DHS mayor and dispensaries speak on second Kind Festival
The west valley will be the host of former boxer Mike Tyson’s cannabis-friendly music festival yet again with the second Kind Showcase set to kick off later this year.
It’s just a bunch of construction vehicles by the 10 freeway in Desert Hot Springs, but they will be turning this empty desert into a festival of music for the second Kind Showcase.
“We didn’t know how a 5000 person event would pan out, and they did a fantastic job,” Mayor Scott Matas of Desert Hot Springs, said.
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That’s how he described the first kind music festival back in February. Mayor Matas says the influx of visitors brought in business.
“People were filling up our hotels, they were eating in our restaurants. It was a late evening event so people stayed overnight,” he said.
The second festival will be expanded from one to three days at the future Tyson Ranch, a 420-acre complex with luxury camping and cannabis facilities. Promoters say the kind showcase will “combine a music festival with a direct-to-consumer and business-to-business cannabis vending”. Adam Sanchez, a former mayor and does business development with SunGrow, a local cannabis dispensary says a longer festival will help the city’s economy.
“That way they can come and visit the local tourist attractions. The local cultivation, the local dispensaries. Local products that we have here developed,” he said.
Not all dispensaries were in favor. Elisha Parana, general manager at Green Leaf Wellness says, while she acknowledges the festival for helping de-stigmatize cannabis use, she feels there should be more focus on local dispensaries.
“I don’t agree with how much emphasis we’re putting on something that’s not here all the time. That hasn’t been here consistently to benefit our companies, like out 13 licensed dispensaries that have been paying 10 percent gross sales tax to the city,” she said.
Parana says she’s also concerned about the impact sales at the festival will have on dispensaries like hers.
“These are still mom-and-pop operations and big people like that come in and hurt us because they low-ball us. Because they can afford to. We can’t and that shuts us out,” she said.
Sanchez says the benefits and potential tax revenue outweigh potential issues.
“It’s important as we’re marketing the city of Desert Hot Springs. We’re bringing in those tourists. We’re bringing in those tourist dollars,” he said.
The Kind Showcase will happen from October 10 to October 12.
