Halloween   

I love a good Phish poster, and Festival 8 has introduced some choice new prints. Watch the space below for a growing gallery of the best Festival 8 posters, memorabilia, and other nonsense.

Official Jim Pollock Festival 8 Poster

As expected, there were multiple Pollock's last night — a colored print, edition of 1,000 and a red/cyan 3D print that came with 3D glasses, edition of 650.

I line up pretty early for this set but still managed to get shut out due to some combination of line jumpers and mediocre cardio.

And of course, there's already a ton of Festival 8 Pollocks on eBay in the $250 plus range.

Official Jim Pollock Festival 8 Masks

For a $10 donation to WaterWheel you were able to grab your choice of the four Festival 8 Halloween masks shown at left.

Each die-cut mask came with a pair of novelty cardboard glasses in an edition of 1,000 (4,000 total) and 100 uncut sheets are also out there.

David Welker Festival 8 Scratchboard Print

Rift cover artist David Welker has technical chops galore, as seen in the scratchboard Festival 8 dreamscape above. It's been pointed out that the top of the eight evokes a phallus duel, but if you can overlook that it's one hell of a print.

There are no solid plans for how this will be released just yet.

EIGHT by Ryan Kerrigan

Usually a poster artist, Ryan Kerrigan stepped it up for Indio with a set of 8 hand-painted 8 balls.

The first six sold out pretty much immediately at $88.88 a pop. The remaining pair of balls are being auctioned off with 8.8% of the proceeds going to Mockingbird and another 8.8% going to phishposters.com. Ball 7 Auction | Ball 8 Auction

Learn about PHISH 3D: The Movie shot at Festival 8.

99 8 Albums But They'll Play Just One

Click album titles for a free, legal stream.

Introduction: The Phish Halloween Album Teaser (September 28th, 2009)

Today the Festival 8 site on Phish.com was updated with yet another teaser animation, only this time instead of teags sayg the location, they're teasing the Halloween cover album.

The new site features a haunted gallery of 99 albums, each a possibility for the musical costume, and each a possible victim of an unfortunate demise.

A handful of albums have already been killed off, and there should be a lot more killing over the next few weeks as the welcome card promises Phish will “play the last record left alive.”

Gotta admit I was pleased to see both of my top choices — Appetite for Destruction and Exile on Main Street — made the list. Figure Appetite is a long-shot but Exile could have a chance.

Though I doubt this will be quite as uproar-inducing as the Halloween map, it's sure to keep the Festival 8 buzz going strong. Plus it'll also give you a chance to study up on the remaining possibilities (rumor has it there will be 8 albums left when the fest begins) and get familiar with the material, whatever it may be.

Update: The Grateful Living (September 29th @ 12:11 am)

I'm sure this means nothing, but one eagle-eyed fan has noticed that the Grateful Dead are listed as the “Grateful Living” in the xml config file that's driving the gallery. Hmmm… certainly wouldn't mind if American Beauty is “the last record left alive.”

Update: The Grateful Living Part 2 (September 29th @ 2:41 am)

There's a comment below about the Grateful Dead thing pointing out that the word “living” is used in the xml file to denote albums that are still in the mix. I realized that, but in this case it's not just the <stateofbeing> node that says living, but the <title> node as well.

That said, the reader's comment opened my mind up to a much more likely theory. Someone did a search and replace on that xml file, replacing all occurrences of “dead” with “living” — only they didn't select match case — and so the “Grateful Dead” became the “Grateful living.” Note also the lowercase “l” which I incorrectly noted as an uppercase “L” above.

So in effect, I'm still sure it means nothing… other than that speculating on Phish teaser animations is a great way to waste time.

Update: The Grateful Living Part 3 (September 29th @ 1:36 pm)

The Grateful Dead are now listed correctly in the .xml file. Case closed.

Update: Phish-themed Album Covers (October 6th @ 10:36 pm)

Strange things are afoot in the haunted gallery, as a number of album covers have started to get a Phish-themed makeover.

