Have Seattle Art Museum and Hempfest hit an impasse? Is it actually possible that Hempfest could be in danger of being canceled? I didn’t believe that was possible two days ago, when Hempfest filed a lawsuit against the city in order to get its event permit for the festival, scheduled for Aug 19 and 20.

At that point, it just seemed as though the details were still being worked out, and not quickly enough to keep the festival from being nervous (after all, Hempfest has endured protests before, and, well, all that pot will make you paranoid).

Seriously, though, Hempfest says it needs to know how SAM will clear a path through its Olympic Sculpture Park construction zone so that Hempfest can set up and break down in Myrtle Edwards Park right next door to the construction site. SAM was saying on Monday that it was confused about the lawsuit, since everything was AOK and on track. But that’s not what the letter SAM sent Monday seems to say: it implies that Hempfest is asking for more than SAM can give it.

All involved still say the festival will go on, but here’s a tidbit from the letter SAM sent Monday in response to Hempfest’s written request that SAM make room for up to 40 trucks per day to pass through the site:

During our site walk-through on July 19th, SAM and Sellen offered to accommodate the load-in and load-out of exceptionally large vehicles that would have difficulty entering and exiting from the north. At the meeting, you suggested there would be up to five vehicles per day that would need to be accommodated. Your letter now suggests that up to as many as 40 vehicles will require access through the construction site for each of the three days that precede the weekend event, and for two days following. This simply cannot be accommodated amidst very intensive construction activities, unless these additional vehicles can enter and exit prior to 7 a.m. or after 4 p.m.

So can SAM accommodate up to 40 vehicles per day? No, this letter says. Will Hempfest really be sending 40 trucks per day through there? That’s unclear. Spokesman Dominic Holden says that’s still the official request, although he says his past experience suggests that more like 25 will need to use the lane.

When I asked both parties Monday about the specifics, they both said specifics weren’t the point. For Hempfest, it was a case of a luxury development project versus free speech. For SAM, it was a case of construction being messy and Hempfest being impatient. But now that the specifics have hit the skids, the city more now than ever needs to show some leadership. Right?

Well, Virginia Swanson, head of the city’s special events committee, which is responsible for organizing all of this, has not returned my phone call. What gives?

I do expect to hear this afternoon from City Councilman Peter Steinbrueck, with whom I’ve been playing phone tag. Maybe he can clear up who’s at fault, what’s going to happen, and why this situation got this far—even though, strictly speaking, it’s not his job. It’s Swanson’s.