LIMESTONE – Waves of Phish fans – or “Phish phans,” as they’re now known up north – hit Aroostook County on Friday, backing up traffic bumper to bumper for about 20 miles on some roads leading to the festival venue at the Loring Commerce Centre.

Route 1A was backed up by Friday afternoon by thousands of vehicles stretching from Limestone to Easton Center, a distance of about 20 miles, Lt. Darrell Ouellette of the Maine State Police said.

Traffic backups began during the early morning on Route 1A, off Route 1 from Mars Hill to Limestone. By midmorning, the line of vehicles was stalled from Limestone for 15 miles to Easton.

It was also bumper-to-bumper traveling along Route 89, where on Friday afternoon traffic was stopped about 10 miles from the entrance to the festival at the LCC’s east gate back onto Route 1 to Sleeper’s Store.

Smaller roads also were clogged in several places, the officer said.

Phish fans were headed for “It,” the third Phish festival in Aroostook County in the last six years. The famous jam band Phish held the “Great Went Festival” in 1997 and “Lemonwheel” in 1998 at the same site. The two-day festival today and Sunday marks the end of Phish’s Summer Tour 2003, during which the group performed 21 concerts.

“Things are going well, but traffic is backed up as we expected,” Ouellette said. “We had a rollover in Bridgewater last night [Thursday]. There were no injuries, just inattention.

“We are making drug seizures, but it is nothing of significance,” he said. “We have had no serious problems.”

Organizers involved in the arrival of the expected 60,000 fans said the concertgoers were being cooperative and seemed to just want to get to the site.

“Things are moving as smoothly as can be expected,” Adam Lewis, a media representative with Great Northeast Productions, which is organizing the event, said Friday afternoon. “With all these people arriving, it takes awhile to get them all in.

“All systems are go for the weekend,” he said. “We have capped ticket sales at 60,000.”

Tickets range in price from $75 for a one-day admission on Sunday to $150 for the full event.

Several hundred vehicles were allowed into the site Thursday night, according to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. Maine State Police reported a solid line of traffic as the gates officially opened at 8 a.m.

Fans were allowed early into the venue to ease the crunch along the East Gate Road where some arrivals for the festival had been camping since Wednesday afternoon.

The flood of fans traveling north also was felt in Greater Bangor.

Dysart’s Truck Stop and Restaurant in Hermon was swamped with Phish fans Thursday night and early Friday morning, so many that general manager Tim Dysart lost count.

“Since then, business [from Phish fans] has been pretty steady,” he said Friday.

Dysart’s waitress Diane Cupps said Phish enthusiasts were lined up to the road to get gasoline at 3 a.m. Friday. “They were saying, ‘We don’t care how long [it takes], we’ll wait for gas,'” she said.

“I’ve seen license plates from Wyoming, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York,” Cupps said. “And I met a 5-month-old who was on his third Phish concert with his mother.”

Cupps said fans have visited both the restaurant and travel shop at Dysart’s, buying various items, including a lot of ice – so much ice that more had to be delivered to the truck stop at 5 a.m.

An antique auto in the midst of the restaurant welcomed fans with Phish memorabilia and a stuffed moose wearing a T-shirt proclaiming, “Limestone or Bust.” Waitresses wore tie-dyed T-shirts and bandanas for the fans.

“I didn’t realize there was such a following, but they’re all awesome,” Cupps said.

One factor that can’t be planned is the weather.

Chris Norcross, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service at Caribou, said festival fans could expect showers Friday afternoon, steadier rain through the night and more showers today.

“The better weather of the weekend will be on Sunday,” Norcross predicted. “Prior to Sunday, the weather is really kind of unsettled.”

Phish business was good throughout the northern Maine area around Loring.

Rhonda Lister, manager of the County Quick Stop on Route 1, about three miles from Route 89, said fans were coming and going.

“It has been good, a steady flow, but not straight out,” she said Friday afternoon. “We stayed open through the night [Thursday], and we had people in throughout the night.

“It’s not been 50 people at a time, but a dozen or so come in, buy, and another crew arrives behind them,” she said. “I expect we will really get hit Sunday night when they leave, and we will be open all night.”

George McPherson, assistant manager of Graves Shop ‘n Save at Presque Isle, echoed Lister.

“It’s certainly added a boost to business,” he said. “We are selling beer, wine, liquor, ice, styrofoam coolers, natural foods and deli food.

“They are dropping by here as they are at every store and filling station along the way,” McPherson said. “We are seeing people of all ages, and they are all very nice.”

Gas prices remained normal through the area with no indication of inflated prices. It was much the same for prices in convenience stores and other stores. Many had specials for the Phish weekend.

Many signs and posters around Aroostook County welcomed the fans.

“There’s something Phishy in the air,” declared one sign in Presque Isle. “Welcome Phish Fans” was the message on many posters at businesses throughout the area.

Three of every five cars passing on Main Street in Presque Isle were from away. Cars bound for the festival were loaded with equipment, clothing and food, and some with many people.

Several motor homes, at least two of them with a dozen or more people inside, drove by on the way to the festival in early afternoon.

“The traffic is tenfold what we are used to,” a police dispatcher at Presque Isle said about noontime. “Lots and lots of cars are going through.”

Police at Van Buren noted increased traffic north of the festival venue early Friday, but said traffic was flowing freely. Chief Michael Bresset said overnight facilities in town were full.

It was much the same on Route 1 from Mars Hill to Caribou through the morning and afternoon.

Police at Madawaska and Fort Kent noted no increased traffic through their towns.

Still, some fans went through there.

Brothers Mark and Matt Habedank, of Burlington, Vt., and Norwich, Conn., said they traveled up Route 11 on Thursday and slept in Madawaska on Thursday night.

“We came Route 11 way to beat the traffic,” Mark Habedank said. “We were here in 1997 and ’98, and we thought the northern route would help us beat the traffic.

“We follow them [Phish] just about everywhere they go, up and down the East Coast to Florida,” he continued. “It’s just a great time.”

Once inside the festival venue, fans have all kinds of activities and facilities at their disposal. The concert has its own 100,000-watt FM radio station, a general store and its own post office.

NEWS reporter Amanda Dumond contributed to this report.