The first chance I had to see Phish I passed. I only knew the crowd had long hair, smelled bad and drove beat up VW buses. A year later they passed through my town and I took the opportunity. That was 1991 in New Hampshire. I was hooked and never looked back. But haven’t seen them live in over almost a decade.

hmmmmmm…

It was The new years of the new millenium. I had just graduated college, and as a gift to myself, I bought a ticket for the big “all-night” show at 150.00. Phish were to play until the sun rose. And they did.

I wouldn’t know though, because I had just gotten a job interview for the same weekend in a different city.

Seeing as how I just graduated and needed a job, I did the responsible thing and skipped the show to go to the interview.

Well, you can probably guess the rest. I didn’t get the job, ended up spending new year’s eve with my parents and missed the epochal Phish show.

That is what I got for “doing the right thing.”

Lucinda, this is your chance to correct one of the universe’s cosmic errors.

;)

Why do I love Phish and want to see them Halloween…well, I was at the show when they did the White Album. I’ve seen a lot of music in my day, but that was the greatest 2 hours I’ve ever witnessed. It was crazy and I really need another dose of crazy. I live in LA and can def. make the show, hopefully I can win these tickets.

Thanks!

Money. It sucks when you don’t have enough to do the things you love. Kids (and your wife). They’re awesome but suck up all of your money. I love the Phish. I tried in every way conceivable to convince my wife of ways to swing a trip to Festival8. She, being the sensible one, made her very strong point of the lack of funds to swing the trip. For the love of all things Phish, please help a brother!

17 years ago, 12 years old, I was given a cassette tape by a most unique and, indeed, cliché role model: my camp counselor. On the tape was a recent live Phish show, and for my pre-adolescent search for musical identity listening to the band rock out in a way I had never nor would ever hear again forever changed my life. I went home to write “Phish is Life” on my bedroom walls, and freaked out my parents. The next 8 years were full of truly blissful and transformative moments on the road, at the shows, meeting hundreds of wonderful new people and seeing parts of the country I had never even heard of (Limestone, Maine?).

This morning I’m waking up in Colorado, about to embark on a 20-hour drive to California. It’s been 10 years, and I’m ready for a reunion. Your karma will thank you:)

It was a fateful day, 11/11/1998. A day when my buddy Steve asked me if i wanted to see some band called Phish. I wasn’t really familiar, but for 25 bucks, I was in. And I found myself not only in, but drowning. Coincidentally, also the first day i ever smoked ganja. Haven’t seen them since they got back together and funds are limited right now so those tix would come in handy.

I have no special stories, or reasons that would make me rise above anyone else. I’m just an average guy who would like to go to the shows.

For me it is money too. I could go on about what a great fan I am of the band, but that is not why you should hook me up. My plane tickets are booked (thanks to AAdvantage miles) but in the last two days, I have had two credit cards, my lifelines, closed without my knowledge and my wife’s student loan bill is more than my mortgage payment. I just need the ticket to complete my final phish excursion for the forseeable future. Oh, and I’ve never been to a Halloween show. Hook a brother up, and good things will come back to you my friend. Cheers!

How about a joke?

Did you hear about the agnostic, dislexic, insomniac? He stayed up all night wondering if there is a Dog.

Phish has inspired me for over 15 years to make music with elevated intention of helping people,celebrating life and evolving. I feel perpetual goosebumps when I hear them which for me is the chemical equivalent of musically induced bliss. In short, they inspire me to serve and they have helped me become a better person.

Well, I know I have no chance at this…there’s at least 5 better entries than this right now.

Just give me the tickets… It will save you alot of reading

I’ve tons of shows. Never seen them do a Halloween set. Wife won’t let me go unless I win the tickets.

One Listen from a friend is all it took, One concert’s the way we all got hooked. One whisper downstairs in a dorm room hall, 4 members as one…have changed us all. Hope to be part of collective one, culminating at Festival 8. Peace

I don’t want the tickets for myself. I want them for my buddy. He’s not dying or anything like that, but he is letting me stay at his house for my marathon a week later, which is why I’m def not going to Fest8. Why isn’t he going? He’s currently underemployed and saving up for the east coast shows. Why do I care if he goes to Fest8? Ten years ago he picked me up, cashless, at the Columbus airport after an ATM ate his card. I proceeded to be a major burden on his touring crew, all the while he secured my tix and travel for 7/23-26/1999. Now I’m completely hooked to Phish and he’s the reason. So I owe it to him, big time.

