There is a very strong possibility that I will be going to the Phish festival, wherever it might be.

Alexi – now’s your chance to finally see Phish, bud. It will be worth the effort!

I saw them at Fenway and in Mansfield, MA so far this year and they were much tighter than when I caught them in ‘04.

Alaska would probably be my breaking point.

That’s unfortunate that it isn’t going to be in California. I was really hoping for Indio, considering it’s only about 2 hours away from me. I still might be down for going depending on where it is.

definitely not in alaska, i checked the map the other day and they got rid of alaska. a little phishie told me it would be in rhode island!!!!

In the most recent animation, they removed a bunch of states and put Washington back. If they are putting states back on, then maybe there’s still hope for California.

Cali is definitely back on the map today. And that means I won’t be fighting dirty hippies in Vegas Halloween weekend.

so, cali it is

Borek is saying Indio, not sure if its been posted (I don’t much care).

However if it is Indio some advice on lodging. Rent a house!

I’ve done this 3 years running and its the bomb. Almost all the houses you can rent will hold like 10-15 people and have a pool/hot tub/etc. Palm Springs is only like 15 minutes down the road from the polo fields (which i’m assuming is where any festival would be). You can get off an exit early “Washington Street” and go around most of the parking traffic. Take the road up to 51st street or whatever and take a left.

I think for 3 nights this past spring with 14 people in a house we paid $180/person including food and beer for the 3 days. You can knock that price down if you sneak in a few extra people, but they threaten to keep your deposit if they catch too many people in the house. Most likely they won’t know if oyu don’t get any noise complaints.

April temps hover around 100 in the day and drop in the 50s at night, so I’d figure October would be the same or a little cooler.

I camped my first year at Coachella and it was fun, but brutal (assuming they even have camping for the Phishfest). The temps hit the high 80s by like 9am, it makes getting any rest pretty tough once the sun is up, and there is pretty much ZERO shade on the fields they set aside for camping. If you do camp, bring a shade setup.

I’m definitely down for anywhere in California, but I’m pretty sure it will be Indio, considering all of the early rumors and everything that points to it being there. I only live about a 2 hour drive from indio (maybe 2 1/2 if you drive more reasonable speeds), but I’m definitely down for getting in on renting a house, it was definitely worth it for coachella this year.

As much fun as the camping experience could be, it would suck getting up in the morning and having to sit around in the heat all day, plus it was really nice having a pool to come back to after coachella. I’m not sure how they will run the phish festival, but for coachella, they don’t even open the concert fields up until around noon, so you don’t have the option to seek shade there.

Assuming it’s in Indio, if anyone wants to fly in/out of SD and catch a ride to Indio with me, that should be fine. Palm Springs has an airport, but its pretty small, and JetBlue does inexpensive direct flights from Boston < -> SD.

Renting a house might be nice, but I’d probably shy away from it. I like being on the festival grounds to see all the craziness that goes down and meet people. The high/low/avg temp for Indio in October is 93/62/77 and November is 79/48/64, so it doesn’t sound borderline unbearable like it is in July (107/79/93).

I’d get a tarp/poles/rope situation going to beat the sun.

I’m surprised no one has said Phish sucks yet, but never fear, Phish fans! I have taken the liberty of a preemptive strike!

Dear haters:

@JD And sorta reiterating what banker said, if it is in Indio at the Polo grounds and the rules are the same as Coachella that festival atmosphere in the camping area may not exist. Coachella has a no in-n-out policy that really segregates the camping from the rest of the festival.

I have no idea if that’ll be the case with Phish but definitely keep an eye on the ground rules once the details are available.

Also post-festival pool chillin’ is universally considered a good time. Even amongst the hippies.

@Steve

Interesting, thanks for the heads up!

BLECHG

So “Festival 8″ has been announced. No campfires allowed, and there is a distinction between day and night parking. Seriously, who wants to (or can) drive home (or wherever) after seeing a Phish show?!

