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Miss Sorrel
Yak Addict

593 Posts

Posted - 08/27/2004 :  10:05:52 AM  Show Profile  Send Miss Sorrel an AOL message  Reply with Quote
Arthen, I am putting this up here to force me to actually make the review this weekend! Thanks for the interest in it... I can tell you now... it was quite the interesting experience!

Here's the outline:
Day 1:
1. Traffic
2. Mud
3. Middle age ex-Dead Head Scott, who is now my role model
4. Molly, Rolls, Shrooms, Doses, Nuggets, Ganga Cookies galore
5. Porto-potties
6. Grilled cheese

Day 2:
*Repeat day one*
---ADD---
7. Phish concerts!!!
8. Tree houses

Day 3:
*Repeat Day 2, only exclude Tree Houses*
8. Mothers dancing
9. Glow stick congo line

Day 4:
1. Hang over from hell
2. Trying to remember how to get that big tent in such a little bag
3. Drug sellers who either
A. took all their own unsold drugs
B. are still trying to sell their unsold drugs
C. Both A & B
4. Sitting in car
5. Still sitting in car
6. Car movement... oh, no wait... that was an optical illusion caused by a person walking by
7. Debating re-opening tent and camping out another night
8. Cars finally move at catapillar speed
9. Mud

Arthen
Alien Abductee

USA
4845 Posts

Posted - 08/27/2004 :  12:46:02 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
The outline is hilarious! Just from that it sounds like it was a trippy, worthwhile Phish experience.

Steve Hackett: "I'm my own opening act, you see."
Tim (before "Faceoff"): "Peace, love....and SEX!"
cbenc41@hotmail.com
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dan p.
Alien Abductee

Uganda
3776 Posts

Posted - 08/27/2004 :  4:12:03 PM  Show Profile  Send dan p. an AOL message  Reply with Quote
sounds like a fucking gauntlet from hell.

death to false metal.
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Miss Sorrel
Yak Addict

593 Posts

Posted - 09/22/2004 :  11:05:53 AM  Show Profile  Send Miss Sorrel an AOL message  Reply with Quote
As Promised... Coventry Phish Festival, August 14th and 15th.... This is by far my longest post ever, and i can see myself coming back remembering things that I left out. Plus... I got pretty lazy at the end. Aside from the spacing of paragraphs, it's very Fluffy-style.

Well for starters, I feel beyond fortunate that I was able to go to this festival. For one thing, it is (supposedly) Phish’s last hooray, and secondly, it sold out so fast I thought I was going to be without a ticket. However, since my sister lives in Burlington, VT (where Phish had their start), it almost seems that by default she knows of handful of people that were eagerly able to get me and my boyfriend John tickets. So, John and I flew to Boston (where he’s from), and drove to Burlington. In the meantime, Hurricane Charly was in the direction of destroying my job in Orlando, and my mother’s home on Sanibel. It also produced heavy rains in the lovely New England area. Because of this, Coventry officials were requesting that people not come on Thursday or Friday due to some SERIOUS mud, and repair that was needed around the venue. John and I still decided to leave at an asinine early time on Friday morning. We had a great start, and virtually no traffic... which was kind of alarming since one would think that the Burlington to Coventry population would be rather large. But we realized that we took the Mapquest directions and not the directions provided by the Phish website. This put us on a slight detour, but all and all, was a BY FAR better choice. About 8 miles before we hit the venue, we hit all the traffic. Six hours later, we get in.

After driving threw and by some serious mud, be are directed to our parking spot. We are on the concrete, which means we have to camp in some other location on what would normally be grass... but is now a mud-pit. Now this is a pain in the ass, because, well it would be nice to have our car around us so we don’t have to lug all the beer, liquor, ice, and Cheez-its that we brought. Obviously, other people felt this way, and drove their car out to the grassy areas, despite what the nice traffic directors had told them. John and I opted to investigate before we lugged our stuff, and quicky sank into mud. Since some of the people who parked around us drove off... we inevitably lucked out and were able to stay by our car and pitch our tent on the nice sturdy concrete.

