In celebration of Phish’s 2025 New Year’s Even run (December 28 to 31), the all-volunteer and fan-run Mockingbird Foundation has announced that it is sending an unsolicited $2,000 Tour Grant to the Opportunity Music Project in New York City, to fund a half-sized bass and two violas for students, and sheet music for beginner, intermediate, and advanced orchestra students.

This is the 34th time that Mockingbird has issued Tour Grants, and 241st tour grant Mockingbird has made. It is funded in part by two recent auctions (1 & 2) of original copies of The Phish Companion. If you have an original condition copy that you'd like to donate for charity - or anything you'd like to donate, whether cash, stocks, bonds, vehicles, cryptocurrency, seriously anything - please contact us.

Following our recent successful charity auction of an original copy of the out-of-print, hard-to-find, third edition of The Phish Companion, Mockingbird Foundation supporter Anthony Bonanno contacted us offering his copy, still in the original box, all in great shape, which we are now auctioning on Ebay to help us raise additional funds for music education and help fund a brand new thing we'll be announcing mid-January. Past copies have gone for up to $900 in auctions, though we've started bidding at only $125, and both welcome and appreciate your generous support. This 10-day auction is open now, and closes 7:30 pm EST on Tuesday, January 6th.

Mockingbird is an entirely volunteer 501c3 nonprofit, founded and managed entirely by fans, fundraising for music education for children. We've made over 766 grants so far, totaling more than $2.8M, in all 50 states, funded entirely by projects such as this book. We appreciate your generous support, in helping put instruments in the hands of children nationwide, as well as giving them the equipment, sheet music, and instruction they need to gain access to the liberating and enlightening power of music.

About the book.... "Completists will get lost in thousands of freshly-manicured setlists, song histories, and charts. Prose junkies will binge on hundreds of evocative show reviews and fan stories. Photophiles will gape at 128 pages of dazzling Phish photography - most of which has never been published. And poster collectors, get ready: The Phish Companion's eight chapters are anchored by stunning original works from Welker, Masthay, Helton, and more - each of whom was commissioned to interpret a period of Phish."

As many of you know, volunteers run this website, which is a project of (funded by) the 501(c)(3) non-profit Mockingbird Foundation, which raises funds to grant to music education programs for children and young adults.

On 12/29 before the MSG show in a private space at Portale restaurant (about a 15 min walk from MSG), from 4:30-630pm, David Beckwith (@Slewfoot) and Charlie Dirksen (@Icculus) are hosting a wine-tasting fundraiser for the Foundation. Even if you hate Phish, this is a great pre-show bargain in the city if you like wine (or if your friends and family who hate Phish like wine), in that you get to eat good food, drink fantastic wines (perhaps even the finest you've ever even had the opportunity to taste), in an informal environment, for $95 (inclusive of tax and tip) plus a $100 tax deduction (donation to the Foundation). For more information and to purchase ticket(s), please visit this page here. If you've previously attended one of these fundraisers, please comment or post in this thread in the Forum. Thank you!

Phish has announced a return to the Las Vegas Sphere for nine shows across three weekends in 2026: April 16–18, April 23–25, and April 30–May 2. Ticket requests through an online lottery are open now through thru Monday, December 8 at 9AM PT/Noon ET. Tickets go on sale to the general public Friday, December 12, at 11AM PT/2PM ET. Ticketing information is available at phish.com/tours.

A limited number of three-night travel packages (which include hotel and tickets) go on sale on tomorrow, Wednesday, December 3, at 10AM PT/1PM ET at phishatsphere.100xhospitality.com.

Twenty five years ago, the very first copies of The Phish Companion landed in our hands - about the same time we declared that the Mockingbird Foundation would be all-volunteer. There were earlier books about the band, but this was the first truly comprehensive book, written entirely by fans, for charity. Others were written about some particular aspect of the band, or using content "borrowed" from Phish.net, or simply for profit. The Phish Companion was and is, like the Helping Friendly Book of Gamehendge lore, all of the knowledge inherent in this universe, used for joy and never-ending splendor, with no avarice or greed.

In the 25 years since, we've had two other editions of the book, a wildly successful double-disc tribute album, nealry two dozen curated artworks, a wide range of branded merchandise, and a variety of special events, including two road races, three poker tournaments, four yoga events, five wine tastings, six charity auctions, and ten golf tournaments. We've distributed 766 grants, totalling more than $2.8M, to schools, churches, community centers, and nonprofits in all 50 states - in competitive grants, emergency grants, tour grants, and our own DeLucia Awards, honoring Craig DeLucia, who first instigated the book, the album, and the foundation.