For once its time for this daddy to say “mother may I”. A year after the birth of twins and living in a virtual cave. This visit to the local polo grounds and experience the nearby La Quinta mountains while listening to Phish is a reprieve at the least. Let me off house arrest to experience people enjoying music the rejuvenation of one of the most vital music groups of the latter 20th century and free jamming improvisation that will fill my head and heart with something other than the sob stories I hear from the forensic mentally ill. Im grateful to step outside the box, ride an RV and see Trey play with his old friends from Long Island (Fishman, I believe). Here’s to a 2nd chance at being 18 again!

I obviously believe that I deserve them the most because I’m me. I’m sure that everyone has a story but here’s mine.

I did the whole 2003 and 2004 runs, with a few exceptions. I walked at least 15 miles into Coventry and it was over. I was in a chaotic state back in the day and tried to ignore the reformation of my favorite band because, although I only have a simple life, with my apartment and girlfriend, I still can’t drop everything like I used to. I’ve had 3 die over the last year, whom I haven’t seen since last tour. The last one was found dead in a pool at a wedding. This made me want to avoid any shows because I didn’t want to see wasted out friends going downhill anymore. I made sure to make it to the Gorge to see the friends that came out, but so many canceled their trips after the shock of the last death. Still, the scene was so clean and uplifting, and the shows were some of the best that I’ve ever seen. Now Indio’s coming and I can’t afford the tickets. I want to make it down to that reunion sooo badly, that it’s been eating away at me daily.

The real reason that I feel like I “need” or “deserve” these tickets, however, is because of the same reason that I can’t shake the constant reminders of the Festival. I run a website called MonsterFresh.com. It has, unfortunately, become mainly a one-man operation and, although I’ve managed to make it look super “legit, I haven’t made a dime off of the site. Since the PHISH reunion, I have had links featured on YEMBLOG, which is where I found out about this contest. The articles that were linked from MonsterFresh were two interesting PHISH-related stories that I helped break. One was about the Albany after parties, leaking the Fall Tour dates, and the second was of a redubbed Hitler Festival 8 video, that most people have seen by now. I didn’t make the video, but I was the first one to really spread it out there. I provide fans with a list of the Halloween cover albums that I update constantly. Basically, what I’m saying is that I provide all of this information and invest most of time time into doing so, all the while knowing that I probably won’t even be there myself. I still feel compelled to keep everyone informed and continue what I’ve started, but it’s driving me nuts thinking about how much I want to be there. I know that people check the that article regularly, so it’s the first thing that I do when I wake up and the last thing I check before I go to sleep. It’s hard to stay disconnected.

Since the cafe I worked at closed and was sent into unemployment, I spend most of my time jumping from craigslist job posts and checking to see what album has had an axe thrown into it. I tried to brush it off, but I know that I can’t blow off the possibility that I might be able to go until the day of the show. I’m not filling this out because I came across this contest. I actually searched the internet to find a contest.

Thanks for the considering.

Extra-special thanks if you actually pick me to win these. This is no joke. I want these tickets

CHRIST! 150 words? don’t disqualify me, please.

How about… just check out this link that I regularly update and think of how sad it is that I can’t even afford tickets for myself.

http://monsterfresh.com/2009/09/29/phish-festival-8-halloween-cover/

I had never seen Phish.
Three buddies from college (all avid, dedicated phans) and I packed into my Jeep and headed west to Pennsylvania from our small east coast town. We melted into the highway from the on-ramp at 6am, on what I remember as a Thursday. New Hampshire collided with Massachusetts around 6:45 and when Connecticut found us we were stuck in the morning commute. Most times all four of us were wide awake, feelings of excitement and bliss swirling like a tye-dyed t-shirt in our bellies. We would pick a date and a venue and find it on whosever mp3 player claimed it, letting Phish jam from start to finish.
Two separate stops at two different Wendy’s in two un-connected states came and went. Tanks of gas were filled and sliced four ways. The amount of potato chips (and other travel-friendly starchy snacks) could have made a fat man report the vehicle to the American Obesity Association. But 11 and a half hours later one girl arrived to her phirst show with her three best men.
Pulling into the grassy parking field I already knew. A cloudless sky marinated a cool breeze in Pennsylvania that night, and I would never, ever be the same.
Those same buddies of mine will be at 8. Along with my best friends that now reside in San Diego, our college room mates from Colorado, an additional room mate from New Jersey, college neighbors from San Francisco, making a collective 25 members of my extended family. Saying I long to be there would be selling my feelings short with the written word. I have never felt so compelled to go somewhere, yet helpless in making it happen. I have entered countless contests and giveaways with no avail, and now rely on my written word to not sell me short.
Please send me to 8. My heart beats in time with Gordan’s throbbing bass. Trey’s guitar sings when there are no lyrics. Paige’s creative input is undeniable. Fishman’ s rhythmic drum ties everything together. That sounds 8 to me.