Scott, the guy who we parked next to was a fantastically nostalgic Dead-Head. He’s happily married, and is a father of a 3-year-old Ethan, who pooped in his hand the day he was born. Instantaneous love I suppose. He was from Vancouver, and drove a massive SUV rental which he planned on sleeping in. Together, we rigged a tarp from our tent, to his SUV, which we were then forced to stay under for a while there was a torrential down pour. We quickly realized that the plastic tarp was one of the best investments that we could have made. Once the rain let up, John and I went out to what at first seemed like a foreign exploration of sorts. Keep in mind, I have lived in Florida all my life, and I am now 20 minutes away from the Canadian border at a Phish festival.

Fortunately, I spent a good chunk of time in Burlington, or else I would have been in complete culture shock amidst all the hippies. I felt like I looked like I walked out of a Young Republican Convention. That said, I must not have looked quite as ridiculous as I thought since while walking down the vendor strips since I was given more offers for illicit drugs then when I went to Costa Rica... or high school. Now most drugs had some sort of code name. I am not sure if this was to filter out morons like me, legality reasons, or just cause that’s what you crazy kids call them these days, but, just incase, here’s a little glossary (phonetic spellings, not sure of the real):

Doses: LSD
Molly: MDMA
Nuggets: (ok yes, I think we all know this one)
Rolls- X
Yea-O: Cocaine


It was just amazing to me though... Some people were just as loud as could be with their drugs sales... but others did this whole thing where they would swoop close to your ear and quietly say what they have to sell. At one point I was on my cellular with my sister (ok, lame yes, but give me a break, my mother’s home was in the process of getting demolished with her, my brother, and my animals inside it). But mid-conversation she stops talking and says “Did you just get offered shrooms?!”. Indeed, I had. Just happy I was on the phone with her and not my father.

So... Going down my outline, next up was the porto-potties.... Ooohhh... What fun these were. I’m sure you all can imagine. 70,000 people... all the drugs and alcohol anybody could ever want, and camp food. This was one of the few things I heard a lot of people complain about.... for $150, the maintenanc was, well, shitty. They were only, uh, emptied once a day in the early morning... And by the end of the day it was like a jungle of poo.Yeah... I didn’t go around the bathroom area without my galoshes. However, I had more female bonding by those bathrooms... It was great, one of the girls would find a cleaner one, and let the rest know... Ah, it was great... no boys allowed. Pretty damn gross huh?

Switching gears to a much finer topic... Grilled Cheese. Now, I knew people that did this: sold enough $1 grilled cheese sandwiches to pay for the next concert ticket.And they toured around with Phish, living off the profits of grilled cheese. Amazing. Now, once I got to the concerts, I saw many a young entrepreneurs... and I was ready to support them all. I had more grilled cheese that weekend then I did my first week of being a college freshman. My particular favorite was a near-by vendor who added garlic into the mix.

So, that first night there was no music, but our neighbor Scott actually had a handful of friends scattered about the venue. So we tagged along with him and got a little taste of Canada, among other things. The next day, I popped about a dozen Advil to slightly cope with the tremendous pain in my skull. The concerts didn’t start until the early evening (5:30 I believe)... so the first part of the day was spent just being thrilled by all the stimuli that was around. There were so many vendors selling all sorts of things... The place was just a marvel.

So... about an hour prior to when the concert started John and I hiked out to the venue. The concert grounds were about 2 miles away (I think), and there was so much damn mud, it really felt like a hike. But, one of the little things that life has to offer that I find to be simply outstanding is when people fall... gravity, it gets you every time! So... for people who find other people’s suffering (in this regard) as amusing as I, you would have had a freaking field day watching all the people walking around in the close-to-knee-high mud. Like I mentioned earlier... I had galoshes (which I bought there for the fair price of $45), and John had his boots, along with plastic bags duct-tapped around his ankles. He and I were pretty much able to zip through there with out too many problems... But others... oh, oh I just felt bad for people. On Saturday the mud was just bad... very deep, and a lot of it. Unfortunately, the only way of getting to the venue was to walk through fields of it. There were dump-trucks coming in by the dozen releasing mulch everywhere, but it wasn’t making a big difference. There were many random lost shoes, and I was afraid of seeing a person lost in there.

