Scores of Phish fans in the early wave for the weekend’s “It” festival relaxed Thursday afternoon on a grassy area of the East Gate Trailer Park, half a mile from the gates at Loring Commerce Centre in Limestone, site of the weekend festival featuring the famous jam band.

Some young people were skateboarding, others were throwing Frisbees, and still others just lounged, waiting for the Friday morning opening of the center’s gate. Music came from boomboxes here and there, while some people played guitars and bongo drums.

They are only a small percentage of the 60,000 Phish fans expected for the two-day festival Saturday and Sunday. With the expected wave of humanity, the LCC could become Maine’s largest city for the weekend.

Police and festival organizers said they thought the influx of people would start later Thursday night. Still, some had started arriving on Wednesday, and more trickled in Thursday.

The weekend is considered a festival, as opposed to a concert, because of all the activities. There are attractions inside the venue to keep people busy even when Phish is not performing.

This is Phish’s third appearance at the former Loring Air Force Base in northern Maine. The band performed “The Great Went” in 1997, and “Lemonwheel” in 1998, with more than 70,000 fans attending each event.

Dan Williams, 26, of Rochester, N.Y., is a veteran Phish fan who has attended 35 to 40 of their concerts and festivals throughout the country. He and eight friends arrived at about 11 a.m. Thursday at the County Quick Stop on Route 1 at Caribou.

“We’re here for a good time with many good people,” he said of the concert. “It’s a good scene, a positive time and fun for the weekend.

“This is like attending a concert with 70,000 of your best friends,” he said. “Even the band is part of the party, and they furnish us with music, providing background.”

Williams and his friends drove 13 hours in three vehicles

to get to northern Maine. They left early Wednesday to get to Limestone ahead of the traffic, hoping they could get into the LCC on Thursday. The gate into the venue, however, will open at 8 a.m. today.

Paul Piotroski, 26, came with Williams to his first Phish weekend. Piotroski finished college this spring, and attending a Phish concert is something he has wanted to do for some time.

“It’s a free summer for me, and this opportunity came up,” he said. “It was the time to go.

“Maybe I can write a piece about this, and Dan could do the photography,” the literature major said. “It should be a good time.”

Just eight miles short of the LCC, the group stopped for gasoline, drinks and snacks. Later they were spotted relaxing under a white-topped shelter held aloft by aluminum poles on the lawn outside the entrance to the LCC.

Law enforcement officials, geared up for the influx of Phish fans, reported Thursday that traffic was light. It was getting heavier in the afternoon, a Maine State Police dispatcher at Houlton said. No problems were reported.

Lt. Pete Carter of the Maine Army National Guard said his unit, which is trained in the control of weapons of mass destruction, came to support local law enforcement at the concert. The 17 men in the group came in seven vehicles, with all their equipment.

“We are a civil support team, kind of a backup for local and state police,” Carter said while taking a break along Route 1 on the southern fringe of Caribou. “We are waiting for the rest of the convoy.

“It’s highly unlikely that our expertise [in weapons of mass destruction] will be needed,” he said. “We are here to support the state police.”

Carter hoped the festival would be quiet.

Police in Caribou and Presque Isle also said Thursday that traffic was “trickling in.”

The fans, nonetheless, were coming, however slowly. Cars were spotted with license plates from Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Alabama and several Canadian provinces.

And they were coming in all kinds of vehicles, from subcompact cars, pickup trucks, SUVs and minivans to small buses and campers.

The fans were easily identifiable because most of their vehicles were packed with camping gear, clothing, food and blankets. Some were loaded to the roofs inside, and others had carriers on top for equipment.

At ports of entry from Canada into Maine, traffic was quite light.

“As I look out the window, I don’t see any cars waiting,” Richard Walker, area port director at Houlton, said Thursday afternoon. “There has not been much traffic for the concert.

“We anticipate an increase, at least in some small way,” he said. “It’s much the same at ports of entry north of here.”

Walker said extra staff will be working the ports of entry on the weekend, but it was all local officers; none was brought from the outside the region.

“There was actually more traffic on the weekend of the [NASCAR] race at Loudon [N.H.],” he said. “But, it’s still early.”