Ice Cube and STS9 Lead Chalice 2017’s Packed Music Lineup

Southern California’s premiere music, hash and glass festival returns for its fourth installment, July 7-9, 2017. And with four A-list musical acts headlining, some of the best cannabis concentrates in the galaxy and some of the most celebrated glass blowers of our time plying their trade live, some are dubbing this year’s Chalice California “the Coachella of concentrates.”

Today’s big announcement of the musical lineup for the Chalice California 2017 will feature headliners Ice Cube, Thievery Corporation and Sound Tribe Sector 9, alongside Cypress Hill, Big Boi of Outkast, Capleton, Pouya, The Floozies, Juelz Santana & Cam’Ron (formerly known as Dipset), The Lox — Jadakiss, Styles P an Sheek Louch — Warren G, King Lil G, Manic Focus, Pressure, Marlon Asher, Ghostemane, Ras Shiloh, Buddy and Kong, Izac King and Cookies Mogul Berner.

Expect plenty of other big names to get in the mix in the coming weeks with many more artist announcements expected.

With another year of exceptional growth expected on the back of that big lineup, 40,000 attendees are expected at the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds in Victorville, California from July 7-9.

Event founder Doug Dracup is thrilled to scale things up on his fourth go around.

“This year we’re setting a different standard with Chalice,” Dracup said, noting last year’s attendance of 25,000 festivalgoers. “We’re adding attractions and different art installations that have never happened at this kind of festival before. We’re putting a $1 million — $2 million lineups out there for music — and we’re spending more than $100,000 on art installations.”

Dracup said his years on the music festival circuit as a fan were a major inspiration for Chalice.  After years of the “big shows,” Dracup imagined a different kind of music and art festival, “one that would also celebrate the artistry of glass culture.”

This was the foundation for the event in its infancy — as a relatively small music, hash, glass and art festival with 5,500 attendees when it first started in 2014 — and it holds to this day as the event continues to grow in attendance and prestige.

This year’s three-day edition will feature Chalice’s biggest-ever music lineup, plenty of large-scale art installations, expert glassblowing workshops and on-site vendors.

One thing any true cannabis enthusiast will notice is the elevated level of the companies lining up to be a part of the event — some of the best in the business; the Jungle Boyz, TLC Collective, Puffco, Cannabis Now Dabs of the Year winner, Gold Coast, Wookflame, Nature’s Lab, Merry Jane, SC Labs, Beezle, D9 Prescribed, The Reserve, The Clear and Stick E Vape — all speaking to the event’s unparalleled immersion in the extracts scene.

“Puffco has been a sponsor at Chalice for the past three years and our products are in the judges’ kits,” said Puffco’s Roger Volodarsky. “The Chalice team puts on a fantastic event. We look forward to it every year and are excited to share products we designed for the Chalice community —  true connoisseurs. Puffco is proud to be involved — it’s a total blast.”

The event’s famed cannabis competition will also feature some of the tightest testing protocols yet, with every entry required to test clean before it even qualifies for the contest.

Alec Dixon of SC Labs spoke exclusively with Cannabis Now on this year’s standards.

“The pesticide conversation is a fascinating one right now,” Dixon said. “Events like Chalice, The Emerald Cup, and such have an amazing way of spurring conversation on such a tremendous issue.”

Dixon believes, up until this point, people have had very little understanding that this is even an issue.

He called the festival’s pesticide disqualifications a very progressive step.

“I’m interested in seeing how it’s cleaned up compared to the last event,” he said. “And if [we have] particular categories seeing higher contamination levels.”

SC Labs will be receiving the rest of the entries in the coming weeks, and Dixon says the volume is up 50 percent from the 500 samples tested for the contest last year.

“There is going to be a lot of entries this year,” he said. “They’re guesstimating around 750 plus.”

He added that Chalice has taken a more realistic approach to all the microbial levels this year, distinguishing “which microbes are bad and actually using those to disqualify.”

In any event, this year’s winners will be well vetted as always.

Chalice tickets are $55 per day or $120 per three-day pass; VIP passes are $90-$110 per day or $240 per three-day pass; Judge kits — which include competitors entries and swag from sponsors, in addition to VIP perks — range from $810-$910.

Tickets are available at chalicecalifornia.com.

TELL US, are you going to Chalice this year?