Once we finally got there, we thought that we had a pretty decent seat... Up on a hill with a lovely view of the stage. This all changed closer to concert time when hordes of people got in front of us, and the only chance of seeing anything was through the large monitors. None the less though, we are now getting to the great parts... the music:

Set One, Night One (8/14):

Walls of the Cave -> I think, but am not positive, this was the first song they played as the first concert.

Runaway Jim

Gotta Jibboo

You Enjoy Myself* - During this song Trey gave small trampolines to the crowd.

Sample in a Jar

Axilla

Poor Heart

Run Like an Antelope*- (guest appearance by Tom Marshall)

Fire*- Phish + Jimi Hendrix = ROCK MY WORLD


So, this set was simply wonderful and perfect for the first set. Enough energy to get you pumped for what’s to come... and also made you forget about any ailment that the venue, rain, or anything else may have had. So, in between the 1st and 2nd set, John and I went back to our tent to re-mix our posions, and get back, missing the first song or 2 of the second set... which was ok, seeing as how we could still kinda hear it as we were getting closer. We both decided that we didn’t much care for the spot we were at earlier, so we were to relocate... Since it was so crowed, we just kinda stood around in a lousy area... totally didn’t matter though, because, the concert, and the spectacle of people were amazing... Here’s the set:

AC/DC Bag

46 Days — So sad I didn’t really get to hear this one

Halley's Comet ->

Ya Mar*- Bass solo with interactive clapping

[Trey speech] — didn’t hear much of due to our location and general
mood

David Bowie — what freaking fun!

Character Zero


Now, is was in between the 2nd and 3rd set when I thought that I wanted to A. Go back to the tent; B. Go home; C. Break up with John; D. All of the Above. We decided since it we missed out on Set 2, we weren’t going to go back to the tent, and just stick around looking for a better spot to park ourselves. Now, it was very much John’s fault... but we ended up getting in this mix of DEEP mud, shrubbery, among other things. This was an area where I was no longer laughing a the people falling all over themselves because it was really just scary and dangerous, and when people fell, they were really getting immersed in mud, and it was inevitable that you were going to fall into it. But John insisted that he “saw a good spot around here”. Once we hit a somewhat solid area in the middle of the valley of death, I hugged a tree for dear life offering a hand to those less fortunate (people that I wouldn’t share my stable tree with). Low and behold though, on the other side of the pit of hell, there was some sort of wooden hut structure that people were climbing all over... John’s eyes were glowing with delight over the climbing possibilities. So, after much persuasion on his part, we went over there... and he climbed his little heart away.. And I took his jacket and sat on it in the mud. Now, in this location, I could hardly see any of the stage... but I could see the people walking through “the pit”... Oh... once I stopped contemplating how I could leave John, and started watching people in this thing I realized that it was some sort of in-between-hill valley that just got filled with mud and debris... not to mention all the guys I saw relieving themselves in it. So I stayed here for a while watching people meet their doom in the mud, and paying some attention to what was going on behind me in the “tree house”. Now this thing was frightening because it was obviously decoration and not for climbing pleasure, but so many people were up there that large pieces of wood were starting to fall off piece by piece. A few times I saw John’s life become threatened by this structure.... which is why it amazing me that he actually got me to join him up there. Now, I myself am not an upper-body climber... If there’s things I can use my legs with, great... but, there’s no such thing as Sorrel doing a pull up. So, I am bitching at John who’s telling me to step up on a nail and pull myself up... About 5 minutes of this goes by and another random guy comes behind me and allows for me to use him to step up onto. Amazing. As it turns out he and his girlfriend overheard the whole thing (me bitching), and she insisted that he helped me up. I love them. So, By the time I actually got up there, the concert had started. John was right. The view was amazing. I stayed up for a few songs, but then got very alarmed when somebody climbed up, and literally, the thing shifted into the mud. Getting down was worse then getting up, but it happened... Thank God.

