards ceremony scheduled to start at 8pm). All that was left to do now was hit the magic button and let the system tabulate everything and transfer the results onto paper and place each one into their appropriate envelopes....well, that's when we had a slight problem. I asked the program for the results but only got 'Page Not Found'.....my heart sank!!!!!!! Oh damn...Gypsy is back at Fat City now waiting on me to arrive with all the envelopes containing the winners...it is now 7:55pm, everyone is at Fat City smoking up, listening to music, and Gypsy has the floor...but to say what??? We have no winners...well, we do, but they are all locked inside the data base
Talk about STRESS CITY!!!!!!! My continued SOS signals to GL online wasn't getting a response from him. I had previously spoken to GL online and made arrangements for him to standby from when I started entering all the numbers until I had the results. But...things happen and as was later learned, an urgent family matter had taken GL away from his computer. At this point we decided to go ahead with the first award honoring Mr. Lee, hoping that soon we would have the results. Of course Gypsy is phoning me every 5 minutes with a 'what are we gonna do' message....I thought I would just have cardiac failure!!!!! Around 8pm (Amsterdam time) GL comes online and fixes the problem, which took almost 30 minutes. Geeze, just when you want everything on schedule, Murphy's Law rears it's ugly head! However, with a bit of delay, I had all the winners written down now and placed in appropriate envelopes for the awaiting awards presenters. Again, WITHOUT Green Lantern coming to the rescue frankly I don't know what we'd have done, there certainly was no time to hand count/tabulate so, BIG THANKS to GL for dashing back and getting it all sorted!!!!!
To our surprise Shantibaba made a special trip to Amsterdam on the 19th and hand delivered a special batch of newly made seeds to be presented to the winners in the independent grower's categories. So we must also thank Shantibaba for taking the time out from his hectic schedule to make the journey up to Amsterdam and donate some very special genetics for our grower winners.
Arjan, owner of the Green House and local cannabis trader, who has a coffee shop about 1/2 block away from Fat City, was asked to come along and was on hand to help us present the grower's awards. Also, Arjan gave the Indica and Sativa grower winners a special collection of Green House seeds to go along with their beautiful glass awards. Thanks to Arjan for his participation in our event.
Mila, from the Pollinator and much respected lady within the cannabis community presented the Hash awards, something which is very near and dear to her heart. Thank you Mila for joining us!
Ahhh yes, the awards.....Chris, master glass blower/artist of Shiva's Glass, also known as Po Daddy Chocolate, made all of the IC 420 Cup awards, each one individually and uniquely crafted by his hands...first place grower and breeder awards consisted of a beautiful glass blown goblet with a cannabis leaf blown and affixed to the goblet/cup....will get some pics up of these special pieces a bit later, but trust me....they are awesome....Chris has a special way of creating just the right piece for just the right occasion, a true artist and we thank him tremendously for his efforts....absolutely stunning pieces!
Ronnie.....our security chief....not that there was much need (cause everyone was far to stoned and happy to have problems)....but Ronnie was on hand both at Seed Boutique and at Fat City keeping everything running smoothly....big thanks! Thanks to Joe (The Tick) for helping to organize the 420 grower's cup merchandizing and troubleshooting various computer problems, etc. Without your help we would not have had it together as well as we did.
Big love and best wishes for all of your growing pursuits throughout the coming year. To all of those that patronized/attended the event and made it so that many people and this town of Amsterdam, amongst the local cannabis community, stood up and recognized this event for what it is and what it can be in the future. We had mixed weather, some days it was raining and some days the sun would shine, those who stayed after the event got most of the sunshine and the sun is shining today which warms my heart and makes me smile looking back on the manic events of last week from the calm of today. We had attendees from as far away as Japan, Australia, and Hawaii and for next year.....ya'll come back now ya hear!
Most of all a great big enormous thank you to all you growers out there who painstakingly produced some really outstanding entries for all the Expert Judges to be able to judge. Obviously without any of you this event could not take place and hopefully next year we have many more entries from other growers that have come out of the closet/basement/greenhouse/loft/field/bush etc. with a good ounce of fine weed for us to all judge once again at the 420 Grower's Cup in 2006.
dg
A judge's hard work...... 
