Phish Will Haunt the Desert With Halloween Festival

Posted on Jul 24th 2009 9:20AM by Benjy Eisen
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After a month of playing entertaining mind games with fans, via Flash animation on the band's homepage, Phish have finally announced the return of their massive one-band festivals. Phish's Festival 8 (yes, that's the actual name of the festival) will take place over Halloween weekend, Oct. 30-Nov. 1, at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif. Perhaps the most famous polo field in rock 'n' roll, the venue is known to music fans as the home of Coachella.

As one could guess from the name, Festival 8 is indeed Phish's eighth festival and their first in five years. This one breaks away from tradition as it is their first three-day affair, the first time they're hosting it on the West Coast and most notably, the first time it overlaps with another hallowed Phish tradition: the band's celebrated Halloween show. Phish observes the holiday by donning a "musical costume" for the second set, whereby they cover another band's album in its entirety. They've done this four times since 1994, having honored the Beatles ('White Album'), the Who ('Quadrophenia'), Talking Heads ('Remain in Light') and the Velvet Underground ('Loaded'), respectively.

Bets are underway for this year's choice. Some fans are looking towards the location for clues (U2's 'The Joshua Tree', for instance) while others are concerned with wishful thinking (Paul Simon's 'Graceland' or Radiohead's 'OK Computer'). Of course, nobody is ruling out a Michael Jackson dance party.

Regardless of the cover album, the one band fans are sure to hear plenty of at Festival 8 is Phish. In fact, no other marquee band has been announced (historically, there are none) and Phish has committed to performing eight sets over the three days. As is par for the course, Phish will construct their own art installations and attractions to entertain fans between sets. Think "Centeroo" (the activity village at the epicenter of Bonnaroo). It's not all that big of a leap considering that Bonnaroo was admittedly inspired largely by these Phish fests.

In fact, now that Festival 8 is coming to Indio, in some ways it's as if Bonnaroo has finally arrived at Coachella. Minus every band but one.