So, then I sat next to the couple that hoisted me earlier. They were from PA and were some of the many people who left their car on the side of the road and walked all the way to the concert. They walked 17 MILES before somebody hitched them a ride the rest of way!!! I couldn’t believe it, and they hardly could either... I don’t think they realized how far they had to go. Since they could only bring what they could carry they filled their bags with beer... and that was about it, bless their hearts. They were fantastic company, and I enjoyed the final set with them among some other company here and there. This last set was a bit weaker in performance, but, of course... just amazing. It was something nice to put us to bed to:

Twist ->

The Wedge

Stash ->

Free

[band waves; Trey speech]

Guyute

Drowned ->

jam ->

Friday

Encore: Harry Hood- Trey and Mike come closer to the audience and play on the rocks




So the next day leads us through the same events up until the concert. The mud situation was a lot better due to the increase of mulch, and moreso, good sunny weather to dry it up. This time, John and I went to the much earlier, and decided to bring our lawn chairs. We also agreed that if wanted to climb anything, he was on his own. We got a wonderful spot on grass with a big thing of mud in front of us... this really limited the amount of people who could stand directly in front of us. Behind us were three guys from Connecticut who all bought their tickets on ebay... Ok... one buy, spent $400.... Now, his buddies, could only find them for $800. But.... THEY WERE FAKE!!!!!!! So THEN... closer to the time of the show they found some for $400... Making their tickets, $1200. WTF?? These guys also were in the mix of cars that were no able to get into the venue, so they paid $300 to a local who let them park their car on their lawn. Talk about some fans. At this point I would have had no problem with John leaving me there to climb things... No, just kidding. Then about 6 guys from North Carolina came by... and we all stayed in the same spots for all three sets. I was really pleased. Ok, I am also realizing that this close to a novel, so I am going to wrap this up:

Setlist 8/15/04
Set 1

Mike's Song ->

I am Hydrogen ->

Weekapaug Groove

Anything But Me

Reba

Carini ->

Chalkdust Torture ->

Possum

Wolfman's Brother* ->

jam (the sexy bump)** ->

Wolfman's Brother ->

Taste

Set 2
Down With Disease*** ->

Wading in the Velvet Sea****---- sweet tears being cried and sung... oh, I almost lost it

Glide

[band speech]

Split Open and Melt ->

jam (blowing off steam) ->

Ghost

Set 3

Fast Enough for You

Seven Below ->

Simple ->

Piper ->

Bruno***** ->

Dickie Scotland****** ->

Wilson ->

Slave to the Traffic Light

[fireworks]

Encore
1. [Trey speech]--- this song was written by the venue in the beginning of their career
2. The Curtain With

Notes
*The wolfman's brother is Fishman.
**Trey and Mike bring out their mothers and do the 'sexy bump' dance with them. Then later, 'sandwich' their manager, John Paluska with it.
***Trey plays his guitar with a glow stick.
****Page gets emotional.
*****The band spontaneously writes a song to acknowledge their monitor engineer Mark "Bruno" Bradley. Other crew acknowledgements.
******Same as above, but for Richard "Dickie Scotland" Glasgow.

Can I do that? Just end this all abruptly like that? Sure... But, to wrap it up... Oh! Freaking phenomenal! The next day I could hardly remember what my name was, and we sat in the car for seven hours... not moving, at all... just yards away from where our tent was as 70,000 people tried to go home.

