Setlist: 5/27/11 Bethel, NY

Set 1: Tweezer, My Friend/My Friend, Poor Heart, Roses Are Free, Funky Bitch, Wolfman's Brother, Walk Away, Stash, Bouncing Around The Room, Kill Devil Falls, Bold as Love

Set 2: Carini, Back on the Train, Boogie on Reggae Women, Waves, Prince Caspian, Cross-eyed and Painless, Wading In The Velvet Sea, Possum, The Squirming Coil

Encore: Julius

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Mike Gordon Gets Lost Backstage At Bethel Woods

Phish bassist, Mike Gordon, contemplates where he needs to go while backstage before tonight's gig.

Bethel Couple Cancel Event- Fans Left With No Where To Go

No Parking signs lined the driveway leading to home of Roy Howard and Jeryl Abramson on Thursday, May 26, 2011. The couple has cancelled their plans to have people camp on their property during the weekend, which features three Phish shows at nearby Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.

Roy Howard and Jeryl Abramson have decided to cancel their planned event and turn away potentially thousands of people planning to camp this weekend on their Yasgur Farm property during the three-day Phish concert at nearby Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.

Abramson said the couple can not risk additional fines from the town. The town of Bethel has fined them $25,000 alledging they violated a 2007 injunction by advertising the event, and issued four violations for illegal camping already.

“I can't do this,” Abramson said. “We can't afford paying the violations. We have received four already and that is just the beginning. They are going to nail us to the cross.”

Abramson said the couple began turning people away this morning and have canceled all their provisions for sanitation and security. They had charged $50 a ticket and scheduled more than dozen bands.

The couple, who hosted large Woodstock reunions until ordered to stop in 2007, have insisted that they were merely attempting to provide the town with a service. They obtained five temporary camping permits that allowed a maximum of 250 people.

There will be more than 17,000 people in Bethel over the weekend. Abramson said she will soon post information on the Internet with a statement to people who booked with them.

“I am telling people to call the town,” Abramson said. “Surely, they must have a backup plan. The people will be coming out of the concert on LSD and Ecstasy and getting on public roads. What is the plan?”

Abramson said that she has a person stationed outside their property turning people away.

“It seems we have become a pawn between Jeryl and the town,” said one fan, who paid $50 to camp at Roy and Jeryl's this weekend. He said he didn't know where to go and assumed all the campgrounds were booked.

“I just want a place to camp,” he said.

Bethel couple challenge $25,000 fine for Phish weekend concert

Roy Howard and Jeryl Abramson are challenging a $25,000 fine for advertising a planned concert and mass gathering on their property during the Phish concert this Memorial Day weekend.

Bethel fined the couple on grounds they’re prohibited by a 2007 consent order from holding concerts on their property – the former Yasgur Farm - or even advertising the events.

The town says they automatically violated the consent order by posting notices and selling tickets for an event with more than a dozen bands, vendors and parking for up to 1,300 cars.

Abramson referred questions about the fine to her attorney but said the couple do plan to proceed as advertised. More than 17,000 people are expected to be in Bethel each day for the concerts.

“Bethel Woods invited the people here, not Roy,” Abramson said.

The couple have five temporary camping permits but the town’s position is this entitles them to have a maximum of 250 campers, no vendors or live music.

Howard signed a consent order that specifically bans the couple from holding concerts without the town’s permission.

“There have been no violations of the court order,” said Kingston attorney Russell Schindler, who filed papers in Supreme Court.

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Schindler said if the couple has live music, this also will not violate the consent order.

“They have camping permits,” Schindler said. “Providing music and drum circles is incidental to camping. Camping involves sitting around the campfire and singing and telling stories. Music is consistent with camping.”

Roy and Jeryl own Max Yasgur’s former homestead about three miles from Bethel Woods, the site of the 1969 concert. They fought with the town and neighbors for 10 years until 2007 over large Woodstock reunions. The town’s code enforcement officer has already issued two violations for illegal camping on grounds that people were camping there before the permitted window for camping. Schindler said those tickets are bogus.

“There is nobody at the property,” Schindler said.