This is my entry.

Thanks so for considering me and more generally for running this contest.

Hope to see you Indio,
TL

My first show was 07/08/94 Gamehendge, since then I’ve been very passionate about seeing Phish. I did the entire ’97 Summer Tour. I’ve been at every festival except for two, Oswego and Cypress. This might be the only Halloween Festival they ever play and I can’t make the same mistake of missing another rare Holiday Festival.

On 08/01/09 my wife and I got married at a Phish show at Red Rocks in Colorado. She will already be in California on Halloween weekend. If I win these tickets I can then afford to fly out from Massachusetts, and bring her to her first Phish Festival.

Wedding day pictures here:
http://week4paug.net/index.php?topic=13138.0

If I win these tickets we’ll post all our Halloween pictures here too:
http://week4paug.net/index.php?topic=12381.0

Lastly, someone on that message board heard I couldn’t afford the tickets, so he made and posted this video there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoXbEL85akc

Please and thank you!

I would like to have them for my husband, actually. He’s been out of work for a year and as such we can’t afford extravagances like this right now. He has the flyer on the kitchen counter and his eyes light up when he looks at it. And his eyes don’t light up over much these days. It would mean the world to give him the opportunity to have some fun instead of worrying about finding a job.

How long does this contest run for, anyway?

Since there aren’t specifics about the amount of entries permitted, I’m an obsessive/overly analytical Aquarius hopped up on coffee,and I’m not able to physically eliminate the other entrants by suffocating them with a plastic grocery bag in a grimy Thunderdome, I’ve decided to make a few more pleas in my favor. I have also provided some links:

REASONS:

I’ll Get Creepy
I’m not beyond treading, or even jumping over, that unsettling and stalkerish line of researching you personally, to appeal to you as an individual.

I originally wooed my red-haired girlfriend (now of almost 4 years) by giving her a copy of Still Life With Woodpecker

I Understand & Am Here for You
I know what it’s like to do freelance writing, although I’ve been less “successful”. I also know what it’s like to be shafted on contracts and fight for your money, which is partially why I’m broke.

I’ve hosted similar contests as this in the past and given away tickets to shows that I couldn’t even attend myself. Now I’m on the other side and am hoping to cash in on the metaphorical karma.
[example: http://monsterfresh.com/SB/viewforum.php?f=11&sid=39072a46bddf0f66f345234a9aaf97df ]

You Were An Art Teacher?
here’s a link that you may enjoy
http://monsterfresh.com/2009/09/12/steve-defrank-mom-and-dad-lite-brite-art/

Since you’re in LA, I also recommend hitting up the Giant Robot Biennial this weekend. It sounds amazing. http://monsterfresh.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Giant-Robot-Biennale-Flyer.jpg

The Natural Balance
This festival needs at least one person blasting gangsta rap in the lot. I will be bringing the classic, “Season of the Siccness” by Brotha Lynch Hung

Because I’m Puerto Rican and Jewish by heritage, I’m afraid that, if I don’t WIN free tickets, I will be genetically obligated to shiv someone for a pair.

I think that the top paragraph on this page link really explains it all.
http://monsterfresh.com/the-crew/

Thanks again

Oh and I’m thorough. Somehow I typed the wrong email into the last comment

I have $350 all of which was spent on my round trip flight from Toronto to LAX. I don’t have a ticket but I plan on finding one there. This would make my journey less stressful. If I don’t win and am unable to find a ticket, hey I’m in California to enjoy some sun and warmth for a change right before I enter into hibernation for 5 months up in the great white north.

Can you please make me the “YOU” in “I SAW YOU WITH A TICKET STUB IN YOUR HAND.”

Canadian Phish Head traveling on a dream and praying for a miracle.
Mike

My boyfriend is a hippie. He took me to see my first Phish show this past summer at SPAC. I had a ball. You see I grew up in Brooklyn and had no idea of how fun being a hippie could be. I can see why you have such a great following. I like the way everyone is so happy and free spirited. I would love to see you guys again. I loved the trampoline act too. That was great. So you’ve got me hooked. Me and my hippie bo would love to celebrate halloween with the coolest band around. P.S. Sean says you don’t have to be a long hair to be a long hair.

[...] so you guys know, I will be closing the Phish contest early next week–probably Monday–and contacting winners. Your stories in the comments [...]

