Phish festival Curveball at Watkins Glen canceled over health concerns

Will Cleveland , Jon Campbell | Democrat and Chronicle

Show Caption Hide Caption 35 Years of Phish art A collection of leaflets and posters spanning more than three decades of Phish's career is on display at the Amy E. Tarrant Gallery in Burlington.

Citing health concerns and a 14-county state of emergency still in effect after flash flooding earlier in the week, the state Department of Health and Schuyler County canceled this weekend's Phish's Curveball festival at Watkins Glen.

"This week's severe storm created untenable conditions, including the inability to deliver clean drinking water to patrons and vendors as confirmed by test results delivered today," the state announced in a release. "Working collaboratively with Watkins Glen International and Phish, the county and state explored all options to allow the event to continue as scheduled."

There is still a mandatory boil water order in Watkins Glen, Schuyler County. The legendary Vermont jam band noted its disappointment in a statement posted to its website.

"We are still in shock," the band wrote. "The entire site is already set up and ready to go after literally months of work by our beloved hardworking crew, many of whom have been here for weeks. Our families are here, our gear is set, our tents are up. We keep waiting for someone to come over and tell us that there is a solution, and that the festival can go on. Unfortunately, it is not possible."

Phish and Curveball festival organizers will notify ticketholders about how to obtain a refund. As many as 40,000 people were expected to attend the three-day festival.

Phish was scheduled to play two sets each over three days. The first performance was scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Campers already at the track were allowed to camp overnight. An announcement over the public address system said they had to clean up and leave by noon Friday.

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Schuyler County and the state Department of Health were unable to issue the required permits for the festival, they noted in a joint statement.

"Public health and safety is a concern for all events at Watkins Glen International," track president Michael Printup said in a statement. "While we are disappointed Curveball has been canceled, we understand and support the county and Department of Health's decision."

On “The Bunny,” Phish’s on-site festival radio station, DJs could do little to hide their disappointment as they urged festivalgoers to keep their heads up.

A DJ known as Rickshaw told listeners that festival organizers were “dealing with an unavoidable situation here.”

“I just wanted to remind everyone that we’re all in this together,” he said. “Our hearts are broken all over this campground, all over the interstates coming in, all over the state, all over the country — people making their way from everywhere. The plans that everyone’s made to get here both as people out there, people in here. So let’s keep it together. We love you.”

The decision to cancel the festival was spurred by the boil-water advisory issued Thursday morning by the village of Watkins Glen, according to Bradley Hutton, deputy commissioner for the state Health Department’s Office of Public Health.

The mandatory advisory was spurred by tests showing high levels of turbidity – cloudiness, essentially – in the water going into and coming out of the village’s water treatment plant.

After the advisory was issued, concert promoters and Watkins Glen International worked to try to secure enough bottled water or water tankers to provide drinkable water to the tens of thousands of festivalgoers expected to descend upon the concert grounds, Hutton said.

But the tight time frame and the massive size of the expected crowd made it impossible to pull off, Hutton said.

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With no potable water source identified, the Health Department couldn’t issue the remaining water permit needed to carry out the event, according to the state.

“Throughout the day, we were working on determining whether there was any ability to get alternate water on-site in order to preserve the event going forward,” Hutton said. “The sheer numbers of people on-site and the urgent timeframe that was needed, there was no way for the concert organizers and host location to make that happen."

Hutton said there was no talk of canceling the festival prior to Thursday morning, when the boil-water advisory was issued.

The contaminated water was caused by major rainfall around Seneca Lake on Tuesday that led to flooding and as much as 9 inches of rain around some parts of the lake’s shore.

Heavy rainfall is often taxing on water treatment plants, which take on water that can be laced with higher-than-normal amounts of debris.

“Ultimately all parties involved determined that there was really no way that there was going to be adequate, safe drinking water for patrons and the decision was made that they would cancel the event,” Hutton said.

Phish said the decision to cancel the festival was made just as the band was about to take the stage for its soundcheck Thursday.

"This summer has been absolutely joyous, with each gig building on the previous one, and we were all buzzing with excitement about Curveball," the band offered. "Please accept our deepest apologies for the disruption that this has caused all of you. We wish there was something else we could say."

The band concluded, "Travel safe and know that we are as heartbroken as all of you. We are standing back here behind the stage, at our party that we’ve been planning for over a year, and we have just told that it won’t happen. There’s just nothing we can do."

WCLEVELAND@Gannett.com