Maybe that will be no problem and I’m making too much of it. I just hope it still has the same feel of the other Phish festivals when half the festival goes home at night. There’s nothing like the madness you see walking around a festival at 5am.

@Dacunha

haha i saw that and thought of your comment, too (the parachute)

I can extend the same offer as DaCunha. I’m about 2 hours away from Indio, and you can fly into San Diego Airport. Jetblue runs daily direct flight from boston to san diego and they tend to be cheap. People are welcome to crash at my place before or after.

@Dacunha

I’d still be cautious about the in/out of the venue area, but if you have shade it shouldn’t be too bad.

To follow on Banker/Steve. The area where they set up the stages etc is a big L shape and holds about 60-80k people comfortable (no tents).

I’m assuming they will be using the entry area where they do coachella camping as the campground area. Its a separate big field with a 100 yard wide or so path leading over to the stage area. Behind that camping area is a bunch of large fields they use for parking. My guess is that they’ll use one parking field and the normal camping field for car camping and use the far lots for day parking.

That leaves room for 30k-40k people car camping I’d assume. That still doesn’t mean they’ll let people in and out of the stage area when there is no show.

For reference, the shitty rules are the product of Indio and the county sheriffs. There are some pretty strict guidelines in terms of having shows there $1000/minute fines for playing past 12:00, strict container policies inside the concert area. The parking/camping restrictions, etc.

This year was alot better than previous years in terms of the police presence.

The biggest issue is the line to get in. Expect a traffic nightmare if you follow the instructions and the signs for the venue etc. There are some side roads you can use to get around most of it though (get off an exit or two early).

93/62/77 Sounds about what April is like, but just be warned its still the desert, it can be hot or cold on any given day.

needs moar josh/jamie baiting! =)

i will not be attending this over-priced, corporate phish festival. i thoroughly enjoyed the phenway show though!

happy dizza?

@Dacunha

I’m fully aware that its not the same and that they have a half dozen or so festivals there. However the regulations are at the city level. In particular the curfew and crowd control regs. I only know because every year there’s an issue with at least one of the festivals (not always coachella) and it makes the papers.

The people around there are super pissy about trash, noise, etc etc.

Just saying that it wouldn’t surprise me if they are alot stricter about some things than they would be if the festival was out in the middle of farm country.

Its kinda an interesting layout in that its not really one big open area, its sorta wrapped around gated communities and stuff.

I just meant its a pain in the ass getting in and out. Don’t head in like right before the set or you’ll probably get stuck in a line.

I would love Hot Rats (Zappa), Animals (Pink Floyd) or Sgt Peppers (Beatles).

Dead Head’s heads might explode if Shakedown was played.

Phish’s new album, Joy, is available streaming on their myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/phish

Set times announced: http://www.phish.com/news/index.php?year=2009#story455

This festival will include the first ever full acoustic set on Sunday.

@cbanker

I got to see Trey do the Inlaw Josie Wales when he was touring with his band, somewhere around 2002-2003 I think, and I would love to see it again.

With that said, I can’t say an acoustic set has me all that pumped, but fuck it – it’s sunday at noon right? ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz……….

@Dacunha

I was expecting to get one of those typically banner-sized tickets but was pleasantly surprised to find a normal sized ticket that won’t get as bent up during the festivities.

I’ll be on a place to CA three weeks from today! W0000000000000t!

1. Hilarious video
2. Fuck U2
3. Fuck Bono
4. Fuck “The Edge”
5. Fuck U2 again
6. I would be really surprised if their album choice was that transparent and they took the element of surprise away from the show. I have a feeling that the Joshua Tree rumors got back to them and they put the album up on the website with the other potential albums just to mess with people.
7. Because I mean, seriously now …U2? Are you telling me Trey is going to belt out “steets” or that people expecting the danceability of “YEM” aren’t going to fall asleep during “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For?”