[We would like to thank @drbeechwood and his friend, photographer Tony Stack, for this photoessay -Ed.]

If you were there, you remember…the highs, the lows, the rain, and the sun. Some of you walked for miles, others like us somehow found back roads and drove really close to the venue with no problem, while listening to the radio and hearing Mike tell people to turn around. No way! The music…speaks for itself? These were some of the lowest rated shows ever, but in the end, we got together for a celebration of the end that ended up NOT being the end.

A lot happened between the sad final notes of "The Curtain With" at Coventry on 8/15/04 and the jubilant first notes of "Fluffhead" on 3/6/09 at Hampton…and here we are, 20 Years Later, about to celebrate another East Coast festival in Delaware.

My friend, Tony Stack, from Boulder, Colorado (“Rocksteady Studios”) was a freelance photographer for Jambase and got a photo pass for the weekend. This resulted in the shots from the on-stage scaffolding and a few pictures from the pit, but he also took some photos of the crowd before and during the shows, reminding us that it wasn’t all a muddy depressing weekend. Enjoy!

All photos used with permission © 2004 Tony Stack

Pre-show 8/14: The stage in the far distance, foreground shows random rocks and numerous booths and art installations. One of the booths allowed fans to pick a dozen songs from the Archive to burn onto CDs to take home.

Fan waiting near one of the boulders and stacked rocks. As you can see, by the day of the show, the weather was nice, but not nice enough to dry out the fields which, near the stage, were a muddy mess. Rubber boots were an essential item.

Pre-show crowd. Ferris wheel in the background. It was sunny, warm, and humid after the torrential rains from earlier in the week.

Trey singing on 8/14/04. His voice wasn’t in the greatest shape for these shows.

Mike on 8/14/04. His shirt reminds me of the Pollock poster for this show.

Trey addressing the crowd on 8/14/04. There were many interludes talking about various songs and thanking people involved in the journey that had started 20 years before these shows.

Pre-show 8/15/04. Young couple catching up on their sleep before the show. I believe that they laid down hay across the entire field, and in areas where there was less traffic, such as this far away from the stage, there wasn’t as much mud. Note the extra speaker towers required to get the sound to carry this far back.

Small band on a trailer riding through the crowd.

This station is set up as a barber shop where people could donate their hair to charity. I’m not sure why he’s naked, or whether that was a requirement. But this is a good example of how muddy people’s shoes got by Day 2.

Pre-show 8/15; Alien blow up doll useful way to find friends, as cell phone coverage was non-existent.

This kid is now probably old enough to drink! Where is that person now?

Fan in wizard costume in front of relay tower. You can see the slope of the field allowing for decent sight lines to the stage.

First set 8/15/04. The band was extremely far from the first row of the audience.

First set 8/15: You can see the vast sea of humanity and the rocks set up in front of the stage. At the previous show, Trey and Mike went down to the rocks to play Harry Hood.

If you see yourself in any of these photos, please let us know in the comments below!

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