The Venue

Before we can talk about the music, we must first cover the venue itself. And believe me, this is one of, if not the greatest venue on Earth. Period. I’ve been to a lot of great venues in this country-sans the Gorge, and this little oasis in the middle of the dessert can hang with any of them. Of course it doesn’t hurt that the weather was 80+ and sunny for each day of the festival-with the nights hovering around 50-60 degrees.

The Empire Polo Grounds is situated in the heart of the southern California desert. It resides about 3 hours east and just a bit north of San Diego and lies directly underneath the howling of the Santa Anna winds. It’s about 5 square miles of big top tents, polo fields, horse stables, palm trees and more plush grass than you’ll find in the Emerald Triangle. Oh, and the backdrop to this joint? The Santa Rosa Mountains. This is the place dreams are made and it was obvious walking in. Well, at least it made these guy(s) happy:

Per the norm, Phish had a 100ft ferris wheel on site for your viewing pleasure, as well as multiple interactive art installations, again per the norm. Most of the art installations were “fire” themed–needless to say this was pretty cool at night:

Bob likes it:

From the top of the ferris wheel:

Previous Phish festivals have been held in the most remote of locations, a la Limestone/Coventry/Big Cypress, this one was staged just a couple hours from the second largest metropolitan area in the US…Los Angeles, at one of the country’s premiere venues. I don’t think it was any accident that Phish picked a place so far removed from their northeast headquarters. Making it just a bit more difficult or further to get to, for sure helped keep away many of the elements that were a staple at previous Phish festivals. To be honest it was a welcome change.

Although, the crowd was smaller than any Phish festival to date, the vibe was incredible. There really was a sense of community and togetherness. It was a real chill crowd, that was excited about the possibilities that 8 sets of Phish over 3 days could bring. And they would not be disappointed.