To celebrate this 25th anniversary, we're auctioning one of the last, brand new, still boxed, unopened copies of the glorious Third Edition, on Ebay. Bidding starts at only $125, but we hope folks will get mad generous and drive up the final bid, to help fund a tour grant we'll be announcing later this month to celebrate the band's coming New Year's Run. Bidding ends December 10th at 8:15 pm Pacific.

We're now preparing for some very special news to be announced in January, that will both continue our longstanding efforts and create a legacy that will continue to honor our history and the generous nature of the Phish fan community for many decades to come. We appreciate your support for all that we've done so far, and welcome you to make a year-end donation that will contribute to the grants we'll announce later this fall, that special effort being announced in January, and the future of Mockingbird. Because, while not *everything* is right in the world, you can indeed feel good, thankful, and proud, for this community and for what it does to bring love and light. 

In celebration of Phish’s recent tour (September 12 to 21), the all-volunteer and fan-run Mockingbird Foundation has announced unsolicited $2,000 Tour Grants to music programs in each of the four cities in which the band performed, for a total of $8,000:

• West Louisville Performing Arts Academy of Louisville, Kentucky (near Bourbon + Beyond Festival, September 12) for Benward tapes for harmonizing
• Inglenook K8 School Band Program of Birmingham, Alabama (near Coca-Cola Amphitheater, September 13 & 14) for instruments and learning software
• Webb Bridge Middle School Band of Alpharetta, Georgia (near Ameris Bank Amphitheater, September 16 & 17) for additional instructors for one-on-one instruction
• Eaton Middle School Band of Hampton, Virginia (near Hampton Coliseum, September 19, 20, & 21) for instrument repair

This group of grants includes Mockingbird’s 200th (!) Tour Grant and 354th non-competitive grant. It is the 33nd group of Tour Grants, an effort that now totals over $328K, which is 11.8% of all disbursements made by the Foundation. These grants are part of a long-standing effort to help support music education in the local communities which have welcomed and hosted the Phish community for the band’s performances.

PHISH has announced another NYE run at Madison Square Garden, specifically the evenings of 12/28 through 12/31/2025. For those of you keeping score, the 12/31/2025 show will be Phish's 91st at MSG.

The Phish tickets request window is open now through September 22nd at noon et. The general public onsale is Friday, September 26, at 12pm et. 

The Mockingbird Foundation today released the complete video archive of the 2024 Phish Studies Conference on its official YouTube channel. This groundbreaking collection of 19 videos, offering...

The all-volunteer nonprofit Mockingbird Foundation will be the beneficiary of the BellingJAM Music & Arts Festival next weekend - Saturday, August 23, noon to 10pm, in a fabulous and exciting takeover of the Downtown Bellingham, WA, Waterfront...

In celebration of Phish’s current summer tour (June 20 to July 27), the all-volunteer and fan-run Mockingbird Foundation has announced that it is sending unsolicited $2,000 Tour Grants to a music program in each of the ten cities in which the band is performing, for a total of $20,000. This group of grants includes Mockingbird's 236th Tour...

A nonprofit founded and run by Phish fans on an entirely volunteer basis has announced eighteen (18) new grants to support music education, totaling $153,870. This is the 30th round of...

The Mockingbird Foundation has mailed a check for $5,778 to Pasadena Rosebud Academy to support their choir program. The school burned down in the...

In celebration of Phish’s current run on the West Coast (April 18 to 27), the all-volunteer and fan-run Mockingbird Foundation has announced that it is sending unsolicited $2,000 Tour Grants to a music program in each...

The all-volunteer Mockingbird Foundation has announced a $5,000 unsolicited grant to the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) instrument repair shop, through the LAUSD Education Foundation. This incredible entity was featured in the short documentary The Last Repair Shop, which won an Oscar last year.

The all-volunteer Mockingbird Foundation has announced a special series of grants to organizations that submitted inquiries for our 30th Round of competitive funding. We pulled all requests for $2K or less, ushered them...

The upcoming 10th Annual Runaway Open charity golf...

This year's charity golf tournament by the Mockingbird Foundation will be April 27 at the woodsy DeBell Golf Club in Burbank, less than 9 miles from the Hollywood Bowl.

As always, we'll play a modified shamble, with coffee to start, a...

PHISH announced their summer tour earlier this week. They will be playing 23 dates beginning with three shows at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, NH, Friday, June 20 through Sunday, June 22, and concluding with three shows at SPAC on July 25-27. As you have undoubtedly heard by now, there will be no shows at Dick's over Labor Day weekend, but there will be three shows at Folsom Field...

We're thrilled to be launching a completely redesigned website for the all-volunteer Mockingbird Foundation, thanks to the immense and amazing efforts of Marc Oldham, plus a radical custom plugin from Kathleen Glackin that makes exploring past grants both a breeze and a joy. Dive in, dig in, and dig it! 

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