While last night might have been Phish’s first January 30th performance in their career, this is Phish’s 8th year playing Mexico and their 5th at the Moon Palace, playing here every year since 2020 other than the 2021 Covid break. Perhaps due to that repetition, this year’s attendance has felt lighter.

The Moon Palace is divided into 3 areas: Sunrise, Nizuc, and the more exclusive Grand that is walled off from the rest of the resort. While past years have had so much interest that Phish have had overflow attendees staying in the other local Palace resorts (Beach Palace, Sun Palace) and shuttled in, this year didn’t have that. Not only that, but there have been reports both anecdotal and via observation that people who had Nizuc reservations have been largely moved to Sunrise. Between my morning runs around the property where the balcony decorations drop off dramatically once you dip south of Sunrise, the massive increase of people without the Phish wristbands, and the direct report of at least one person to me that they’ve been moved, there does seem to be truth to this. The crowd does feels smaller this year and that has pros and cons.

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