Registration is now open for the Seventh Annual Runaway Open charity golf tournament for Phish fans, to be held in Denver 9/3/22 (the morning between the first 2 and second 2 shows of the upcoming Labor Day's run at Dick's.) We'll have to up 120 players this time, with a shotgun start at 8:30, coffee and a group photo to get you started, on-course contests, raffles at the clubhouse, lunch and gift bags included, and more TBA.

Every previous year has sold out, and built a waiting list that we couldn't satisfy, so please register early. To encourage that, we're honoring our past pricing of a $150 donation per player until Memorial Day. From May 30 to August 20, the donatoin request jumps a bit to $165; and for the final two weeks before the event, late registration will be $180.

We're also inviting a range of sponsorship opportunities, including item donations for the gift bags, sponsored team names, sponsored hole signs, sponsored foursomes, and if anyone knows a business interested in the visibility, event sponsorship ("Presented by..." on all collateral and future promo.)

The Mockingbird Foundation has announced an unsolicited $1,000 tour grant to Sunset Park High School in Brooklyn, in celebration of Phish's ongoing four-show run at Madison Square Garden. This is the only NYU Partnership high school in Brooklyn. Of the students, 92% are minority and 85% are economically disadvantaged. It's also right down the street from a mass shooting that happened less than two weeks ago.

We are proud to announce that The Mockingbird Foundation, whose volunteers manage Phish.net, was incorporated as a New York not-for-profit twenty-five years ago on March 28, 1997. Since then, the Foundation has donated almost $2 MILLION in grants for music education for children and young adults in all 50 states. We couldn't have done this without you, and your ongoing support! 

Learn more about Mockingbird's work at mbird.org and please, if you appreciate this site, consider making a donation in any amount (every dollar really matters!), so the Foundation can continue its mission to fund music education programs nationwide.

We're closing out our 25th year fundraising for music education with a serious auction. We've already highlighted golf-related items, food-related items, award shows, and adventure travel - and want to make sure you saw the big-ticket international trips, including some once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Bidding closes Monday...

mbird.org/auction

The Mockingbird Foundation has announced 9 additional grants in association with fall and winter Phish shows, part of an on-going Tour Grants effort outside of the foundation's competitive grants structure. These 9 newest grants cover the final stretch of the fall tour, and include a grant in Lititz, PA, where Phish performed their show livestreamed on New Year's Eve.

• Tri-City Band Corps' Special Needs Percussion Regiment Program of Fremont, CA (near Chase Center, October 16th and 17th)
• San Ysidro High School Band of San Diego, CA (near North Island Credit Union Ampthitheatre, October 23rd)
• Kennedy Middle School Band of Eugene, OR (near Matthew Knight Arena, October 19th and 20th)
• Mesquite Junior High School Band of GIlbert, AZ (near Ak-Chin Pavilion, October 22nd)
• Hooper Avenue Elementary School Orchestra Program of Los Angeles, CA (near The Forum, October 24th)
• Cuyama Valley High School Guitar Class of New Cuyama, CA (near Santa Barbara Bowl, October 26th)
• Sierra Vista High School Orchestra of Las Vegas, NV (near MGM Grand Garden Arena, October 28th, 29th, 30th, and 31st)
• Warwick High School band program of Lititz, PA (near Rock Lititz, December 31st)

Phish will be performing four shows at Madison Square Garden, December 29, 2021, through January 1, 2022, to bring in 2022. The Phish Tickets By Mail request period is underway and ends on Monday, Oct. 4 at noon e.t.

The public onsale begins Friday Oct. 8 at noon e.t. on Ticketmaster, and a limited number of travel packages (hotel and tickets) will go on sale Oct. 7 at noon e.t., here.

The Mockingbird Foundation is announcing its 20th round of Tour Grants, in celebration of Phish's 34 shows this summer and fall. Unsolicited $1,000 checks will be sent to a music program near each venue at which performs, part of a long-standing effort to help bring music from the Phish community to the local communities Phish touches. The $25,000 total continues a celebration of Mockingbird's 25th year, and is being announced in six batches.

