Those of you who went to "IT" probably explored the area designated as “Sunk City”. For those who were not there, the band created a small wooded area near the concert venue, designed with lights, artwork, and of course 10,000 rolls of masking tape for our entertainment. You entered “Sunk City” into a relatively small but beautiful antechamber. I got there after the last set on Sunday night, and everyone was quietly admiring the work.

Almost immediately, I heard security personnel stating that certain areas of the display were closed, and leading people toward and away from certain areas.

Leading from the antechamber were several wooden paths lined with pine trees, which made up most of the walls in Sunk City. In many areas, the trees were lines with that 10,000 rolls of masking tape I mentioned earlier. From this main path, I noticed a small hole receding into the trees, and a dirt path running underneath. It wasn’t clear whether this was a flaw in the design, an area that was being worked on as was much of the facility due to a Thursday night rainstorm, or an intended door. I followed it, and it led to another room that had not been visible from the first, with more art and decoration.

I then noticed a balcony level that several phans were exploring. Since I could see no obvious way to get up there, I looked around a little more, and eventually followed a couple of kids who had pulled themselves up to a ledge on the upper level. When I got upstairs, I saw several more rooms and art displays. In particular, I noticed a first floor room that I could now look down into, which contained a couple of sculptures (one made up of several hundred balls (volley, basket, foot, etc.), the other a picture of a heart).

The room also turned out to be the source of the music that I had been hearing: it was occupied by a man playing a clarinet, and woman accompanying him on what appeared to be a large balloon. Both were dressed in medieval outfits.

I watched them for a couple of minutes, until more security personnel walked by stating that “Sunk City” was closed, and ushering everyone toward the exits. This seemed strange to me. If everyone was supposed to leave, why were the lights still on, and why were the performers still in costume and playing music? So I decided I’d stick around for a while - I’d lost my friends almost an hour ago anyway.

I went back down stairs, explored a couple more hidden paths through the trees, and eventually concluded that I’d seen all I could see. But I also noticed that there were fewer and fewer people left. And the musicians were still playing. I decided to just chill for a while, and avoid the security personnel who I could still hear wandering around. I settled in the bushes outside the musicians’ room on the first floor, and waited.

Soon there were just a couple other people besides myself and the performers left, and after a while the other visitors left too. I was mostly hidden in the bushes, but lit slightly by the room lights. I was directly facing the musicians, and was fairly sure that they could see me.

After waiting and watching the performers for another ten minutes or so, I wasn’t sure what to do next - was there something I was supposed to do or say? Or maybe I had simply overstayed my welcome at the venue and security was on the way. In view of my several experiences with various traffic and lines that weekend (which you may recall) I decided that a little more waiting seemed appropriate.

Eventually, I decided to waive to the musicians – mostly so they would be sure that I wasn’t some stalker hiding in the bushes and waiting for them to leave. To my mild surprise, the woman with the balloon waived back. Then, to confirm his partner’s gesture, the man greeted me and asked me if I had a light. (At least I was fairly sure that he did – I still thought there was a chance I was imagining the whole thing). I said sure, and asked if I could come into the room. They said yes, so I pulled back the fence that had been blocking the entrance and walked in.

When I stepped inside, there was another man in plain clothes who had not been visible from the outside. He introduced himself and asked me a few questions – where I was from, etc. He then asked me if I had seen a face in the sculpture in the middle of the room when I had been upstairs. I told him that I hadn’t – since I had generally been running away from the security guys. So he pointed me to a stairway and suggested that I go back up and take a look. Before I went, the clarinet player cautioned me (not once but twice) that if I went up there, I might get “kicked out”.

I was happy to find that the stairs were exactly where the man had indicated, and that there was no security in sight. (The stairway also provided a much more comfortable way up than my previous method, which left a large bruise on my knee that I still have a week later). I went up, and although I got lost almost immediately, I was able to follow the clarinet sounds to the balcony overlooking the room.

The three were still there, and the man in plain clothes asked me what I saw. Although I saw the general outline of a face in the ball sculpture, I couldn’t identify any person I recognized. At one point I thought I may be looking at it upside down, because from the other side it looked a little like the guy with black hair on the Pringles’ potato chip can.

I mentioned that, and everyone laughed. Then the plain clothed man pulled out a picture of Graucho Marx, and asked if it looked like him. I recalled something about Graucho from somewhere in the pre-show literature, and with the aid of the picture was now able to see his face in the sculpture. The man then told me that there was one other thing I hadn’t seen, indicating that I should turn around on the balcony and look behind me.

As I turned, he said “this is what you get”.

Below me on the other side of the catwalk, I then saw another sculpture, similar in form to the balls, that I would swear had not been there a minute ago. (Of course, my judgment was not exactly at its high point at that moment).

The new sculpture said “You’ve Got It – Phish 2003”.

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And the man said “Congratulations, you are the last person in Sunk City”. And then they told me to drive safely, and left. I yelled after them “Thank you” – in fact I think I said it 2 or 3 times - which was about all I could think of at that moment. So I wandered around the venue for about another half hour in a daze, then headed back toward Shakedown in the direction of my campsite.

If any of you saw a guy walking in that direction around 1:30 Monday morning talking to himself – not much dialogue, just “No Way. That did not just happen” - repeated several hundred times – that was me. It was a lot to take in, but it was an absolutely incredible and wonderful experience, and I wanted to share it.

For my part, I will never again wonder whether the scene is really for me or whether I am really for it, or why driving a thousand miles to the middle of nowhere to hang out for a weekend seems like a good idea. In short, all of those largely inarticulable feelings and notions I’ve had about these things for awhile now, which some of you have probably considered also, were validated that evening. And it feels amazing. See you in Miami.