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D<\/span>ay one kicked off under truly vicious heat conditions \u2014 the 109 degree heat\u00a0was only two digits shy of the 2007 record. This blazing heat (and the mechanical failure of extra cooling infrastructure brought in by Chalice) provided Friday\u2019s main hurdle: While revelers at the main stage danced to Cypress Hill and Thievery Corporation, the Chalice team was in full damage control mode and prepping for day two.<\/p>\n Before the gates opened for day two on Saturday, Chalice founder (and Hitman Glass and Coffee Shop<\/a> owner) Doug Dracup sat down with Cannabis Now for an exclusive interview on the now mainstream pot mega fest.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really happy with year four,\u201d Dracup said, highlighting the challenges he faced\u00a0in the early going. \u201cThere is a big difference when you\u2019re dealing with a 109 degree temperature compared to 99.\u201d<\/p>\n Dracup said his team was the key to wrangling the moving parts, whether it was vendors, attendees or the many companies contracted for the weekend.<\/p>\n \u201cWe spent the night putting out fires,\u201d he said. \u201c[The team] was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n The full-time staff of five \u2014 plus Dracup \u2014 spent their Friday night crisscrossing the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds, refilling air conditioner reservoirs with water and making sure the faulty rentals were back in working order.<\/p>\n Dracup took\u00a0responsibility for the events that unfolded Friday, but said he\u00a0was frustrated by outside influences that tainted the kickoff.<\/p>\n \u201cThe A\/C vendor slipped,\u201d Dracup said. \u201cIt sucks to work all year on something only to have events beyond our control happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Dracup also said there was only so much they could do: Weather reports early in the week had been predicting all three days of the event to be north of 100 on the thermometer, so attendees knew (or should have known) they were going to party in a desert heatwave.<\/p>\n Like the tally of attendees and A-listers, the number of vendors has grown over the years, rising to nearly 400 this year. In the age of California legalization, these vendors had to jump through more hoops than ever before, and they pulled it off with a perfect score.<\/p>\n The main hurdle was getting a seller\u2019s permit from the Board of Equalization, the body that collects all the state\u2019s cannabis tax revenue. The team had been prepping for a single digit \u201cfailure to comply\u201d rate and presumed they\u2019d have to send a few vendors packing.<\/p>\n To their delight, that ultimately wasn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n According to Dan Adler, the Chalice staffer who assisted vendors with compliance, they had about a 60 percent compliance rate with two weeks to go, but in the final stretch, the BOE and vendors got it all in order.<\/p>\n Chalice may indeed have been the\u00a0most heavily-permitted cannabis event ever: In addition to the vendor permits, things like the concerts<\/a>, ferris wheel and numerous temporary structures came with plenty of paperwork.<\/p>\n And while there were many attractions at Chalice, in the end, cannabis was the true star of the show.<\/p>\n Over the past few years, Chalice\u2019s cannabis competition has elevated its reputation, and is now considered among the best: Be it flowers or hash, the judge\u2019s kits are always something to behold. This year, Chalice spent nearly six figures just on dab rigs alone \u2014 not the hash, not the crazy accessories, just the glass.<\/p>\n![\"Before](\"http:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Chalice-Dougie.jpg\")
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