Promoters of the last ever Phish concert last weekend, which was hindered by torrential rain fall, are calculating how many ticket refunds they will have to make. As thousands of fans made their way to the water logged site local police eventually blocked off key access routes in a bid to prevent any major incident happening on site. While many fans left their cars on the highway and walked to the concert, many ticket holders were probably unable to gain access to the event at all. Great Northeast Productions have pledged to refund any ticket holders unable to reach the concert, although it is not yet know the implications of that pledge.
Great Northeast boss Dave Werlin said yesterday: "We're still sorting it out, but we estimate about 65,000 people were here on the grounds. We're trying to understand how many people we'll have to offer refunds to."
Word is organisers may have to trust the integrity of Phish fans because, amid the chaos, many tickets belonging to fans who did gain access to the site were possibly not torn, meaning those fans could, in theory, still apply for a refund. Werlin continues: "We believe in the basic decency of Phish fans and think that will be a non-issue. But we're still trying to get our hands around how many refunds there will be. Several thousand, anyway."
While officially supporting local police in their bid to ensure public safety, Werlin was keen to stress that neither the band, their management nor the show's producers were involved in the decision to close access roads. Werlin: "To us this was a frustrating decision because it was not our call. It was not our desire to do things this way, but it became a public safety issue."
Insiders say even if the upper estimates of 5000 refunds have to be made the concert should still make a profit, having grossed in excess of $10 million.