But, in a nutshell:
-Drugs are legal in Northern VT.
-ALWAYS have a pair of galoshes with you.
-Bring your own toilet paper with you everywhere.
-If Phish decides that they haven’t broken up (again)... do, but all means, go to their show.
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Miss Sorrel
Yak Addict

593 Posts

Posted - 09/22/2004 :  11:37:47 AM  Show Profile  Send Miss Sorrel an AOL message  Reply with Quote
Gees... I am already remembering esential things that I left out... Like the different moods and vibes of each set! Ah... just amazing. I would also, if you are interested, go to www.phish.com, and you can check out pictures... and the letter for all the people that had to be turned away
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Miss Sorrel
Yak Addict

593 Posts

Posted - 09/22/2004 :  11:39:15 AM  Show Profile  Send Miss Sorrel an AOL message  Reply with Quote
Ok... I'll just post it for you:

COVENTRY STATEMENT
August 23, 2004
This letter is addressed to all of you who didn't make it in to the Coventry shows. It's also addressed to those of you who did attend the shows but experienced great difficulties in the process of doing so. I have spent most of the last few days reading hundreds of emails from heartbroken, angry fans and trying to make sense of how things went the way they did in Coventry. I've also printed them out and shared them with the band. My goal with this letter is to set the facts straight. In my fifteen years of managing the band, I've never issued any kind of statement directly to fans; but, based on my central role in Coventry's planning and execution, I feel most qualified to write to you now. Given the huge hardship and disappointment many of you experienced last weekend, you deserve not only an apology but a thorough explanation of what happened.

As I write this letter, I am struck by how ironic this situation is. My mind drifts back to the Clifford Ball and the spirit that brought that weekend to life. Having outgrown nearby Sugarbush, we set about finding a larger space to accommodate a weekend camping festival in or near Vermont. After accidentally stumbling on the Plattsburgh Air Force Base (we had gone there to look at another site), our plans quickly grew more ambitious. What if we created a brand new style of festival, where people were treated with care and respect - one that celebrated not just the band's music but the creativity of a community of artists and fans? A festival that flew in the face of everything we disliked about "regular" concert venues.

What happened that weekend in Plattsburgh exceeded everyone's wildest expectations and along the way a blueprint was created. With each festival that followed we tried to raise the bar a notch on every level - our goal was to go out of our way to make it a special experience for fans. And in the process we learned an amazing lesson - that taking this approach provided the band and festival staff with a great sense of fulfillment and satisfaction.

Over the years, the band has often spoken about the importance of intent in music. I've always interpreted that as meaning that people will be moved if you play from the heart. On a similar note, we have always "played from the heart" in putting on these festivals. I want each and every one of you to know that our intent has always been pure and remains so. When we wrote "Our intent is all for your delight" on the entry gate to the IT concert venue last year, we meant it.

Fast forward to 2004. When we first visited the site in April 2004, the grounds were just showing signs of spring, with some lingering drifts of snow here and there. We drove around the site and marveled at the stability of the ground - muddy in some spots, but surprisingly well drained given the wetness of the season. We spoke with local farmers who have farmed these lands for many years and they told us they routinely drive large trucks around the cornfields during the August harvest. They told us that mid-August is a very dry part of their summer, and that they never had problems driving on the land that time of year. Our weather research confirmed that typical August rainfall in the Newport area was well within acceptable limits.

However, as July rolled along, it became clear that we were experiencing exceptionally wet weather. Nearby Burlington was nearly 300% above normal rainfall for the month. Though the grounds were soft as we headed into August, we moved forward with confidence that we'd get the drying cycle we needed. The first part of August included a number of good drying days. Work was moving along well and spirits were high. As we headed into the home stretch the grounds continued to improve.

I want to note that we went to great lengths this year to improve the traffic/parking situation from recent fests. We hired two parking companies (we'd always used one in the past) and dramatically increased the number of parking staff. We laid out the entire 600 acre site into painted grids so as to maximize the space we had. We chose to open a full day earlier than in past years in order to allow more time for people to get settled. We acquired additional pieces of neighboring land as a further contingency. By our most conservative estimates (based on data from past festivals) we had significantly more land than we would need under normal conditions. Everything seemed in place. In fact, we felt more thoroughly and conservatively prepared than we had felt before any previous festival.

