First Annual "Waldos Forever Fest" Coming 4/20 At Clark & Argyle

Dispensary 33, Do312 and 1833 Presents are teaming up for the first annual Waldos Forever Fest! The fest will unfold outside the block of D33’s location in Andersonville, providing a full day of music, education, and fun for cannabis lovers - and anyone that loves a good time. From morning ‘til night, we'll curate a cast of vendors, musicians, cultivators, educators and - of course - a munchie food truck court.

Catch live performances and DJ sets from:

White Mystery Band (10th Anniversary)
Makaya McCraven
Sam Trump
Dave Mata
DJ Tess

Enjoy a munchie from local food trucks:

La Cocinita
Cupcakes For Courage
The Fat Shallot
Did you ever wonder why 4:20 is so significant to cannabis culture?

Rewind to the early 1970s, a group of ‘Waldos’ - or four high schoolers who regularly hung out by a wall - from San Rafael, CA, embarked on a failed treasure hunt for an abandon cannabis plant. The Waldos set their meeting time for the hunt at 4:20, a random time in the sunny afternoon, but little did they know they would forever change the culture of cannabis.

Why 4:20? 4:20 gave, at the time, the ‘counter culture,’ a secret code to discuss cannabis use. Today, the term is now well known and accepted by many, as cannabis use has surpassed a counter-culture and is accepted by many humans in the present day as a healing plant for many.

We pay tribute to the Waldos for the significant strides they made for the acceptance of cannabis with Waldos Forever Fest 2018!

The Waldos Forever Fest Goes Virtual: #420InPlace

Usually around this time, plans are well underway for the "Waldos Forever Fest," held as closely as possible to 4/20, to celebrate all things cannabis.

It's usually held at Argyle and Clark, in the immediate vicinity of Dispensary 33.

And with recreational marijuana becoming legal in Illinois in 2020, this 4/20 should have been a real blowout.

But hellllooooo Corona. No festivals or large gatherings for the foreseeable future, and Chicagoans living under a Shelter In Place Order.

The sponsors of the Waldos Forever Fest have decided to take it virtual this year.

This Saturday, April 18th, between 4:20pm and 6:20pm, tune in and (if you want) turn on.

"The virtual 420 fest via Twitch will take place on Saturday, April 18th at 4:20pm with personalities from the community creating original content to unite, entertain, and ignite the cannabis community.

Each segment will include appearances by local neighbors cooking with cannabis, blowing glass, bending neon, along with DJ sets, drag and performance art.

Waldos Forever Fest #420InPlace
Date: Saturday April 18th, 2020
Time: 4:20pm
RSVP for an event reminder and to be entered for a chance to win swag!"

Participants include:

• Shea Couleé (Rupaul's Drag Race)
• Chef Angelina (Top Chef)
• Sarah Mitchell (Tournant Chi)
• Lucy Stoole
• White Mystery
• Sauce and Bread Kitchen (Coop Hot Sauce)
• Bambi Banks-Couleé,
• Dom Brown
• Kat Sass,
• Jenae Williams (Tokeativity)
• Ramona Slick
• Acacia Way (Glassblower)

Click here for information, and to register to win swag

Dispensary33 will provide easy access to the stream by embedding the Twitch website onto their website with the goal to bring the community and its people a sense of sociability and togetherness from afar.  Dispensary 33's website is dispensary33.com.

420 Festival Cancelled As Buildings Go Up In Smoke

photo courtesy of CFDMedia, on Twitter

Saturday, April 23rd, was supposed to be a celebration of all things cannabis, with the Waldos Forever Fest taking place on Clark Street between 10am and 9pm. There was going to be music, beer, food trucks, and vendors, sponsored by Dispensary 33, among others.

But none of that will be happening today.

photo credit: Kevin Oldenstedt

Shortly after 5:30 this morning, a fire broke out in a building on the west side of Clark, at Argyle. That intersection was exactly where the Waldos main stage was supposed to be. 

Instead, at least three buildings were engulfed by flames from 5000 to 5006 Clark. Two auto-related businesses suffered heavy damages: Star Auto and Smashy Automotive. Residents were evacuated from some nearby buildings, and there's a report of one person being taken to Weiss Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Thick black smoke could be seen for miles, and sirens were heard for at least a half hour as firefighters from surrounding districts came to assist in fighting the fire. Some nearby residents lost electrical power for a brief time, and the CFD had to ask for water pressure to be increased, because they were using so much water to put out the flames.

This morning we heard from the folks at Two Bears management, saying:

Waldos Forever Fest is canceled.

The SoFo Tap and Meeting House Tavern are closed for the day.  We hope to open at 8pm pending fire crew’s work and the demolition requirements.

