Phish festival Curveball in Watkins Glen canceled for health concerns

A Phish festival slated to draw more than 30,000 people to Watkins Glen International this weekend has been canceled.

With a 14-county state of emergency still in effect, the prospect of additional inclement weather, and a mandatory boil water order for the Village of Watkins Glen issued Thursday, Schuyler County and the New York State Department of Health announced they are unable to issue the required permits for this weekend’s Curveball festival.

The severe rainstorm created untenable conditions, including the inability to deliver clean drinking water to patrons and vendors as confirmed by test results delivered on Thursday, the Department of Health stated in a press release.

"Working collaboratively with Watkins Glen International and Phish, the County and the State explored all options to allow the event to continue as scheduled, the statement read. "While all parties acknowledge the inconvenience of this cancellation to patrons, we have a responsibility to act in the best interest of public health and safety for all."

The three-day festival was slated to begin Friday, but fans started to arrive when the festival grounds opened Thursday afternoon.

Phish and Curveball organizers said they will be notifying ticketholders about how to obtain a refund. 

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“Public health and safety is a concern for all events at Watkins Glen International," WGI President Michael Printup said. "While we are disappointed Curveball has been canceled, we understand and support the county and Department of Health’s decision.”

The band released a statement on their website shortly after the announcement.

"We are so terribly sorry for the inconvenience that this is causing so many of you," the band wrote from the backstage area at WGI. "We hope from the bottoms of our hearts that at the very least this news will reach you before too much disruption takes place in your personal lives. We know that people traveled far, at great expense. We understand that people are missing work, and changing their schedules around.. we wish so much that there was some way that this wasn’t happening."

Water advisory led to decision

The decision to cancel the festival was spurred by a boil-water advisory issued Thursday morning by the Village of Watkins Glen, according to Bradley Hutton, deputy commissioner for the state Health Department’s Office of Public Health.

The mandatory advisory, which will likely be in effect for five days, was spurred by tests showing high levels of turbidity — cloudiness, essentially — in the water going into and coming out of the village’s water treatment plant.

After the advisory was issued, concert promoters and Watkins Glen International worked to try to secure enough bottled water or water tankers to provide drinkable water to the tens of thousands of festival-goers expected to descend upon the concert grounds, Hutton said.

But the tight timeframe and the massive size of the expected crowd made it impossible to pull off, Hutton said.

With no potable water source identified, the Health Department couldn’t issue the remaining water permit needed to carry out the event, according to the state.

“Throughout the day, we were working on determining whether there was any ability to get alternate water on-site in order to preserve the event going forward,” Hutton said. “The sheer numbers of people on-site and the urgent timeframe that was needed, there was no way for the concert organizers and host location to make that happen."

Hutton said there was no talk of canceling the festival prior to Thursday morning, when the boil-water advisory was issued.

The contaminated water was caused by major rainfall around Seneca Lake on Tuesday that led to flooding around some parts of the lake’s shore.

Heavy rainfall is often taxing on water treatment plants, which take on water that can be laced with higher-than-normal amounts of debris.

“Ultimately all parties involved determined that there was really no way that there was going to be adequate, safe drinking water for patrons and the decision was made that they would cancel the event,” Hutton said.

Jon Campbell of the USA TODAY Network Albany Bureau contributed to this story.

Here are scenes from the flooding from nearby Seneca County

Here are scenes from the flooding from the Southern Tier