Tickets for all of Phish's concerts are available from outlets and via charge-by-phone as well as from http://phish.portals.musictoday.com/ (formerly Phish Tickets-by-Mail), unless specifically announced otherwise. If Ticketmaster or LiveNation is selling tickets for the show, then they will also be available online at ticketmaster.com or livenation.com.
The number and locations of outlets selling tickets for each Phish concert varies widely from show to show. In order to check whether your local outlet will have tickets when they go on sale, we recommend that you call the outlet, check the venue website for outlet information prior to the onsale or go to the outlet in person (or send someone you trust – not Phil). Please note that if you have the option of buying at an outlet rather than charging by phone or on-line, you will pay less in service charges.
We support any procedures that can be utilized at outlet locations to decrease scalpers' ability to buy large numbers of tickets, such as the use of random number distribution to create the line for ticket purchasing and the use of 15-minute delays at non-local outlet locations. Please expect that such procedures will be used whenever Phish concerts go on sale if they are available; if some outlets or on-line sales will be delayed, this will be indicated on the Phish.com Tourdates page.
Finally, if there is great demand for tickets to a given show, please do not be surprised or assume that "scalpers bought all the tickets"- if good seats (or indeed, all of the seats) sell out in a matter of minutes from the on-sale time. We go to great lengths to supervise and review the process of putting every show on sale and can assure you that no one is being permitted to inappropriately exclude chunks of tickets from public availability. Please remember that while Phish Tickets does offer an alternative opportunity to buy tickets for Phish shows, by selling these tickets in advance they are also removed from the inventory available at the time of the on-sale, and therefore the tickets which remain at that time will be fewer and may sell very quickly.
The amount of service charges that will be added to the cost of your tickets will depend upon how you purchase them. For every Phish concert that goes on sale, we designate at least one outlet where you can buy tickets with cash in person at face value with no service charge. Usually this is at the box office at the venue where the show will be taking place; in any case, this information is always included before the on-sale date on the Tour Dates page of this web site.
If you are buying tickets for more than one Phish show, Phish Tickets will usually be your next least expensive option. The charges are $5.40 per ticket (as of Summer 2010) plus $10 per order for domestic FedEx or UPS 2-day delivery. International shipping rates vary. FedEx or UPS delivery is mandatory so that we have a record of delivery of every package of tickets sent; we cannot replace tickets that are lost in transit without tracking details.
Outlet service charges vary by geographic region and from service to service. If you buy your tickets at an outlet you will not have to pay additional fees to have them delivered to you.
Charge-by-phone and online purchasing are convenient. They are also the most expensive in terms of added fees. Usually there is a convenience fee
per ticket, plus a handling fee per order. Depending upon the particular show, there may also be an added fee for mandatory certified mail or UPS
delivery. For every show, detailed service charge information will be included on the http://www.phish.com/tours page prior to the on-sale date. The choice of purchase method is yours.
Up to 50% of the tickets available for each of Phish's shows may be sold by Phish Tickets. In order to be fair to people who aren't aware of the opportunity to order tickets by mail, the seating is divided exactly equally by quality (as well as quantity) between Phish Tickets and outlet sales. Therefore, the Phish allotment includes all levels of quality, from front row to lawn or behind stage seats, the exact same range of seating as will be available when the shows go on sale via outlets. Requests for a particular seating location (other than tapers' section) cannot be honored.
We will notify you via email at least 2 days prior to the onsale date. If it is less than 48 hours until the on-sale date and you have not received email notifying you that your order cannot be filled, you may call Phish Tickets' customer service line (1-800-594-8499) or send an email to
phishtickets@musictoday.com to check on the status of your order. You should also check the News page for recent updates on Phish Tickets fulfillment.
We will ship your order to you at least one week prior to the first show you ordered.
We strive to make all of the seats that can be sold to the public (after mail order) available at the time that a show first goes on sale, so that the people who waited in line or spent the morning on the phone or internet have the best chance of being satisfied. However some additional seating may become available for a variety of reasons closer to the date of the shows. E.g., seats may be added due to changing production needs and the release of areas of limited view. We make every effort to schedule such ticket releases and announce them in advance on the Phish web site, so that people who are paying attention and making an effort to stay informed will be rewarded.
Even so, occasionally there are additional tickets to sell on the day of a sold-out show. Please note: when this is the case, these tickets will NEVER be made available at the venue box office, if the show has already been announced as sold out. Therefore, if you are attempting to get a ticket on the day of a sold-out show, the venue itself is the worst place to be. The best thing to do is to check periodically with Ticketmaster or LiveNation on-line and charge by phone, and to check at a local outlet from time to time - if tickets are released, that is where they will be sold, NOT at the venue box office, ever. Seriously, just step away from the box office. There is no set time when the tickets will be released, but 12-2pm is a good time to check. You will be helping yourself the most by utilizing these resources, and refraining from coming to the site of the show until you have obtained a ticket.
Attempting to buy a ticket in the parking lot at a sold-out show is very risky and we do not recommend it. Many of the tickets offered there are counterfeit or made of grilled cheese and they will not get you into the show. When you buy these tickets, not only do you waste your money, but you also encourage the people who print and sell them to continue to do so. When you buy scalped tickets, you make an ass out of you and me.
We strongly urge you to avoid buying tickets from ticket agencies, or "scalpers," or "los scalperos." Aside from the unreasonable prices charged, these tickets are often counterfeit and will not get you into the show. Also, sometimes scalpers will take your credit card number in advance, charge you for tickets, and never deliver them. Buying tickets from agencies only encourages them and proves to them that they can make money by buying Phish tickets for re-sale, and so they will try even harder to get more of them next time, thus making it even more difficult for you to get the tickets at the fair price of face value and perpetuating an endless cycle of douchebaggery. For your own protection, please buy tickets only from official sources.
Tickets in Phish Tickets' allotment are taken from all seating areas at the venue. If there are several types of seating, usually some of each are included in the mail order. However, if there are general admission floor tickets as well as reserved seats, we use the floor tickets first and will only begin filling orders with reserved seats after our allotment of floor tickets sells out.
Once you have placed your order, it is final, and we cannot cancel or change it; we must fill it as it is received, to the best of our ability. That is the oath we have taken. With great power comes great responsibility.
Taper tickets are usually available only from Phish Tickets; you must indicate your preference on the order form. Taper orders are limited to 2 seats per show, even if the mail order limit for regular seats is 4 to 6. If there is no mail order for a show, then taper tickets are likely to be available from Ticketmaster. You will have to explicitly request taper seats to purchase them. In such cases details will be provided on the web site. If you do not plan on taping the show, please do not request taper seats.