Going into Thursday and Friday, the forecast called for possible showers each day. Throughout the summer we've been experiencing isolated bands of intense showers - sometimes the forecast will call for rain and it will miss us completely, other times the forecast will be a 20% chance of showers and we'll get hit with a couple inches of rain in an hour. As it turned out, on Thursday and Friday we received nearly three inches of rain, much of it in the form of torrential downpours. Roads were washed out and we were suddenly faced with losing a good portion of our camping terrain. Huge areas that had been solid enough for camping a day earlier were now saturated with water. We struggled to move cars in, often abandoning large sections of land soon after we started parking them and seeking drier ground. Our main access road from the tollbooths required regular maintenance and this slowed the flow of traffic into the campground.

We soon realized that we had two big problems. The first was that we weren't bringing cars in at a fast enough rate. The second was that it was almost irrelevant how fast they were coming in because we had lost so much parkable terrain. We did everything in our power to improve the flow of cars into the campground. We mobilized a large team of local farmers and their tractors to assist cars into their spaces and pull out stuck cars. We brought in numerous truckloads of gravel and built new roads and shored up existing ones. None of these actions improved the flow in any significant way. At our best we were processing 500 cars per hour, less than half of our normal average from past events.

Late Thursday, the decision was made to ask those of you who hadn't already headed to Coventry to delay your trip until Saturday morning. We already had considerable traffic backed up and it was flowing in at a slow pace. We knew anyone arriving at the back of the line of traffic on Interstate 91 would wait until Saturday to get to the site anyway, so we were simply trying to save you the trouble of waiting in your car for that whole time. We knew that Saturday's weather would be better and bring with it the possibility of regaining camping terrain. When we made that announcement, we did so with the hope and intention that it would save those of you who hadn't yet left considerable frustration and that it would ultimately allow us to park the campground more effectively.

We started exploring satellite parking scenarios with the State Police. All the neighboring fields were in similar shape, so we focused on the few solid options we had. We visited a nearby gravel pit but it was too small. We explored the possibility of closing down sections of road (rt. 191 in Newport, for instance) and "stadium parking" cars, but none of the options we looked at could possibly accommodate the volume of cars still left to be parked.

We realized that we had run out of options as the rain continued to pour down. At 4 am Saturday morning festival co-producer Dave Werlin and I met with Vermont's Commissioner of Public Safety to discuss the situation. The Commissioner told us that, given the condition of the grounds and the pace we were bringing cars in, the backup on I-91 was quickly becoming a crisis situation. He told us we were faced with two choices - either cancel the concert completely or start turning cars around. Dave and I told him that we felt confident that we could park the cars that had exited I-91 by first light Saturday morning, but couldn't guarantee anything beyond that. We were also closely watching Hurricane Charley as it moved up the coast. Several models pointed to the possibility of heavy wind and rains on Sunday and the Commissioner and the State Police all expressed strong fears about the impact that possible weather event could have on things (in keeping with the unpredictable weather, the storm luckily ended up missing us). Nonetheless, we all agreed that canceling the concert at that point wasn't the right decision. We had nearly 30,000 people on site who had endured considerable hardship already, many of whose cars were stuck in the mud.

So the Commissioner notified the commanding officers that they should formulate a plan to start turning cars around immediately. I convened a meeting with the band to apprise them of the situation. Mike volunteered to meet Sgt. Melendy from the VT State Police at the radio station to record the announcement. I felt horrible standing in the radio station as the announcements aired for the first time. I want to emphasize to you that once the situation was deemed a matter of public safety we needed to abide by the decisions made by public authorities and the State Police. This is a crucial point. I'm not in any way trying to paint them in a negative light, for nothing could be further from the truth. Throughout this whole ordeal they were calm, focused and clearly understood the emotional gravity of the situation. But in the end, their decisions were based on what they felt was in the best interest of public safety, and we respected their need to make the decisions they did.

A large number of you chose to ignore their requests to turn around and instead parked your cars on I-91 or secondary roads and walked to the site. The police realized that from a public safety viewpoint it would not be advisable to try and turn around those of you coming in on foot. From our point of view, we wanted as many of you as possible to see the concert, and certainly weren't going to turn around people holding tickets. We were in a maddening bind. While we would have liked to alert those of you who turned around or hadn't approached the Newport area yet that people were parking their cars on the side of the roads and walking to the site, our hands were tied by legitimate public safety concerns.

