The Annual Four-Twenty Gathering - 20th April 2022

[Lemming]

Wednesday 20th April 2022 is Four-Twenty Day!
So the place to be is in 420 Café at 4.20pm

Like Christmas, it's all about tradition. The first tradition is that I start this thread late. This one is over two years late! In the meantime there have been several threads and posts, most recently 420/22.

Another tradition is that I copy and paste the next part of this post from the previous year and then add a bit to the end.

Why 4-20?

The origins of 4-20 are the stuff of legends and discussed elsewhere on this forum.
Suffice to say it's a time, 4:20, as in twenty past four, now firmly associated with marijuana, especially in America.
In American shorthand, the 20th of April (20/04/21 in Europe) is 04/20/21, so it's 4-20 Day!

(Wikipedia: 420, 4:20 or 4/20 (pronounced four-twenty) refers to consumption of cannabis and, by extension, a way to identify oneself with cannabis subculture.
The notable day is April 20.)

History of the 4-20 Gathering

2005
Soon after the ACD sprouted a forum in March 2005, Old Hippie Dave posted details of meets he'd arranged around 20th April 2005.
It seems that he and others on the Channels forum had been celebrating 420 day in Amsterdam for a few years.
After the event he posted this: Old Hippie Dave's video of 4/20 2005.

2006
In 2006 AzLaker helped to organise a band of ACDers to join the Channelites in de Kuil coffeeshop (420 cafe) on 20 April 2006.
The following day Old Hippie Dave held a "Vapo Party" in Amnesia.
Reports: Old Hippie Dave's video, OHD live report part 1 and part 2, Lafe live, Lemming, AzLaker part 1, part 2 and part 3, Zunkii, Bluelaru, BlueBerry.

2007
2007 was a big gathering with several forums represented. There's loads of pics in circulation of some of those epic sessions.
Travelogues: Lemming part 1, part 2, part 3, Twitch part 1, part 2, cattales1960, Mazdog, back2thedam (Haarlem crawl), Islandgurl part 1, part 2.

2008
Planning for the 2008 gathering was, at least as far as this forum was concerned, interrupted by it being off-air for months.
Fortunately Channels was still there and, especially, VDF stepped in and kept everyone in touch.
Travelogues: Lemming, Twitch, Bhang Buddie, SilentlyScreaming.

2009
By far our biggest gathering yet. We pretty much took over the 420 coffeeshop for half an hour or so.
Live reports were posted in Travelogues by AzLaker, Cattales1960, Couch, Fishinbob, Hestia, Lemming, WolfDangler and Worsall.
Followed by reports from Boner, Chilly1952, Couch, FenixNYC, Gapie, Hestia’s epic account days 1-8, days 9 & 10, day 11, day 12, day 13, day 14 (20th April) and day 15, Kermit, Lampshade, Lemming, LiquidSwords, PirateRaff, SoulRider and Twichaldinho.

2010
Some Icelandic volcano with an utterly unpronounceable name blew up and grounded all air traffic in Europe just before 4-20.
Nevertheless, a hard core of ACD members hit town in style.

Some members from the USA arrived just before the volcano went off and some determined people from the UK managed to get there by road, rail and ferry.
They were joined by Amsterdam resident members and, between them, they even managed to bring about the first ever ACD competition for best coffeeshop.

All of the members of the forum chose a shortlist of coffeeshops for our intrepid reporters to check out and give a rating to.
All of those members who made it then toured the shops and chose a winner.
We named our accolade the "Hestia" (well, if the American academy of movies can call theirs "Oscar" then why not?).
You can read all about it in the accounts below but I can tell you that Green Place won.

Travelogues: Hestia 420 Trip Hestia, Combined, 420 Trip Hestia First Installment, 420 Trip Hestia 2nd Installment, 420 Trip Hestia 3rd Installment and 420 Trip Hestia; Islandgurl 4/20 Begins... the Eruption.; Gapie Live in NES 420; Valo Day 1 - Monday 19th April 2010 and Day 2 - Tuesday 20th April 2010; Angry Pirate Obscurerd by clouds, a latecomers tale...; Treetop Treetop's 420 boat infested trip so far...; Lem's 4-20 Verdict; Cisco Ciscos Volcano Vacation; Ed the Head Ed the Head's 2010 Hajj.

