Fast forward to after the first night Phish played. After getting lost a bunch of times on the drive home, we finally get to our campsite. Right when I get there my friend and I start walking around the campsite seeing what was going on. When we return to our campsite we see this kid sprinting right past us with about 4-5 cops chasing him. We look over to the campsite about 10 feet away from us and see another bunch of cops hassling the group of about 10 kids that appeared to be 18-22 years old that we had talked to earlier in the night.

In the altered state we were in, we all got extremely scared and slowly retreated to our tents. We had no idea what was going on so we sat quietly and waited for the cops to leave, which took about a half hour. Once we felt it was safe we emerged from the safety of our tent and found out what happened.

The group of kids were sitting around having a big session with a really bright lantern that drew attention to them. A group of cops were hiding among the trees, waiting for people to do something wrong, and they saw these guys smoking. Right as the cops came out of the woods one of the guys freaks out and runs away. He was caught soon after and hauled off to jail. The rest of the group was ticketed for underage drinking, paraphernalia, and other drugs. They went the next morning and bailed their friend out in time for the next show (which he skipped his court hearing to see and got to witness the Moby Dick show).

Fast forward once again to the end of the second night. We return to our campsite pretty bewildered after what occurred that night and once again getting lost on the way home. We actually went past the same sobriety checkpoint coming from 3 different directions until we stopped and asked a cop for directions. We decided it would be smart to smoke in our tents because of what had happened the night before.

We got done smoking and came out of our tents to see the exact same sight from the night before. This time nobody ran but everyone was once again getting searched. Too bad for these guys, they had got additional party favors and new glass pieces that night, which the cops found right away. After pleading with the cops and showing them all of the tickets they had received the night before, the cops decided to pity them and let them go, minus party favors. Turns out they didn't learn their lesson from the night before and started puffing away out in the open.

We all got some much needed sleep and woke up ready for the final day of madness. We pop out of our tents and look over to our unlucky neighbors to see what they were doing. In the light of day they were passing around a 2 foot bong that somebody else from the campsite had just bought. We were just waiting in disbelief for the cops to come again, but I guess they didn't come around that day.

Sorry if any of these guys are reading this, but you got to use some common sense at a show, no matter where it is. I can see smoking out in the open like it is legal, but once you get caught you oughta wise up and change your ways. I use to party in the lots like everything was legal but I've seen too many people go down and have the concert ruined (especially at places like Deer Creek and Alpine). So the moral of the story is take the extra time and precautions to be safe so you don't find yourself with a ticket or even jail time. You will thank yourself for it.

See everyone at MSG and Hampton!!! I'm losing sleep already.

- Sean