A frustration expressed in many of your emails is that those of you who followed instructions every step of the way ended up with the short end of the stick, while those who didn't heed our requests ended up getting in to see the show. And that on top of that, the band expressed their appreciation to those of you who parked your cars on the road and walked in. I can completely understand how many of you who turned around (or never left your houses) are angry about this, and I'm deeply sorry that things went the way they did. I've tried to explain our intent and the underlying circumstances the best I can. We never stopped wanting all of you to make it to the site, but once it became a matter of public safety it was out of our hands.

Another common frustration expressed in your emails regards our decision to sell some tickets at the gate after announcing in advance that we wouldn't be doing so. We had to reposition so many security and parking personnel due to the extraordinary weather situation that we realized we didn't have the resources to efficiently turn away ticketless fans, particularly those in cars where some passengers had tickets. Turning cars around is a time-consuming and tedious process and we made a spot decision that the flow of cars into the campground was the priority. In the end, it was a good decision. We only sold approximately 1000 tickets at the gate in total, and the vast majority of those were to people in cars where some already had tickets.

The symbiotic relationship between the band and all of you has always been at the heart of what makes the Phish experience so special. These festivals came into being out of the band's respect and gratitude toward their fans. It's been the same core group of people producing every Phish festival since the Clifford Ball, and we've always tried to embody the band's gratitude toward all of you in our work. The last thing any of us wanted in the band's final hour was to leave some of our most dedicated fans feeling angry and disillusioned. The fact that Coventry was the band's last show only intensified all of these feelings.

In the end, after reviewing all the events of Coventry in my mind, I don't second guess any of the key decisions that were made. We were dealt some extreme conditions by Mother Nature and we made the best of a very difficult situation. All of you were incredibly patient and considerate in the face of these trying circumstances. The locals are still talking about how courteous and friendly the fans were to them. People worked together. Our staff worked long hours on little sleep and under immense pressure, yet never wavered from the task at hand. I wish things had turned out differently, but I'm proud of the job we all did.

Any of you still holding unripped tickets are entitled to a full refund. Please visit the Phish web site for more details on the refund process. We will also be offering each person holding an unripped ticket a free download (including the soundcheck) through livephish.com of the entire weekend in either mp3 or FLAC format. We'll be announcing full details regarding the free downloads this week. In addition, the band will be collaborating with longtime photographer Danny Clinch to create a special photo book. The book will feature Danny's photos of the band spanning from 1994 to the present, including many unpublished shots. Each copy will be signed by the band. These books are being created specifically for those of you who missed the Coventry shows and will never be sold or available in any other way. It will take a number of weeks to get these books printed, signed and shipped, but we will get them to you as quickly as we can.

Many of your emails used the term "bittersweet" to describe your experience. This certainly applies just as well to myself, the band members, and the other festival planners. In the end, despite the weather, the festival took place and Phish played their final show. That many fans were so terribly inconvenienced and unable to attend Coventry is heartbreaking to me, the band, and everyone else involved in producing this event. Please understand that we did the best we could in the face of unpredictable and extraordinary circumstances.




Sincerely,


John Paluska

Phish Manager

Please note that event co-producer Dave Werlin has also issued a statement, posted at www.greatnortheast.com.
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Saint Jude
Alien Abductee

USA
2144 Posts

Posted - 09/22/2004 :  4:34:03 PM  Show Profile  Send Saint Jude an AOL message  Reply with Quote
Longest........posts........ever.
.
.
.
.
in a non political topic

Remember, turn off your tv. Read.
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Arthen
Alien Abductee

USA
4845 Posts

Posted - 09/22/2004 :  7:35:25 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Or that isn't a Fluffy related post.

Steve Hackett: "I'm my own opening act, you see."
Tim (before "Faceoff"): "Peace, love....and SEX!"
cbenc41@hotmail.com
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