• Phish are in the sardine can on Hello Nasty
• The hot dog vendor on Pretzel Logic is sporting a viking hat
• The Boss is playing a Languedoc
• Trey and Page are moving a keyboard on Moving Pictures
• T-Rex is now T-rey
• Tom Petty is wearing a Phish shirt
• Mike Gordon has joined the Ramones (added 10/7)
• Rage Against the Machine is now Page Against the Machine (added 10/9)
• Fishman is on the cover of Exile on Main Street (added 10/10)
• Ghost in the Machine is now Story of the Ghost in the Machine (added 10/15)
• AC/DC Back in Black is now AC/DC Bag (added 10/15)
• Page is in the rearview mirror on the Minutemen album (added 10/16)
• Fishman's head has been added to one of the Electric Ladyland ladies (added 10/16)

Just as it was starting to feel really repetitive, this is a great twist to keep things interesting.

Update: Phish-themed Album Covers (October 6th @ 11:36 pm)

A commenter below just inquired if anyone noticed that a “new album” had been added to the gallery

Well it's a new album cover, but not a new album. That's the original cover image from Blind Faith's self-titled debut. Rumor has it the naked young girl is Ginger Baker's daughter, but whoever it is she didn't make the cut. The cover was banned in the USA where it was sold with the “bland, but shopper-friendly, band photo.”

Update: Album YouTube Links (October 7th @ 3:23 pm)

Well this is interesting. Some of the albums in the xml config file have been updated to include YouTube links.

I'll give you one guess how many albums got the special treatment…

1. AC/DC, Hells Bells from Back in Black
2. Aerosmith, Sweet Emotion from Toys In The Attic (by Gordon/Kottke)
3. Arcade Fire, Wake Up from Funeral
4. David Bowie, Oh You Pretty Things from Hunky Dory
5. David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust from Five Years Live
6. Led Zeppelin, Going to California from Zeppelin IV
7. The Band, Up On Cripple Creek from The Band
8. Clash, Clampdown from London Calling

I sure hope these aren't the finalist because they seem to have forgotten GNR :)

Today Phish announced the schedule for Festival 8 and there's great news: the band will play their first full length acoustic set at “the crack of noon“ on Sunday, complete with coffee and donuts.

See the rest of the Festival 8 performance schedule below. I'm sure the band will stick to this like clockwork so make sure to set your watch.

Phish Festival 8 Performance Schedule

Update: September 28, 2009

Today Phish launched a Festival 8 cover album teaser where they'll be slowly revealing the album for the musical costume. Learn more about the musical costume album teaser and see which albums have been eliminated right here on Jamtopia.

After a month of anticipation thanks to the speculation-inducing Save the Date map, tonight Phish finally announced the details of their 2009 Halloween festival:

Phish Festival 8 in Indio, California

Per the cheekily written website, the Halloween festival will be held on October 30th, 31st and November 1st at the beautiful Empire Polo Field in Indio, California.

Here's hoping the festival location announcement will put an end to the arguments that have fueled the Phish messages boards (and comment threads) for the past month.

Tickets for the 3-day festival go on sale Monday for a pretty reasonable $200. That buys you 8 sets of Phish (complete Festival 8 Performance Schedule) including a musical costume set and an all-acoustic set — not to mention what I can only imagine will be some incredibly trippy attractions and art installations.

Read on for ticket info and camping & RV details.

Update: September 28, 2009

Phish just posted a Festival 8 musical costume teaser to reveal the cover album for Festival 8. See the complete list of Phish cover albums and find out which have already been killed-off right here on Jamtopia.

Yesterday Phish confirmed what had been circulating on the rumor train for weeks — that they'll be hosting a 3-day Halloween Festival from October 30th to November 1st, 2009.

See above for the custom announcement from Phish.com. The map is being updated every few days with a new animated clue, slowly revealing the festival location and potentially the name:

“Save the Date”

Speaking of which, all signs are pointing to the Phish Halloween Festival being held at the stunning Empire Polo Field in Indio, California, home of the annual Coachella festival and fertile spot for growing dates.

The Coachella / Empire Polo Field rumor is strong enough that nearby hotel rooms and rentals are pretty much sold out. And apparently there's already huge demand for Naked Wizard costumes.

Read on more analysis and speculation about the Phish Festival 2009.