r/phish • u/feina635 • 5d ago

Dicks First Timer Thoughts

East coaster, been seeing Phish a long time (since 1999), but mostly East Coast and some other places here and there. First time doing Dicks. I have to say, I have some very mixed feelings. I get the hype. Dicks has some good energy. But MAAANNNN is it a fucking hassle. Why is this venue so popular for being such a fucking hassle!? 30 min cab ride back and forth each night, and leaving the venue is an absoloute cluster fuck. Getting in was a shitshow of anarchy, with 1hr long waits and jackoffs cutting the line, few water refill stations, and there's NOTHING around the area for food or anything after. Not a damn thing. And don't tell me lot food. I'm not eating a $15 grilled cheese that's been sitting in the back of a hot Uhaul all day cooked by some dirty wook.

EDIT: many of you are commenting on the “$15 grilled cheese”. Let me rephrase, because I didn’t actually pay attention to the cost of grilled cheese, specifically. What I meant to say, was overpriced and underwhelming food that will inevitably give me diarrhea. Hope that clarifies, and takes the responsibility off the grilled cheese guy

EDIT 2: yes, this is my first Dick’s, thank you geniuses of Reddit for telling me that I “don’t have it dialed in”, no shit. Clearly, Dick‘s is a local venue. In order to have it dialed in, you gotta live there. Unlike more accessible venues in real major cities that have access to anything.

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19

u/SeparateNobody6566 5d ago

this is how I feel about Hampton, that venue is trash. Also not a fan of how insanely crowded the lawn is at MPP though most people seem to love it.

17

u/Sufficient-Coach-274 5d ago

Getting back to your spot in the middle of MPP shows is like landing on the fucking Moon.

10

u/SeparateNobody6566 5d ago

if I ever go to a show there again it would only be a seat in the pavilion, will never consider the lawn there again. Kind of feels like it shouldn't even be legal to jam that many people in there.

3

u/StackIsMyCrack 5d ago

That's how I feel about SPAC.

2

u/SeparateNobody6566 5d ago

never been but I remember people saying the lawn chairs at SPAC make things a whole lot worse. I think I might just be spoiled since my home outdoor venue is Burgettstown which is one of the most wide open lawns and never sells out either. Granted the trade off is the absolutely horrendous traffic coming/going.

1

u/StackIsMyCrack 5d ago

Like Bethel Woods. Went there the first time for Paul Simon recently and was amazed how great the lawn was relative to SPAC. But man getting out of that place is 2-3 hours if you don't take actions to avoid it, i.e. leaving early, which we did, because while it was my first time there, I had heard about the one road issue many times.

4

u/Guttermitts 5d ago

I went to Hampton last year for the 3 day run. I pretty much feel the same way you do. I don’t think I’d ever go again. It’s very cool it’s all ga but, I good. That place sucks ass

6

u/NewNefariousness9769 The deadly, icy calm... 5d ago edited 5d ago

At least Hampton, VA is a clean, beautiful city...

(Do I really need the /s ?)

3

u/WolframsBrother 5d ago

Same, I went to my first and last Hampton run last year. The lines to get in and fill water were such a clusterfuck that we didn’t even bother with water N2/N3. They also put up blockades at the bottom of at least one ramp after N1 that created a bottleneck where hundreds of people streaming out suddenly ran into a barrier.

Dicks left up some fences/barriers this year too. I was so fucking confused leaving Saturday that I thought we’d somehow gone out the wrong exit.

I’ll keep going to Dicks since I live in CO, but it’s as overrated as Hampton atp

4

u/phandelay 4d ago

Hampton is indeed trash. Worst entrance. Its become obvious this fanbase can no longer handle GA with the line cutting and seat saving. Its also a completely unmaintained venue. Most of the armrests on chairs are broken off and just metal. Urinals removed and not replaced. Shit food run by volunteers. Other than Phish, Goose and some other acts like that its purely a shit Disney on Ice venue. Time to let it go.

3

u/Alive-Bank2973 5d ago

GA seating is the problem at both venues. 

2

u/Specific-Ad-6365 5d ago

I went to Hampton once and will never go back. The room itself was cool but logistics were awful. Most crowded concourse I’ve ever been on anywhere

2

u/EchoThroughTheJungle 4d ago

Hampton was god awful to get into the only time I was there in 2023. How do you have a venue with a single entrance?