For several weeks Phish has dedicated its Web site to teasing fans about the location of its three-day Halloween festival, at last craftily revealing its venue to be the Empire Polo Fields in Indio, Calif. The three-day festival, the first of that length in Phish history, has been dubbed Festival 8 and will run Oct. 30 – Nov. 1 on the same grounds where the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals occur each year.
The first Phish festival since its poorly executed farewell festival in Coventry, Vermont in 2004, Festival 8 will be the eighth all-Phish festival in the band’s history. For the occasion, the band is set to perform eight sets across the weekend, including what was once an almost-annual Halloween tradition begun in 1994 of “costuming themselves” by covering an entire album. In past years, Phish has covered The Beatles’ White Album, The Who’s Quadrophenia, The Talking Heads’ Remain In Light and The Velvet Underground’s Loaded.
Phish has amped anticipation for Festival 8 with a weeks-long ‘Save The Date’ Web campaign on its site that’s shown an animated U.S. map with more and more states blacked out each week, ruling out possible Festival 8 locations. Eventually, only California remained illuminated, with all the other states crumbling to the bottom of the web page.
The band hardly needed much help promoting its event, as fans have done a fine job spreading the word on their own. Since the band reunited this past spring after a five-year hiatus, its fans have been buzzing about possible Festival 8 details. Yahoo even reported this week that following the band’s two-night Bonnaroo performance in June, hotel bookings in Indio and Palm Springs “skyrocketed.”
Festival 8 tickets went on sale yesterday — July 27 at http://festival8.tickets.musictoday.com/Festival8/calendar.aspx. Three-day passes are $200 and include a $1 donation to Phish’s charity WaterWheel.