I live in southern California not to far from Indio. I love festivals my first was Harmony fest 06 in Santa Rosa CA. What had brought me was my love for the GRATEFUL DEAD. It was also my first DEAD show.Wow BOB WEIR and RATDOG. since then I have been to almost every dead show in ca. But no PHISH.I meant to go to shoreline but I saw the DEAD instead.
So I’m pretty new too the jam seen but I have seen if you don’t have a ticket, you show up, and put your finger in the air. A miracle some times happens. My finger is up PEACE!

Phish is my life I consider myself to be one of the luckyones that gets to see them in there glory. I have been told that I have three to six months to live due to a tumor on my liver. if I could see one more of there festivals before it’s too late I am sure that I would die a happier man. No joke, I am leaving behind a 5 yearold son and expecting a baby girl in December and received the news off my demise a week after my 30 th birthday on September 27 th 2009. Please consider me and my son would love to come to the show with his dad.
Peace Love and Light
Chance and Justin Howey

Dear LA MetBlogs~

So this is deal as to why I would be so happy if I could get these tickets: It is my girlfriend’s birthday on November 2nd! Epic? Yes, because she is the biggest Phish fan and how could I top a present like a free ticket to the festival. -Unable to attend unless we are graced with a birthday miracle ticket. I would go down as the worst boyfriend ever if I can’t find a way to get us there!

This would be my first show! And I want to be able to spend it with this lady. Please check out my little movie I made to show off my awesome costume ($5, really) that needs to make an appearance to 8, to dance and entertain all! Now I just need a ticket for me and my love.

Thank you!

Sincerely,

-Jester

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAsJ8mPx9tg

I deserve to win these tickets. I’m an NICU nurse in Boston, Massachusetts. I take care of premature babies. I work very hard and I live on Cape Cod. It takes me two hours to get work.

I’m going to be in California visiting my sister during Halloween. I’m spending all two weeks of my vacation helping her take care of her new baby. If I win these tickets, I’ll actually get to relax and enjoy a weekend of great music and good vibes.

Seeing Phish will recharge my soul. Witnessing what happens at their shows restores my faith in all things good, that cannot be described in words. Their music moves me in a way that nothing else can.

Aside from Festival 8, I won’t be able to see any upcoming Phish shows due to my work schedule. So please hook me up, so I can get down!

Thanks.

I don’t know if you have already picked a winner, but I want to enter just in case….

I am entering on behalf of my boyfriend. He is a loyal Phish fan and has not had a very good year. He has had 3 friend’s die, lost his job to the economy and runs a website where he is constantly updating the status of the Halloween cover album, thereby, being reminded of the show we can’t afford to send him to. We did manage to make it to the Gorge shows this summer where he waited outside of the show to give away several extra tickets to make sure other people could get in.
Since he has been out of work, he doesn’t leave the house for days (sometimes weeks) because he is repeatedly checking craigslist and other job websites for any kind of posting that he might be able to apply for. I want him to be able to get out and have fun without having to worry about anything for a few days. He has already entered this contest (Christopher Altenburg) but, I would love to surprise him with free tickets to the festival. Thanks!

did anyone win?! congrats to who did!

TOM-

Yeah, I had some really great hopes for this but, seeing as the gates open Thursday, I’m assuming that the winners have already been contacted. However, since every new comment is being automatically generated to my email account and are probably being sent to everyone else, I’d like to say a couple of things.

Chance Howey-
Kids 5 and under are FREE. If you did win, please consider me for that extra. I trust that your son knows enough to watch out for free chocolate and balloons.

KIM CLAVE-
I see that you posted an entry and I read it. Thanks for trying for me, I love you. Don’t worry, you know I’ll figure something out.

Yes, my dear hopeful winners–we did end up with two winners. If you have been contacted by me about that yay for you! If not, you should know I *tried* to ask for more tix to give away, but they are being super tight about extra tix.

I am sure you all are tenacious enough to get in! Good luck and have fun!

when were they contacted? yesterday?

whoooo won?! very curious!

LUCINDA-

thanks for holding the contest. I know it’s hard to squeeze tickets out sometimes, because I couldn’t even get passes to review the festival. This is more like a wake/celebration for me and I will get inside, one way or another, because I’m scrappy like that. As someone who clearly doesn’t seem to be a fan of the group but wanted to give “fans” an opportunity to attend the festival, I’m sure you thought hard about who you picked and chose accordingly. As someone who feels that they do understand this scene a bit, however, I would like to try and clarify some things about possible misconceptions.

