Police say the Phish crowd was 'so pleasant to deal with'- article by Sally Pollack, Free Press Staff
"The weather was fine, the crowd was pleasant. The traffic didn’t jam, the band did.
The flood recovery benefit concert performed by Phish on Wednesday night at the Essex Junction Expo was a smooth-running affair, according to police.
“It ran extremely well,” said Brad LaRose, acting chief of the Essex Police Department. “I was very pleased and very appreciative for the cooperation of the crowd. They were very pleasant to deal with. I’ve been in the business for 33 years, and I can’t ever remember dealing with a crowd of that size that was so pleasant to deal with.”
The police made no arrests at Phish’s first Vermont concert in seven years, according to LaRose. Five people — of an estimated crowd of 13,000 — were taken into protective custody because of excessive alcohol or drug use, LaRose said. An additional three people were released to someone who could take care of them, he said.
“We wanted to keep everybody safe,” LaRose said.
The concert venue capacity is 12,000, and the show sold out. But public officials chose to let people without tickets into the expo’s parking area, where they could listen to the show from a hillside, LaRose said.
“From a public safety standpoint, it was manageable,” LaRose said. “They were well behaved.”
The police confiscated 16 tanks of nitrous oxide, according to the department.
LaRose thought the show ran so well, and the crowd was so respectful, because everyone was aware of the purpose of the event: raising money to help Vermonters recover and rebuild from last month’s severe flooding.
Even with a bit of a backed-up traffic at rush hour, “these folks had roads to drive on,” LaRose said."
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20110915/NEWS02/110915018/Police-say-Phish-crowd-pleasant-deal
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