Schindler said Roy and Jeryl were baited into obtaining camping permits so the town could extract $25,000.

“The town is doing something strange,” Schindler said. “It appears to me that the town has essentially set them up by issuing the camping permit to prosecute them. This was a way for them, in my opinion, to come after Roy and Jeryl in a way that wasn’t fair.”

Supervisor Dan Sturm said the town will pursue the $25,000 fine and additional fines should the couple follow through with the advertised event.

“The law breakers had an opportunity to pay the fine, be good neighbors or go to court,” Sturm said. “To us it is a clear violation of the consent order…Roy and Jeryl are not allowed to have a concert, a gathering, a reunion or any other similar event.”

Bethel is allowing another business, the Dancing Cat Saloon, to build a temporary stage and have bands over the weekend. Sturm said the Dancing Cat is a legitimate business already holding live music inside the bar and restaurant. Roy and Jeryl could have sought a permit for a temporary stage, but chose not to.

“They could have come and tried to follow the process properly,” Sturm said. “They would get a fair shake with the town if they would do it the right way.”

School lets out for upcoming Phish concerts

Phish gets the blame for closed Sullivan County’s largest school district.

Monticello schools have decided to close Thursday and Friday – the Friday date specifically to avoid problems on 17B when throngs of people are anticipated for a three-day Phish festival at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.

“We have kids in Bethel and we have lots of teachers and staff,” Interim Superintendent Ed Rhine said. “We would have been adding to the problem.”

Rhine said that the district was contractually obligated to return two snow days and the Friday seemed like an obvious choice.

County officials are predicting at least 17,000 people at the concerts and potentially thousands more during the Memorial Day weekend.

He said he met with the county and town officials, who are predicting heavy traffic beginning Friday.

Rhine said the unions had no problem taking the days off.

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Phish fears in the land of peace and love

The specter of Woodstock arises

Many of the business and community leaders are welcoming the coming of Phish. The jam band is scheduled to perform three nights in a row over Memorial Day Weekend beginning on May 27 at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. Hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts and camps in the area are being flooded with reservations, according to Roberta Byron Lockwood, president of the Sullivan County Visitors Association, and the concerts might well get the summer season started with a bang.

But, at least one public official is concerned that the merry-making may get a little out of control as it did, according to some, at the three-day Woodstock Festival back in 1969, when Bethel Woods was still Max Yasgur’s farm.

Bethel lawmaker Richard Crumley expressed his concerns at the town meeting on March 10. He said, “For those of you who weren’t here in 1969, they thought nothing could happen, and guess what—it did. It was quite a fiasco. Take it from somebody who worked for the highway department at the time and spent three or four weeks picking up anything and everything that was laying around.”

Crumley said he didn’t know what to expect from what he called the “three-day event.” He said, “I understand Phish did a concert in Lake Placid, and they don’t ever want to see them back there again.”

He said the number of fans the band draws is of concern. “I understand that every room in the county and in Orange County is already taken up. This is something that we need to look into and the county should look into it, because if it’s a big mess, somebody has to pay to pick it up.”

Bethel supervisor Dan Sturm said the concerts are being planned for. He said, “Bethel Woods has reached out to us numerous times since they announced the event and before the announcement. We’re going to meet in some manner with all the appropriate agencies. I’m very happy to hear that we’re going to have a large concert here on Memorial Day Weekend, to start the summer off right.”

Council member Denise Frangipane said, “As you all know, I work at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, and I can tell you that we are working very, very hard to make sure that this is a successful event, not only for Bethel Woods and for the fans that come there for the show, but also for the entire community.”

She said, “It is not a three-day event, these are three individual concerts, you must have a ticket for each day in order to come. Bethel Woods is going to be working very closely with the town and the county and the community, the chambers, the business associations, the neighbors, everyone to make sure that together we can put our best face forward for our visitors and a have a really good experience.

“If you have questions about the Phish concert specifically, rather than speculate or panic, I recommend that you reach out to Bethel Woods," Frangipane said.

Go to www.bethelwoodscenter.org to view the Phish Guide.