Hampton Day 1: A Circus Of Light

It didn’t take long to run into other Phish fans on my way down to Hampton last night. As soon as I passed through security at LaGuardia I ran into a bunch of old friends and made some new ones. The flight down to Newport News was about half full of fans. I took my seat on the plane and immediately was asked if I had any extras – just an example of the number of people who traveled down here without tickets in hand.

I’m staying at the Embassy Suites, a hotel that was built in the parking lot of the coliseum a few years ago. All of the hotels on “the strip” are ghetto, except for this wonderful new joint. We can see the Mothership from our front door and I’m surprised to say there isn’t anyone in line yet waiting to score a spot on the rail. I aim to head down to the venue at 2PM in hopes of scoring a good spot in lower Page. We’ll see how that works out.

Everyone that I’ve met is in terrific spirits. What’s not to be happy about? The talk of the town is the NY Times article in which the band said everything we wanted to hear. I’ve already run into about five people who I haven’t seen since Phish stopped touring. It’s so great to be amongst friends and family again. I’m sure the band played a soundcheck/rehearsal yesterday, but I’m doing my damndest to keep away from spoilers at this point. I just can’t wait for the lights to go down to see what post-Breakup Phish is all about. Keep your eyes on Phish.com’s From The Road and Phish’s official Twitter page for the setlist tonight. Safe travels to all.