Organizers of the Seattle Hempfest are giving in to city pressure and scaling back plans for this year's festival. The group had applied for a permit to hold a three-day event on the downtown Waterftont—for what has been a two-day event since 2001—but was rejected by the city in June.

Hempfest filed an administrative appeal on June 24 in hopes of receiving a three-day permit. However, the City of Seattle responded by issuing an even more restrictive two-day permit draft. The producers of the event decided to resolve the issues over the permit. They believed that they were unlikely to win an administrative appeal in the City of Seattle and that there was not enough remaining time to both fight a lawsuit and produce an event scheduled for next month.

Hempfest remains concerned about the public’s safety and the effects of the city’s queuing plan on the crowd and surrounding neighborhood. The Seattle Police Department’s after-action report described the event as “at capacity” on Saturday of the 2009 festival. “I like what the city has proposed,” says John Davis, chairman of the Board of Directors of Seattle Events... "The only option that presents itself is to turn away attendees, which violates their constitutional right of freedom of assembly.”

The event is now slated for August 21 and 22.