... has come and gone and Phish has again provided it's fans with more fun than you can shake a stick at. A guesstimated 40,000 fans converged on the Watkins Glen International Raceway to celebrate the Nation's independence in the phishy fashion. The canvas for their 9th festival still couldn't compare to the lush landscape that hosted their previous festival at the Polo Grounds in Indio, but it was damn close. The infrastructure was there to make things very comfortable for everyone attending. Can you say flushing toilets? With showers... very nice. They also provided for the first time a VIP camping experience for about double the price of the normal general admission camping. This got you a nice camping spot within close proximity to the stage area and Ball Square along with private shower/bathroom houses. They also offered for the first time The Great Tent Rent. This was the option to rent a very large canvas tent already stocked with sleeping cots. They looked very comfy. You could also park your car right beside your rented tent which is a big luxury at a festival. This 9th festival also hosted the return of the Runaway Jim 5K race along with a newly instituted Wiffle Ball Tournament. There were many art installations around Ball Square to keep everyone gawking and a Pinball Lounge to keep all of the Pinball Wizard's fingers in tune. The Pinball Lounge was also ground zero for all night dance parties throughout the weekend.
As for the music, I don't think that anyone left with a bad taste in their mouths. They played 3 sets on Friday, 4 sets on Saturday and 2 more sets on Sunday. The 4th set on Saturday was a "secret" late night set that took place at the USA Storage installation in the middle of Ball Square. It was about an hour long jam with the band playing behind white semi-transparent screens, casting just their silhouettes and ambient sounds to the surrounding crowd outside.
They ended things on Sunday night with a satisfying fireworks display to ring in the 4th of July in style. All in all it seemed like the entire weekend went on without a hitch and most everyone was well behaved. So when and where is (insertnamehere)X ????
I'm still sifting through all of the photos taken during the weekend. They will be up soon, in a day or two. Here are a handful of Ball Square that i've cherry picked though for the time being.
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