2011
Of banners and boats, cups and cakes. Volcanoes went off all over Amsterdam but, fortunately, not in Iceland.
The Cup went to Basjoe and a good time was had by all. See these accounts:

08-420 08-420s 420 in Amsterdam; Arsonist What? You left BEFORE 420?!; AzLaker Finally......a trip report; Camman Nine days of smoke . . .
Chillers2 chillers 2's LATE 420 trip...; Cisco Cisco's S Sour Dude !!?! 420 Report; Colina ACD 420 boat trip 2011; FlyByNite And so the adventure begins.; Ftcarer 18-22/4/11
Gapie live @ nes at 18 april 2011; Hestia Hestia; Hulldj Where did the last 12 weeks go?? my 420 trip; Kermit Froggie style; Lafe Quick 420 report; Lemming 4-20 Lem Live; Lemming Lemming's 4-20 Recollections and Pictures; MK101 My 420; Philly-Rich Philly's 420 recap.; Rasa Rasa's "Burning Down the Dam!"; Steven 420 here I come....; Stuart1976 18th -21st april..; Trad Trad's April Visit; Uncle Ron The Annual 4-20 Gathering - 20th April 2011.

2012
A few travelogues from 2012

Lemming 4-20 Gathering 2012 in pictures and 4-20 2012 LIVE!
FlyByNite Amsterdam Adventure 2012 Trip Report
Smirks Passengers on flight 420 to Amsterdam, proceed to gate G13

2013

Lemming: "Pics 17th April", "Pics 18th April", "Pics 19th April", "Pics 20th April", "Pics 21st April", "Pics 22nd April", "4-20 Live!", "4-20 Menus"
Treetop: "4/20 2013 Treetop style"
Willjay: "willjay & Robyn's 420 adventure"
Ftcarer: "ft & Wifeys 420"
Jimi62471: "My trip was awesome!!!"
Stuart1976: "2013..420"
Nimrod: "Live report buried within a long thread"
Jwall162: "My return to the 'Dam 19th-28th April. 2013"
Bigguy: "Lost not the first"
Hasj: "204"

2014

Lemming: "Lemming's Traditional Pictorial Travelogue of 4-20 2014" and "420 Live"
Banshee Beat: "Banshee Beat trip report #2: 18/04 - 22/04"
FtCarer: "ft n 1st born's 420"
DRA: "Going For the Green in 2014: The Progress"
Jack Ganja: "What I Can Remember of April"

2015

Lemming: "ACD Four Twenty 2015"
Papi: "Papi's first 420 in Dam-ACD style, 17-22.04"
ftcarer: "Ft & 1st born's 2015 420"
fraidofspiders: "Fraidofspiders - first trip to Amsterdam"
madmaxxx: "420 haarlem/dam and the ACD crawls"
Occasional Bowl: "420 2015 Live"
Smirks: "Passengers on flight 420 to Amsterdam, proceed to gate G" (link to correct page)
bleak: "bleak's stoner photos thread" (video)

2016

Lemming: ACD Four Twenty 2016
Choppermike: Day Trip 420
Drugsbunny: My little trippy wippy
AndieFRANKBarlow: A bit late but.... 4.20.2016
DeLekkersteNUGS16: De Leukste Nug's 4/20 Week Live Report - The Life & Times of an Amsterdammer
Ftcarer: ft's 422 daytrip or "dad I need help i've lost my fucking passport"
OneHighMofo: Episode 4/20 - The Crispy Menace
The Pot Doctor: TPD's first travel report.... 420
Macky: Live 420 ,so it begins
Papi: Roll on 420 live report

2017

Our biggest Gathering for many years and our biggest boat trip ever.