We hope to see you again next year, or even for the first time,
come one, come ALL.....come wake n bake with us! :friends:
The weather was nice and sunny, just the day after 420, so we went boating with Soma :friends:
But...where to start.....yes, I think it all starts with Gypsy and his desire to put on such an event to recognize the hard work, dedication and risks taken by so many who choose to grow our favorite plant, without Gypsy's support none of this would even happen. Big hugs!!!!!
There were alot of folks that did so much, many from behind the scenes, but without their help and assistance things would not have happened for the Cup. It was most difficult and challenging to coordinate this event from the UK but we did okay in the end.
RED....her assistance provided locally in the shop, from helping sort out the goodie welcome bags to ordering all the items necessary, and making sure everything was on hand, to contacting folks necessary to arrange our venue at Fat City....quite a job well done. On many many phone calls and emails over the past few months, Red would reassure me and say ‘don't worry...I've got it handled‘....she did very well, so big thumbs up to Red.
Old Pink....who flew in early and helped us get all the judge sample packets sorted. This was no small task...30 entries requiring photos, labeling, weighing and making around 900 smaller judge samples....hey, it took 5 sets of hands to get it done but OP was our level headed, never get stressed rock of Gibralter through it all. Also flying in with OP were the official 420 Posters, and quite heavy to haul!
Assisting us with the judge samples was Mr. Haze and Thumpha....yes, Thumpha....running around town moving this and that about, setting up electrical cords, bagging samples, taking tons of movie footage where ever something was happening, nothing asked of him that he wasn't happy to do, so a very special thank you to Thumpha! Mr. Haze...well, what can I say, he sure knows how to weigh up samples and divide beautiful whole buds into equal portions....but those of us who know him also know he's got mucho mucho experience in this area. :wink:
The entire crew at Fat City....those folks showed such hospitality and made the venue a welcome place for everyone, always serving with a smile and staff working very hard to make sure everyone's experience was a positive one. As with any event, if the staff of the venue isn't accommodating, well...you'll wind up with some unhappy campers but such was not even remotely the case. Good job Fat City crew! Thank you, thank you....thank you! The only problem seemed to be on awards night with so much thick smoke....but what would anyone expect when there's about 200 people all toking up inside one place at once! We were at capacity and the air cleaning ventilation system was just a bit unable to keep up with all the massive toking!
Ah yes, and Trichomefarmer with his bicycle tours!!!! TF's tours have become a 420 cup tradition. Truly the best way to get around the city!
Thanks to the team at Positive Grow for their hospitality during our grow shop tour. Many attendees had the opportunity to see just what a full blown no holes barred grow shop is all about! As easy as visiting your local Wal-Mart. :wink:`
A bit of a journey, but we made it, via the train, from Amsterdam to Haarlem...where we were met by our gracious host Nol (Cannabinol) and welcomed to his Willie Wortel's Sativa coffee shop, followed by a walk through town to his larger coffee shop Willie Wortel's Sensimilla. Nol went out of his way to make everyone's 420 experience truly memorable....right down to the trays and trays of dutch style munchies. When it was time to make our way back to the train station, everyone received a present handed out by Nol as they left down the tall flight of stairs leading back to the street from the upstairs Sensimilla. Thank you Nol! We loved being there and can't say enough how much your hospitality is appreciated!
Lucky enough we were able to pursuade some senior cannabis community members, namely Bushy Older Grower and Soma, who gave a very interesting and informative seminar for all of us to enjoy.
