Here are some phavorite Phish tales of the past while looking to next weekend's Phish Festival 8 in Indio:

LeeRoy, Boone, N.C.

“The last Phish festival, Coventry, was a disaster for me. Phish's drummer, Jon Fishman, had given me and my lady friend free tickets for the event after a night of hanging out together. We left early thinking we would miss all the traffic, and boy were we wrong. Not only did we wait in line, but we waited in line for about 38 hours, not moving an inch. My girlfriend punched a guy who tried to cut in line.

“When we finally got the announcement that no more cars would be let in, we parked the car on the side of the road. We packed up as many items as we could carry and started to walk. We walked a couple of miles before being offered a ride in a local's pick up truck for $10.

“We were dropped off by this local only to find we were still many miles away. So, we paid another local $10 to drive us closer. Still no luck. We walked at least two miles after the second truck ride. Once we got to the festival grounds, we walked right in. No one was even around to check out free tickets we had been so proud of.

“We had a similar ordeal getting back to the car since neither of us could really even remember where on the side of the road the car was parked.

“As long as that doesn't happen this year, it will be a good festival. I am especially looking forward to the weather.”

Charlotte Green, San Diego

“I've been to It (fest) in Limestone, Maine (2003) and Coventry in Coventry, Vt. (2004). It was this forbidden thing to me because I had just graduated high school, got a job and my mother forbade me to go. My sister (who rocks) bought me my ticket for graduation and to this day, it was/is the top three most amazing weekends of my life with my closest friends (who are joining her for Festival 8).

“I almost died on the way home from It because my dear friend (who shall remain nameless) fell asleep at the wheel, in the rain and we spun off the road into a ditch on the side of the highway — unharmed. I canoed to Coventry and almost drowned because I was more concerned with my bottle of Jagermeister and my Birkenstocks than my own well being. I had a huge backpack on, fell into the dark water at 3 a.m, and my friend saved me. It took a second for him to find me, but he grabbed the top of my backpack and rescued me and my Birkenstocks. Then, the bottle of Jager was stolen by some “phriends” we met while sneaking in and replaced with a can of disgusting baked beans. Not cool.”

Kent “Kentalope” Kearney, West Hollywood

“Oswego '99. Flew into Syracuse airport. (The) airline lost my luggage. We were camping, so my luggage had my tent, etc. in it. I hitched with four girls. (It) took 12 hours of traffic to get in. Found my friends in V.I.P., then at midnight that night (amid 60,000 people), a random person was yelling my name in the middle of a field. I went up to them and they said, 'They have your bag at Will Call.' How amazing is that? Only at a Phish show would that happen.”

Sam Martin, San Francisco

“I remember at one New York show at Madison Square Garden, after playing some songs, Trey (Anastasio) asked the audience if they could tell him what all of those songs had in common. A fan came up with the right answer that they were all played in key of E, something the average music fan wouldn't know, notice or care to notice.”

Jonathan “Shred” Shrednick, Scottsdale, Ariz. restaurateur

“I am going to turn 40 during Festival 8 and I can't think of a better place to do it. We are doing it style — luxury golf course property rental, gourmet food, golf and plenty of Phish. I am going to play nine holes Friday before the show (after) getting in Thursday afternoon.

“To my friends joining me, (one flying from Seattle) it's all about the music and lights, not the scene, not the partying and certainly not the riff-raff.”

Matt Fettig, Costa Mesa

“(I) saw Phish for the first time in '96. I had heard the music and thought it was interesting, but it was not high on my list of bands to see live.

“A number of my friends were big fans and after a party in Berkeley on a Thursday night, we spontaneously decided to drive to Vegas to catch their show the next day.

“(We) left Berkeley at 12:30 a.m. and drove all night to Vegas, nine hours away, through crazy Central Valley fog. Arrived with no tickets in hand.

“12/6/96 was the last show of the Fall Tour, held at the Aladdin Theatre, and was completely sold out. Three times as many people (were) in the parking lot as there were tickets to get in. Somehow one of my buddies managed to find four tickets at the very last minute and my other friend found one, so we were all able to get in.

“The show proceeded to go down in history. After playing two amazing sets of music, highlighting all of their best songs, Phish played ‘Harpua' as an encore... and followed it with an appearance by (Primus bassist) Les Claypool, an appearance by a group of yodelers, an appearance by a number of Elvis impersonators, etc. The craziness of this encore, Trey Anastasio's tension/release style of play, and the band's willingness to interact with the crowd all immediately sold me on Phish's live performances.”