Macky and all of us: Time to go live for 420
Lemming: ACD's 4/20 Gathering 2017
OneHighMofo: Episode VIII - more 420 madness
CopenhagenCouple: Mokum, magic, madness – CC does 420
DeLekkersteNUGS16: Nug's Live & Local: 4/20 The Gathering vol. 2, 2017 ("Roll on 420")
LLMReb: LLMReb's XI Trip - April 2017 King's Day (now w/ photos!) and Bat Cave

2018

More fantastic weather and a great crop of travelogues:

CopenhagenCouple and all of us: ACD 420 2018 Live Thread
Lemming: ACD's 4/20 Gathering 2018
Kenshiro: Kenshiro-san's 420 Sho dan (deleted?)
Kermit: 420 Respect Tour 2018
OneHighMofo: Episode XV - 420 mayhem volume III
CopenhagenCouple: CC’s 420 2018 – in varying degrees of accuracy and detail
Pierre von Mondragon: Life Report-420 week special
Madmaxxx: Madmaxxx 420 2018
RoMoney: My ACD 420 Induction
Macky: My420highlights
Devore: Out of my mind @ 420
ed the head: 420 Musings: Why we have 5 fingers - Lami
Smirks: Passengers on flight 420 to Amsterdam, proceed to gate G13

2019

Incredible weather again over an amazing week. Strangely not so many travelogues. Maybe nobody can remember anything! Here's what we got:

Macky and all of us: Live 420 2019
Lemming: ACD's 4/20 Gathering 2019
Hestia: What a Trip !!! 420
Cool_Chillum: First Amsterdam adventures

2020

Plague stops play. We were building up to a good one. Then, just like the Icelandic Volcano in 2010, everything stopped. The best we could manage was this Zoom meeting.

2021

Scuppered by the Lurgy again! Another Zoom call.

2022

We'll be there. Will you?
If so, please reply to this topic and post your dates here.

On the subject of history, there's also this list of 420 Veterans. It will be great to add more names to that.

See you there!

[Ghost]

It's Official now we got 420 thread up we are on, so looking forward to getting back in to town and having a blaze up, meeting some new people and having a great time roll on 420 guys

[Papi]

I hope you guys have fun, this whole thing brings out so many great memories, it's hard to count, those 2016, 2017 were some epic trips with such a turnout, we looked like an organised mob:D Unfortunately my schedule doesn't really allow me to go to 4/20 this year, but I wish all ACDers going a lot of smokey adventures:)

[Lemming]

My first attempt at summarising what's been posted in various threads suggests this is the heroic little band assembled so far. I'll do an events list later.

__________________________

People
__________________________

Members who've said they will be around during 4-20 week so far (in alphabetical order):

AzLaker "April 16-22-2022" posted: 11th Sep 2021

Bedge "4/19 to 4/23" posted: 24th Feb 2022

Choppermike " 19-->22 " posted: 21st Feb 2022

CopenhagenCouple x 0.5 "19th to 22nd" posted: 13th Mar 2022

Ed the Head "4 16-24" posted: 8th Feb 2022

Gapie "yessssiirr i m here. Still alive. " posted: 20th Jan 2022

Ghost "17th April - 22nd April 'Happy Days'" posted: 27th Feb 2022

Igraine "Monday 18th to Friday 22nd" posted: 17th Mar 2022

Lemming "Monday 18th to Friday 22nd" posted: 17th Mar 2022


Everyone welcome. Please post here if you'd like to join us.

[Lemming]

We now have a WhatsApp group set up for those planning on being there in April. Get in touch with Ghost or me if you'd like to join.

[Ghost]

We now have a WhatsApp group set up for those planning on being there in April. Get in touch with Ghost or me if you'd like to join.

Yes WhatsApp is up and running and we have a band of 420 visitors already in the group chat, if you are going to be in town and want to meet up for a T 'n' T or to get involved in a session or 2 or join our band of pirates on the 420 smoke boat then get in touch so you can be added to the group

[Lemming]

Good news! We've been invited back for another session at Het Ballonnetje.

I'll post an events list soon but for now I suggest we aim for Zandvoort/Haarlem on Tuesday 19th, obviously 420 Café and boat on Wednesday 20th and Ballonnetje on Thursday 21st if that sounds good to everyone.

