Lake Placid may ban Phish
Jack R. Lebowitz
The following article appeared on the front page of the Plattsburgh, NY
Press-Republican about a week ago on Friday, October 25, 1996. I am
reposting it here in its entirety.
(BTW, FWIW, the Press-Republican gave **very** favorable coverage to the
Clifford Ball, including putting out two special editions sold at the
festival with good, relatively clueful interviews with many phish.netters.
One can therefore assume the reporting here is relatively accurate and not a
product of the (not atypical) small town local media hysteria about the
"scene" at rock and roll shows).
Despite the fact that this years' tour opener in Placid was a bit rocky
musically (and last winters' shows were also "good", and not "stellar"
shows), Placid is a nice small venue and the little alpine village setting
is a lot of fun. It would be a shame if Lake Placid followed Red Rocks as a
thing of the past.
I am therefore thinking of writing a letter to the Olympic Regional
Development Authority (which owns and manages the Olympic venues around Lake
Placid, including the Olympic Arena) and would encourage others who enjoy LP
to do the same before the November 7 meeting mentioned in the article. I
will be inquiring as to the proper address for these letters tomorrow; you
can privately e-mail me if you're interested in doing the same.
Here's the article, in its entirety:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"PLACID MAY BAN PHISH:
School opposes more shows"
By Lisa Forrest
Staff Writer
LAKE PLACID - The Lake Placid Board of Education does not want Phish to play
here anymore.
The internationally popular Burlington Vt-based band attracted an estimated
9,000 people to town last week when it launched a national tour at the
Olympic Arena.
But amid reports of blatant drug use, the School Board passed a resolution
this week asking its next-door neighbor -- the Olympic Regional Development
Authority -- to no longer host the band.
Board President Cathy Johnston said Thursday she believes a Phish concert is
"inappropriate as a community event. Bringing in such a crowd, knowing
they're doing drugs, is like condoning it. The board agreed it's not a good
role model".
High School Principal Robert Shiller contacted ORDA before the concert
objecting to staging the event on a school night. But it was too late by
then for ORDA to cancel.
School Superintendent Gerald Blair said concert fans brought a disruptive
influence to his students. "A Wednesday concert is a distraction to us
because it pumps our kids up. The people are arriving, and that's kind of a
show itself", he said.
"We're trying to teach physics and here's a van full of people from
Hackensack. If it had been a Friday or Saturday concert, it probably would
have been different."
During a fire drill the day after the concert, a chemistry teacher found a
syringe on the ground, Blair said.
His High School is a "drug free zone. We're not claiming to be Goody
Twoshoes here, but added problems are not what we're looking for.
"I've been Superintendent since 1980, and there's never been an affair where
drug and alcohol use was so blatant. I think we need to talk as a school
and community".
Representatives of the school, ORDA, the village, town and Visitor's Bureau
are expected to meet Nov. 7 at the Town Hall and part of the agenda will
include whether or not to invite Phish to return to Lake Placid.
ORDA will also discuss the matter with its Board of Directors at a meeting
in late November.
David Werlin of Northeast Productions -- the concert's sponsor -- said he
was disturbed by reports of blatant drug use.
He said no one from ORDA has contacted him, but "I'd be willing to attend
the community meeting in November if they ask me to".
Phish likes to perform in Lake Placid, he said, nd he hopes he band isn't
penalized for the behavior of a few people.
"As the band becomes more mainstream, it unfortunately is beginning to
attract an element not as sophisticated as it should be. The vast majority
of fans are well behaved. I would hate to see things ruined because of a
few bad apples."
Phish staged a successful two-day concert here last December without
incident or objections from the school. But that was a two-day, weekend
event and was not sold out. Crowds of fans did not roam the village as they
did last week.
ORDA Chief Executive Officer Ted Blazer said Olympic Arena employees and a
group called the Green Team worked until 7 a.m. last Thursday and returned
at 10 a.m. to pick up litter left after last week's concert.
But despite organizers' efforts, debris around the school has fueled
objections to Phish.
(c) 1996, Press-Republican.
Allan Abrams
Jack R. Lebowitz <ja...@pipeline.com> wrote:
|
|
|The following article appeared on the front page of the Plattsburgh, NY
|Press-Republican about a week ago on Friday, October 25, 1996. I am
|reposting it here in its entirety.
|
|(
|
|"PLACID MAY BAN PHISH:
|School opposes more shows"
|
|By Lisa Forrest
|Staff Writer
|
|LAKE PLACID - The Lake Placid Board of Education does not want Phish to >play
|here anymore.
|
|The internationally popular Burlington Vt-based band attracted an >estimated
|9,000 people to town last week when it launched a national tour at the
|Olympic Arena.
|
|But amid reports of blatant drug use, the School Board passed a >resolution
|this week asking its next-door neighbor -- the Olympic Regional >Development
|Authority -- to no longer host the band.
|
|Board President Cathy Johnston said Thursday she believes a Phish >concert is
|"inappropriate as a community event. Bringing in such a crowd, knowing
|they're doing drugs, is like condoning it. The board agreed it's not a >good
|role model".
|
|
....rest of article cut......
Since when is a concert a role model, anyway? A concert isn't even a
person, so how in hell could a concert be considered a role model. My how
times have changed. Last year, after the two Phish shows, the town of Lake
Placid INVITED AND BEGGED the Phish organization to come back. They
welcomed the Phish shows with open arms. Lake Placid was VERY excited to
have Phish in town last year and this year. So, why the sour grapes now? As
far as I know there were NO PROBLEMS at the shows either year. The town of
Lake Placid made tons and tons of $$$$$$ both years.
Unfortunately, the Lake Placid School Board has a typical ultra
conservative small town mentality. It seems like the school board just
wants to hide in their secluded little private town and hope the outside
world stays away.
Do you think the Lake Placid hotels, bars, gas stations, restaurants, delis
and 7-11s want Phish to come back to town? You bet they do. I would love to
be at that cheezy meeting coming up. I bet you that the Lake Placid Chamber
of Commerce is going to support Phish coming back. The school board is just
upset because they were the only ones who couldn't make any money off of
the show. The school board wishes they could have made an easy buck off of
the Phish fans.
It's too bad some whiny School Board Bitch might ban Phish from a great
venue. She's the ONLY one complaining about Phish in the article.
see ya,
....AJ....