Christopher Lusk, southeast Connecticut

“I used to live out in Indy. Back in '03, I was unable to get tickets to It (festival) at LAFB (Loring Air Force Base). About two weeks before the fest, I met someone through a friend at work who had an extra and was driving with two others. This person had no idea I was even remotely interested in the ticket until it was brought up in a conversation that only a true fan would know what it was they were talking about. All they asked was face (value) for the ticket and gas money. I had the time off of work to begin with so that wasn't an issue. Everything went off without a hitch — met a bunch of people on the way up there who were en route from all over the country. Great weather, great time, insane tunes. All of us are looking forward to the weather and palm trees. This should be one to remember.”

Nick Rangel, Sacramento

“Back in 1999, Phish played a concert to ring in the new millennium at an Indian reservation in the Florida Everglades (Big Cypress). I took a Greyhound bus from Sacramento to Florida. This took three days of some of the most miserable travel I've ever experienced.

“I arrived in Fort Lauderdale not knowing how I'd get the rest of the way to the show. I joined with a few other folks in the same predicament and tried to take a cab to the venue. After sitting on Alligator Alley (Interstate 75) for more than 10 hours in deadlocked traffic, playing Frisbee right next to alligators, the cab driver told us he had to leave (he had a wife and kid to get home to). We were in the middle of nowhere, in a traffic jam without a car. So, with all of our camping gear on our backs, we started to walk, even though it was late and we had 15 miles to go. After a few miles, we stopped to rest on the back of a flatbed that was parked in traffic when suddenly he pulled out of the traffic and drove us about 10 miles towards our freeway exit. He let us out when he hit his exit (he wasn't a phan).

“After that things looked grim. There was talk that the concert had been canceled because people had died in a car accident and that nobody would be let in. This was before the cell phone explosion. We were all in the dark. Walking past the stopped cars, it seemed like an early apocalypse with stalled cars and people passed inside, fogging up the windows. Finally we came to the spot where the cars were moving again.

“At about 2 a.m., eight of us became hitchhikers, desperate for somebody to pick us up and take us in to the show. Obviously, there would be no cars with eight open seats; so slowly we were picked up... and separated. When were finally all inside, we began the mission of regrouping. This took about two hours. As the sun came up, we were pitching our tents, just hoping for a taste of sleep before our favorite band hit the stage later that day. They didn't disappoint.

“After two days and roughly 15 hours of the best music I'll ever hear, and after we had begun a new millennium, I got back on a Greyhound bus and headed back to Sacramento. It was all worth it.

“This time, I'm leaving from Sacramento at midnight and driving through the night to arrive the morning of the 30th. Missing two days of work to do it. But I'm not taking a Greyhound, and I don't think I'll be hitchhiking.”

Jeffrey Stacey, Philadelphia

“I have experienced two Phish festivals: It and Coventry. I love Northern New England, especially the remoteness, but I am psyched that the newest festival is neither in New England nor remote. Change is good.

“Unsure how we're gonna get the camping gear there. Throw it in a cooler and check it? Put everything in a big suitcase and buy a cooler in SoCal?

“I'm married now, so my wife is coming with me to this fest! The Halloween set will be different, they're playing more sets (first three-day festival), the art installations will likely be festively decorated with Halloween-themed stuff, and there's rumors about a haunted house. All these will definitely differ from It, and we're likely to get more covers throughout the weekend teasing what's going down in the Halloween set. My fingers are crossed for a “Thriller”/”Billie Jean” encore on Friday night.”

Matthew White, Washington D.C.

“I have attended all seven previous Phish festivals and I am thrilled to be attending one in sunny, dry California after the mud-soaked 30 mile hike nightmare (at Coventry) that was the last one.

“It was supposed to be their final show. Rain had soaked the fields for weeks beforehand and they were having a very hard time parking cars, so the traffic backed up for dozens and dozens of miles. Stories of people waiting in traffic for between 20 and 40 hours were the norm. The authorities finally made them close access to the site because it was such a mess and they told anyone still waiting in traffic that they had to turn around and go home. So, most people parked on the shoulder, grabbed some stuff and hiked it in between 10 and 30 miles. This after waiting in traffic for two days.

“Personally, I waited in traffic for 36 hours and then hiked about 25 miles, much of it through mud. The concert area was in horrible muddy shape. Most of the camping and concert areas had mud about up to your knees. The whole thing was a disaster.

“So I very much think that this makes it significant that they chose to have their next festival in a desert.”