Green Lantern.....our computer guru webmaster....without GL creating a special program for the tallying of all those hundreds and hundreds of numbers we'd still be trying to figure out who won! We had a bit of a glitch...and it goes like this: All cup entries were placed into the data base of the program GL created and blind ID tags were generated. Judges score cards were formulated and given out with the sample packets. At 4:30pm on 420 after I received all ballots and voting was over, I was off on a 5 min walk to the apt with Gypsy and an anonymous member from the press (as witness). I fired the computer program up and we started entering all the numbers into the special program's database. Everything was going well and I had all the numbers finally entered into the database by around 7:30pm (awards ceremony scheduled to start at 8pm). All that was left to do now was hit the magic button and let the system tabulate everything and transfer the results onto paper and place each one into their appropriate envelopes....well, that's when we had a slight problem. I asked the program for the results but only got 'Page Not Found'.....my heart sank!!!!!!! Oh damn...Gypsy is back at Fat City now waiting on me to arrive with all the envelopes containing the winners...it is now 7:55pm, everyone is at Fat City smoking up, listening to music, and Gypsy has the floor...but to say what??? We have no winners...well, we do, but they are all locked inside the data base
Talk about STRESS CITY!!!!!!! My continued SOS signals to GL online wasn't getting a response from him. I had previously spoken to GL online and made arrangements for him to standby from when I started entering all the numbers until I had the results. But...things happen and as was later learned, an urgent family matter had taken GL away from his computer. At this point we decided to go ahead with the first award honoring Mr. Lee, hoping that soon we would have the results. Of course Gypsy is phoning me every 5 minutes with a 'what are we gonna do' message....I thought I would just have cardiac failure!!!!! Around 8pm (Amsterdam time) GL comes online and fixes the problem, which took almost 30 minutes. Geeze, just when you want everything on schedule, Murphy's Law rears it's ugly head! However, with a bit of delay, I had all the winners written down now and placed in appropriate envelopes for the awaiting awards presenters. Again, WITHOUT Green Lantern coming to the rescue frankly I don't know what we'd have done, there certainly was no time to hand count/tabulate so, BIG THANKS to GL for dashing back and getting it all sorted!!!!!To our surprise Shantibaba made a special trip to Amsterdam on the 19th and hand delivered a special batch of newly made seeds to be presented to the winners in the independent grower's categories. So we must also thank Shantibaba for taking the time out from his hectic schedule to make the journey up to Amsterdam and donate some very special genetics for our grower winners.
Arjan, owner of the Green House and local cannabis trader, who has a coffee shop about 1/2 block away from Fat City, was asked to come along and was on hand to help us present the grower's awards. Also, Arjan gave the Indica and Sativa grower winners a special collection of Green House seeds to go along with their beautiful glass awards. Thanks to Arjan for his participation in our event.
Mila, from the Pollinator and much respected lady within the cannabis community presented the Hash awards, something which is very near and dear to her heart. Thank you Mila for joining us!
Ahhh yes, the awards.....Chris, master glass blower/artist of Shiva's Glass, also known as Po Daddy Chocolate, made all of the IC 420 Cup awards, each one individually and uniquely crafted by his hands...first place grower and breeder awards consisted of a beautiful glass blown goblet with a cannabis leaf blown and affixed to the goblet/cup....will get some pics up of these special pieces a bit later, but trust me....they are awesome....Chris has a special way of creating just the right piece for just the right occasion, a true artist and we thank him tremendously for his efforts....absolutely stunning pieces!
Ronnie.....our security chief....not that there was much need (cause everyone was far to stoned and happy to have problems)....but Ronnie was on hand both at Seed Boutique and at Fat City keeping everything running smoothly....big thanks! Thanks to Joe (The Tick) for helping to organize the 420 grower's cup merchandizing and troubleshooting various computer problems, etc. Without your help we would not have had it together as well as we did.
Big love and best wishes for all of your growing pursuits throughout the coming year. To all of those that patronized/attended the event and made it so that many people and this town of Amsterdam, amongst the local cannabis community, stood up and recognized this event for what it is and what it can be in the future. We had mixed weather, some days it was raining and some days the sun would shine, those who stayed after the event got most of the sunshine and the sun is shining today which warms my heart and makes me smile looking back on the manic events of last week from the calm of today. We had attendees from as far away as Japan, Australia, and Hawaii and for next year.....ya'll come back now ya hear!
Most of all a great big enormous thank you to all you growers out there who painstakingly produced some really outstanding entries for all the Expert Judges to be able to judge. Obviously without any of you this event could not take place and hopefully next year we have many more entries from other growers that have come out of the closet/basement/greenhouse/loft/field/bush etc. with a good ounce of fine weed for us to all judge once again at the 420 Grower's Cup in 2006.
dg
A judge's hard work......
We hope to see you again next year, or even for the first time,
come one, come ALL.....come wake n bake with us! :friends:
The weather was nice and sunny, just the day after 420, so we went boating with Soma :friends:
or was that the chocolate thai? lol