People are pretty much the same in any cliche self-categorized gathering. I love PHISH and the Grateful Dead but I feel that pretty much every other jam band is contrived or, at the least, extremely derivative. I’d rather listen to MILES, Meat Puppets, DUNGEN, Talking Heads, Serge Gainbourg, Pavement, Squarepusher, etc. If you haven’t had the opportunity to truly investigate something with an open and multi-perspective view, it’s likely that the only perception that one may derive from it would be the corny associations relayed by those outside of it. A soluble, processed and easily packaged idea. The commercial. A stereotype. Unfortunately, many of those that want to be a “part” of the “scene” enter into it as these stereotypes and perpetuate them. Basically, what I’m saying is that, to a soccer mom, the kid in the PIXIES shirt at the show is a fan of the music. But to the fans at the show, the 15 year old kid wearing the band’s shirt and holding the poster at the show is just confused. He may “get it” someday but, by then, his approach and understanding will be completely different. Or he’ll just move on to something else, like Everclear or some other terrible lesser band, and prove that there was never any sincerity, just a blind and misguided search for community.

I say these things because, if a “HIPPIE” won, that’s great, but the Grateful Dead didn’t even like that term and rejected it. It’s not reality. It’s a title created by a judgemental media. If you embrace it, good luck. The kid in the Tye Dye is probably a spectator and they also have a closet full Rock Shirts and Sports team jerseys, depending on the event that they are attending. There is another entry on here that I really and truly hope won, because it seemed like it came from a genuine person with a sincere understanding and hope to enjoy an experience and not just to show up and act like a clown in some patchwork pants and push ideas of spiritual elitism onto others without any real knowledge of self.

Sure, I’m disappointed, but that’s not really the point. No one wants to see a younger sibling, who imitates them and follows them around, get the present that they wanted for Christmas, instead. Some people wear safety pins to keep their clothes together and others take it as a punk rock movement. Whatever. No matter how I or anyone looks at it, nobody really “deserves” to attend a concert or experience anything more than anyone else, period. If you won please, just actually “experience” it. I just wish that people would start trying to affect their environments more than they allow it to affect them. Create something, stand out. Then maybe, PHISH and their music wouldn’t get such a shitty rap and become a guilty pleasure for some, while it’s a badge of honor for others. Both concepts are ridiculous.

Sorry, I just felt compelled to say something, partially due to most of the entries and the phrase, “groovy and all love-your-neighbor-dude”. The lots get grimy, people get robbed, and I’ve seen heads get stomped (not my favorite aspects, of course). I’m just not into the “PHISHtianity”, as I will begin to refer to it as. There are “Christian” people out there who actually believe in the concepts and have internalized their principals and exhibit them. Then there are those who preach and preach and show up at church so that they are seen and scream so that they are heard. The shows should be amazing and I will know an endless number of solid individuals there who are great people beyond a song that they like, and I hope to experience everything and hang out with them. I just don’t believe that, just because you really enjoy eating cheese, you can expect to go to a cheese convention and have a deep personal connection with everybody there, based on your have similar food tastes.

Obviously, some people love categorization, welcome, and embrace it. MOST, people do. Subscribing to something like that helps smooth out the search for an identity. I just wanted to speak up as one of the people that don’t identify with those ideas.

are we going to find out who won?

no they cannot tell the names of the winnners.

I live to experience a good surprise;p If you pick me it would be a great way for me to waste my time with Phish and friends.

I need these tickets because I just got ripped off doing a favor for someone… went to snag a pair of tickets last minute from a Craigslist buyer, everything seemed legit, got them home and compared them to the ones I have to find they were smaller and lacking the hologram. This was gonna be my girl’s first show, and my brother is flying out from Wisconsin with some friends. The two extras were for him and an old friend, but now Im going to give them my pair since they flew so far. It does put me out of budget to get more though, so my gf and I will be at home, hoping to catch a spot on the stream to listen as it goes down… unless you would be so nice as to pass along those freebies. First and last time I buy tickets off of Craigslist for anything…

I am the wife of a true Phish fan. My husband found himself following phish since in 1994. He has never seen a Halloween Show and was not able to go to Hamton or really any of the shows this year because of a pregnant wife and then a newborn baby. Who now is almost 6 months now. Money is tighter this year. We live in SO CAL which makes the temptation worse. Everyday I see how it is breaking his heart and I just wish I could find a way to get him there.

waaaaaaah! waaaaaaaaaaah!

if yr husband was a “true Phish fan” he would’ve made it to a Halloween show. or worked some extra hours to buy the ticket(s).

if u didn’t check for the hologram when buying the tickets you were not thinking str8. why not bring the other pair to compare?

this, minus the emoticon, is a great one—>
Jenn “I live to experience a good surprise ;p If you pick me it would be a great way for me to waste my time with Phish and friends.”

unfortunately its 10 days late!

c’mon phish fans Get It Together