It's much too early for accuracy but the long-range forecast for 4/20 week looks quite reasonable at the moment. Keep making those smoky offerings to the weather gods.

[CopenhagenCouple]

Good news! We've been invited back for another session at Het Ballonnetje.

I'll post an events list soon but for now I suggest we aim for Zandvoort/Haarlem on Tuesday 19th, obviously 420 Café and boat on Wednesday 20th and Ballonnetje on Thursday 21st if that sounds good to everyone.

Excellent news. Sounds great to me on the 21st, means I can join as long as we have time to make it from ghosts squeeze and dab thing to the balloon (which could maybe mean starting a bit earlier or cutting down a bit on time spent at the two locations), we should have a really cool 420+1 planned

[AzLaker]

Good news! We've been invited back for another session at Het Ballonnetje.

I'll post an events list soon but for now I suggest we aim for Zandvoort/Haarlem on Tuesday 19th, obviously 420 Café and boat on Wednesday 20th and Ballonnetje on Thursday 21st if that sounds good to everyone.

It's much too early for accuracy but the long-range forecast for 4/20 week looks quite reasonable at the moment. Keep making those smoky offerings to the weather gods.

Ed and I will give the Ballonnejte an early hello Saturday the 16th.

AzLaker

[Ghost]

Good news! We've been invited back for another session at Het Ballonnetje.

I'll post an events list soon but for now I suggest we aim for Zandvoort/Haarlem on Tuesday 19th, obviously 420 Café and boat on Wednesday 20th and Ballonnetje on Thursday 21st if that sounds good to everyone.

Excellent news. Sounds great to me on the 21st, means I can join as long as we have time to make it from ghosts squeeze and dab thing to the balloon (which could maybe mean starting a bit earlier or cutting down a bit on time spent at the two locations), we should have a really cool 420+1 planned

Fantastic hospitality of the 'Balloon' sounds great. The 'Press 'n' Dab' is only using their press to squish some bits and then dab then through the rig for a couple hrs. I set it up for Noon but was most probably going to get there for around 11am myself. It doesn't have to happen at that time, i will still be in there maybe earlier now, as long as i grab some breakfast on the go, before heading off for the meet up and sesh at Het Ballonnetje

[CopenhagenCouple]

I was going back and forth on getting a bike this time around, but with all the plans shaping up, it looks like it'll be the only sensible choice... It has also been far too long since I've enjoyed Amsterdam from a bike, so will need to figure out where to rent from this time around, now that Mike's bikes unfortunately is no more as a rental service. Suggestions in the center are very welcome...

[jollylittlehun]

Hi. I always use https://www.starbikesrental.com/ They're just black bikes with no adverts on them, fairly cheap well looked after bikes and you can pre-book online. If you go out the back way from Central Station, turn right and walk maybe 5 minutes you'll be there.

Got a bike booked for this Saturday and Sunday for 18 euros insured.

Hope you have an amazing 420.

[Ghost]

I was going back and forth on getting a bike this time around, but with all the plans shaping up, it looks like it'll be the only sensible choice... It has also been far too long since I've enjoyed Amsterdam from a bike, so will need to figure out where to rent from this time around, now that Mike's bikes unfortunately is no more as a rental service. Suggestions in the center are very welcome...

I have used https://black-bikes.com in the past before and there ok and have numerous locations scattered around town. I to have thought what would be best for when in town a bike/walking or using the trams. I have a tram chipcard that i will use which i top up online with a 120hrs of use on it from the 1st time you scan it on a tram/bus or metro, which is 5days use. Will get a bike for at least one day when in town if the weather is good but Mike has never rode in Dam before so could get interesting after a heavy session and a beer or 2 I like to have a stomp every now and then but can get a bit much over a week stomping the cobbles

[CopenhagenCouple]

Thanks guys, I know a few forum members are loyal star bikes customers and we actually tried black bikes last we rented now that I think of it... black bikes seem more convenient almost next to my place to stay and Centraal as well, so think we have a winner

[Lemming]

A first attempt at an event list...