@SporkFan said:

Cool, a debate on the merit of Phish festivals between somebody who only went to one (and in 3.0) and somebody who went to none. The elevator pitch alone should have been shot down.

Hello! While I do sort of wish you'd mentioned in this post and not after the very polite rejoinder from Funky that you'd attended this festival, I certainly understand your point about how the live experience amplifies (as you noted) the experience with the music. Having attended ten shows myself (though no festivals, as you accurately pointed out), I have what I'd like to think is a reasonable understanding of what the live experience brings in terms of being able to appreciate Phish. And yes, I agree, the in-show experience is far more meaningful than that of someone only listening on tape (or "tape"), and I have never disputed that.

Now, that said, one thing that should be noted is that the in-show experience of every show is contained to only those that attended, and (even with festivals) that's a mere fraction of Phish's fanbase. I did not start listening to Phish full-time until 2010-ish, and did not attend my first show until August 5, 2013. All of the experiences related to shows that happened before then are closed off to me, forever. And they're closed off to the people that did not attend in person, forever. But, hey, you know what's NOT closed off to the folks that didn't attend those shows? Listening to them on tape and divining an opinion of them based off of that! Roughly 40-50,000 people at Lemonwheel got the in-person experience, and that will never change. But you know who gets the on-tape experience? Everyone! And that, I think, has a great deal of merit - you can speak to an experience very few had, and that's valuable; I can speak to an experience anybody with a high-speed internet connection can have right this very second, and that's valuable, too. IMO, anyway.

What the elevator pitch actually is for this blog is "two wordy Phish lovers talk about all things Phish, up to and including shows we didn't attend". That, I'd like to think, holds at least some merit. But hey.