Phish festivals

The Clifford Ball
Genre	Jam band
Dates	scheduled: August 16–17, 1996
Location(s)	Plattsburgh, New York
Years active	1996 (The first of Phish's festivals)
Founded by	Phish

Starting in 1996, American jam band Phish has hosted a series of festivals - ten in total, with attendance ranging from 35,000 to 85,000. They are the only band to perform at the festivals.

The Clifford Ball was the first of ten weekend-long festivals hosted by Phish throughout their career. The event took place on August 16 and 17, 1996, on the site of a former Air Force base in Plattsburgh, New York, about one hour west from Phish's home base of Burlington, Vermont. The event was named after Clifford Ball, a man who held events for aviators such as Amelia Earhart. The Clifford Ball was a proposed name for the 1990s traveling festival that ultimately was named H.O.R.D.E..

The name Clifford Ball had been known to the band for some five years before The Clifford Ball took place. According to Phish Manager, John Paluska, "The band was walking through the airport in Pittsburgh one day, and they came upon a small, little plaque of a guy named Clifford Ball... it said 'Clifford Ball: a beacon of light in the world of flight.' ...they just thought the [expression] was the funniest idea for a show..."

The event combined overhead flights by bombers, fighters, gliders, and various other aerial vehicles with carnival rides, jugglers, and men on stilts. Three gigantic video screens and four sound towers were erected to amplify the band. Phish, the marquee band who headlined the event, were joined by a classical violin quartet, a blues quartet, a choral quintet, and guitar soloists. The "Clifford Ball Orchestra" performed an afternoon set of pieces by Debussy, Ravel, and Stravinsky. Phish performed seven sets of music over the two nights, including a late night set on a flatbed truck that rolled through the parking lot in the wee hours of the morning.

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