What was supposed to be a celebratory day has become a sad one. Besides the person who suffered injuries, we are thinking of the three very good, stable small businesses that may never open again and their employees, who are now out of jobs for the foreseeable future.

We are thinking of the many hours people spent putting together the Waldos Forever Festival, determined to make it fun after Covid cancellations. 

We don't know if there was smoke damage to immediately adjacent businesses, like Dispensary 33 and Orangetheory Fitness (call any business in the area to make sure they're open before stopping by). It's just a no-good rotten thing to happen to so many people.

photo courtesy CFDMedia,
on Twitter

From a preservationist standpoint, seeing the gorgeous much-loved vintage terra cotta ornamentation at 5006 become smoke-charred is painful. 

And adding insult to injury, we'd been hearing whispers that a successful entertainment-based restaurant was negotiating to move into one of the buildings and rehabbing it... well, quite a more extensive rehab is needed now.

We're glad no one died or was injured worse than what happened. But there's really no good upside to any of this morning's news.

At 9am, CFD tweeted: "3-11 struck out, companies chasing hot spots, main body of fire is out."

Waldos Forever Fest Back Again At Clark & Argyle On 4/20

Do312 presents the second annual Waldos Forever Fest! The fest will unfold in Andersonville, right outside Chicago's fabulous Dispensary33, providing a full day of music, education and fun for cannabis lovers - and anyone that loves a good time. From morning ‘til night, we'll curate a cast of vendors, musicians, educators and - of course - a munchie food truck court. RSVP here.

Hear DJs sets from:

All the Way Kay

Jill Hopkins 

Enjoy a munchie from local food trucks: 

Three Legged Tacos

Chicago Lunchbox

Participating Vendors:

Ataraxia

Verano

Bedford Grow

Cresco Labs

PTS

Grassroots Cannabis

GTI Clinic

IESO

Revolution Cannabis Co.

Blue Sky Marketing

Grassroots California

Crystal Gravy

Pin Stop Shop

Watch Us Grow

Emma Alamo

Topo Chico

After Tragic Fire, Facade Elements at 5006 N Clark Potentially Saved for Reuse

 We covered the unfortunate destruction of two longstanding Uptown businesses, Star Auto and Smashy Automotive, over the weekend. 

After a fire started at the rear of Star Auto, the Chicago Fire Department responded nearly immediately but were unable to stop flames from moving to the adjacent building at 5006 N. Clark ("Smashy Automotive"). One man was pulled from the fire alive by staff preparing for the Waldos Forever Festival.

As news of the fire spread on social media, many shared photographs of the ornate facade at 5006 N Clark, built in 1919 as the Argyle-Clark Garage. Everyone was hopeful the beautiful terra cotta façade could be saved, but around 2pm, the Fire Department decided that the façade needed to come down to control the fire. 

We heard from multiple sources that the facade was coming down, and learned that staff from Preservation Chicago were on site as soon as possible to try to save elements of the building. People messaged us that the demolition crew knocked large portions of the façade down without regard to the terracotta, and it appeared the three ornate faces and two "wheels" on the façade were lost. 

But then a tweet appeared showing the center face from the façade laying on the ground. We started asking around about what happened to the face, and that led to more inquiries about the faces on the side, which survived the initial demolition, but were gone by the evening. 

We got several answers, including witnesses who told us the center face was put on a truck, but had no definitive information until the owners of SoFo Tap sent the below picture, showing the three faces safe and sound on a flatbed truck from McDonagh, the demolition contractor brought in by the City of Chicago.

Preservation Chicago then emailed separately, telling us that the "wheels" and numerous other decorative elements were recovered by staff and set aside for safe keeping.

It's great news that the faces, wheels and decorative elements are preserved and can be restored or recreated. 

And we have additional good news to share. 

5006 N. Clark was for sale last year and then off the market several months ago. We received a tip that Surge Billiards was the purchasor and planned to rehab the building for its latest location, but held off on running the story since the sale was not final. 

We learned last night that Surge plans to go through with the purchase, despite the loss of the building. Our source tells us that Surge is committed to rebuilding on site and would like to restore elements of the old building, reusing the faces, wheels, and other decorative terra cotta, if possible.

So, this is a sad story with a potential great end for the citizens of Uptown and Andersonville. 

There were multiple heroes on the day, including the staff of Dispensary 33 and the Waldos Forever Festival who saved the man's life, the Chicago Fire Department for controlling and extinguishing the huge fire, McDonagh Demolition for recognizing and saving the critical decorative elements of the facade, and Preservation Chicago for acting quickly to save additional elements of the facade from heading to landfill. 

We very much look forward to Surge opening on this spot, which will return to a restaurant/bar use for the first time since the early 1990's, and we hope Surge, McDonagh, and Preservation Chicago will work together to save another piece of Uptown's history.