Pubdate: Sun, 27 Jul 2014
Source: Saratogian, The (NY)
Copyright: 2014 The Saratogian
Contact:  http://www.saratogian.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2100
Author: Brian Farr
Page: A8

THERE ARE SOME FORMS OF DAMAGE, DESTRUCTION WHICH MONEY CANNOT REPAIR

What a wonderful Fourth of July in Downtown Saratoga Springs this
year! The Firecracker Four Mile Run was so well put together and
attended, and it is always great to see the amount of community
support, from music along the course, to people setting up homemade
"spritzer stations" to keep the runners cool, to the overall
excitement and family-friendly energy that this annual event provides
to our town.

It was also a great evening of music, celebration, and fireworks in
Congress Park. Being a native of this area, I often take these
remarkable events for granted, but every year I hear people who come
from all over the country, and in some cases, the world, who rave
about all of the great things to do in downtown Saratoga during the
summer.

But the scene was quite different around SPAC on the Fourth of July,
and I can't help but wonder why Saratoga continues to fuel the
dangerous activities and rampant drug abuse that inevitably come with
the annual Phish concerts.

I rode my bike around the state park and then the parking lot areas to
get a real sense of what goes on before a show. It was about six hours
before the performance started, and already there was a large crowd
gathered.

The smell of marijuana was everywhere, as were alcoholic beverages
that were being consumed by people of all ages. The trash had already
started to pile up around the edges of the parking lots, and I left
much sooner than I had intended to, because quite frankly, it didn't
look like much fun. If anything, it was depressing to see so many
people, young and old, sitting around a parking lot on a idyllic
Fourth of July day, using drugs "including alcohol," and waiting for
something else to happen.

The biggest irony in all of this for me is that Phish is a band that
broke up because its drug abuse issues became so bad, and yet now its
members never speak out or speak up about the dangers of the
substances that run amok at all of its shows.

By the time the three nights of shows were over, The Saratogian
reported that over 200 arrests were made, with the majority of these
being around drug related charges.

Although the number of arrests was higher this year than last, the
good news was that nobody died at the concert. Last year a 40 year old
man, and a father of two children, was rushed to Albany Medical Center
where he passed away. The year before that, a young woman was
hospitalized for serious injuries after she jumped, naked, from a
25-foot light pole during a Phish show. If you look at the number of
people being arrested each year at these shows, you will see it
increases every time. The park police and local law enforcement do a
commendable job in such a difficult situation.

It was estimated that 75,000 people came for these shows over the
three-day period, and they left the grounds of SPAC, particularly the
lawn section, destroyed.

While I was riding around, I did talk to some of the concert
attendees, particularly the 100 or so vendors who had set up stands to
sell Tshirts, food and drug paraphernalia. Many of these people told
me that they will follow Phish for now, but that they also go to other
parking lots for other shows when they are able. I asked them why they
sell at the shows, expecting that their answer would have something to
do with the freedom, or the music, or the peaceful, loving energy of
the crowds.

But that was not the most popular answer.

The majority of people I asked said the same thing "I'm here to make
some money".

I suppose the biggest reason that Saratoga invites Phish back year
after year is for the money as well. We certainly do like to make
money around here. It's probably a big part of why the band's members
haven't said and done more about the dangerous drug use at its shows,
either. Money talks.

But at some point, I would like to think that we do value some things
more than money and profits in this town. And after 15 years of
working in the substance abuse field in this area, I can tell you that
unless we stop inviting these dangerous and high-risk events into
SPAC, we are only going to see more destruction each time they come -
and unfortunately some of the damage will never be fixed with any
amount of money.

Brian Farr Saratoga Springs
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt