It was my first time to see the band and it was going to be a family affair. My 2 brothers and their families, my husband, our kids and me. Thirteen of us in total and we were all totally up and ready for a major jam, what ultimately ended up being called "one of the best Phish shows ever."

We had a box, given to us by a friend and it was one of the few in use that evening. A box is issued 10 seats, but on the advice of our friend, we were told to just have the 3 kids using pavilion seating to jump the rail so they could party with us in the box. He said that their families did it all the time.

Arrival at the ampitheatre and we head in, ready for a party. The box had about 15 chairs in it which we stacked up and tried to move out of the box. Security immediately jumped on us and told us that we could not remove the chairs from the box. The guards were a strange pair: a baby Huey(for those of us that remember the old cartoon) look-alike and a miniature shim (still not sure if it was a she or a he but what attitude this pipsqueak had!) and they made it clear that they were going to have the upper hand with the "wild bunch" that we were.

Anyhow, show starts and over the rail comes our 3 kids. Within seconds, security was again all over us, grabbing our kids and shoving them back into the pavilion seats, screaming at us that we were breaking the rules and that they could not be in the box. They were quite abusive verbally and quite bitchy and pushy not only with our kids but with the adults as well.

Well, the first progresses and eventually they find bigger fish to fry (no pun intended) and finally left us alone. Set break comes during which we find out that the reason that they are badgering us to death is because everyone in the box MUST have a pink wristband to be in the box. Remember, this is our box which is located at the front of the seating section with an aisle on one side and many empty boxes to the other side.

So, long story short, 2nd set and we have the kids come back into the box so that we can just jam as a family. Well, here comes the goon squad again and they started really harrasing us this time. They get right into my brother's face and start verbally abusing him. I told one guy to just go away and leave us alone and he said he was sick of us and that he was calling the cops.

Next thing I know, there are cops all over us and pushing and shoving many of us in our box. Our 3 boys, 25, 17 and 17 decide that they do not want a confrontation so they attempt to jump back into the crowd. The cops and security saw them and grabbed one of them by the shirt, totally ripping it off of his back and smashing his sunglasses. One of the other kids, my 17 year old son, was grabbed by the collar of his shirt and billy-clubbed in the back of the head and between his shoulder blades. They threw him to the ground and totally tore his knees up.

At this point, I told the cop in front of me to go get a real fu***ng job and he told me to mind my own business. I told him it was my kid and that he is my business. He started poking me in the chest and I told him to keep his fingers to himself. He pushed me back into the crowd and I screamed out "I hate cops" to which the crowd screamed back "us too!" and they pushed me back.

The next thing I know, I am down on the ground with handcuffs on me so tight that I was immediately in tears. Without standing me up, they started dragging me toward the onsite cop station. No matter how much I told them it hurt, they just kept dragging me and finding cruel fun in pushing my head down so hard that it would touch my knees and therefore push my arms behind my back way up into the air. I lost both of my sandals and the toe rings were drug right off of my toes.

Meanwhile, back at the box, they were busy smashing my brother's face into the concrete, while handcuffing 4 other people in our group - making a total of 6 out of 13 that were cuffed. Ridiculous by any standard!!

They took my son up to the entrance and turned him loose and they told my 15 year old daughter to mind her own fu****g business.

As it turned out, because they were so physically abusive to me (by the way, I had just had surgery on my shoulder and they said they could care less) I bit the male cop on the hand. He subsequently told all of his cop friends that I kneed him in the goin repeatedly and that I gnawed on his finger. I will admit to biting his leather gloved hand but I never did the kneeing - although he deserved that and worse!!

Anyhow, one thing led to another and I ended up spending the night in jail because I would not let them manhandle our kids, and because while I was in wrist and ankle shackles in their on site station, I would not let them berate and belittle some totally confused cute little hippie chick. I had the nerve to stand up to them and they would not let me "get away with that sh*t".

At my follow up hearing (I was charged with 4 felony counts) the cops never showed up because the girl cop that was actually my arresting cop knew that it was all crap and that other than biting the weasel cop's finger, that everything was made up shit!!

So, what should have been just a ton of fun for our family ended up being a total nightmare and our own phish horror story.

Just an aside, we spent about $500 on food and drink that night.

We are not the first people to be manhandled at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Pavillion but if we have anything to say about, we will be the last.

So that I don't sound like a total freak show, 7 of our kids are regular Phish heads and have NEVER had a problem at a show before. As for the adults in the group, we all made it through the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's, as well as the years of the 2000's without ever having been arrested and between the 6 of us, that is probably well over 500 concerts!

The story is even more bizzare and I can go on about how a great concert turned into a totally insane event, but I will wrap it up now.

Thanks for listening and if anyone has anything to ask or comment on, feel free to do so.

Thanks,

A true phish phan.

- Tina