The third group of recipients, in celebration of the last third of the summer tour (and including Dick's, arguably the third leg?), are:

• Chelan High School of Chelan, WA (near Gorge Amphitheatre, August 27th, 28th, 29th)
• Carson High School (via Carson City Band Association) of Carson City, NV (near Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena, planned but canceled for August 31st and September 1st)
• Carson Middle School Bands of Carson City, NV (near Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena, planned but canceled for August 31st and September 1st)
• Leigh High School (via Leigh Parents of the Performing Arts) of San Jose, CA (near Shoreline Amphitheatre, August 31st and September 1st)
• Adams City High School Band of Commerce City, CO (near Dick's Sporting Goods Arena, September 3rd, 4th, 5th)

The Mockingbird Foundation is announcing its 20th round of Tour Grants, in celebration of Phish's 34 shows this summer and fall. Unsolicited $1,000 checks will be sent to a music program near each venue at which performs, part of a long-standing effort to help bring music from the Phish community to the local communities Phish touches. The $25,000 total continues a celebration of Mockingbird's 25th year, and is being announced in six batches.

The second group of recipients, in celebration of the second half of the first summer tour leg, are:

• Noblesville East Middle School (via Noblesville Schools) of Noblesville, IN (near Ruoff Music Center, August 6th, 7th, and 8th)
• Hershey Elementary School (via Hershey Music Boosters) of Hershey, PA (near HersheyPark Stadium, August 10th and 11th)
• Ventnor Middle School (via Ventnor Board of Education) of Ventnor, NJ (near Atlantic City Beach, August 13th, 14th, 15th)

We are beyond thrilled to announce The Roggae Rose, produced and sold by one of California’s top winemakers and fellow phan Pax Mahle! This delicious rose is a blend of 60% Gamay and 40% Pinot Noir, which are the two traditional red grape varietals in France’s Burgundy and also thrive in California. The wine was made using whole clusters, which adds an extra dimension of complexity. It is 12.5% alcohol, which is perfect when you need something a bit on the lighter side.

Pax Mahle has generously committed to donate 100% of the profits to The Mockingbird Foundation to help support children’s music education. The wine is $24 per bottle and can be ordered here.

Pax started Pax Wines in 2000 working with cooler climate vineyards in Sonoma County and Mendocino. At Pax Wines, winemaking is approached holistically. This is done by taking care to use only grapes that are grown without the use of chemicals and by hand-making their wines with as little intervention as possible.

The full lineup of wines currently available can be found here. If you order 12+ bottles, you receive 50% off shipping. Please note, it is a good idea to air ship the wines as it is still warm outside these days. Further details can be found on the order page.

We hope you enjoy this wine as much as we do. It should pair beautifully while listening to a wonderful Summer or Fall concert!

The Mockingbird Foundation hopes you are enjoying the Summer, and staying healthy and safe. As of now, it appears that the majority of schools will be having students back in the classrooms this Fall. Luckily, many places are still taking precautions where warranted to help ensure the safety of students and teachers.

Meanwhile, however, the music programs at many institutions have had their budgets cut significantly these past 18 months. It was already a struggle for them, and now the need is becoming rather dire. It is sad to see so many schools deem programs such as music education almost unnecessary. We know that is not the case, as we have observed firsthand how music education improves the lives of children. We have seen just that hundreds of times.

We at The Mockingbird Foundation have started a Back to School Campaign to help ensure that music programs will be coming back on the right track. We aim to raise $50,000 this August to help support children's music education throughout the country. An incredibly generous donor has agreed to match the first $25,000 of donations, and a donation of any amount will help us reach our goal. Thank you.

The Mockingbird Foundation is announcing its 20th round of Tour Grants, in celebration of Phish's 34 shows this summer and fall. Unsolicited $1,000 checks will be sent to a music program near each venue at which performs, part of a long-standing effort to help bring music from the Phish community to the local communities Phish touches. The $25,000 total continues a celebration of Mockingbird's 25th year, and will be announced in six batches.

The first group of recipients are:

• Rogers High School Band Boosters of Rogers, AR (near Walmart Arkansas Music Pavillion, July 28th)
• Carver High School Band Program of Birmingham, AL (near Oak Mountain Amphitheatre, July 30th)
• Midtown High School Bands of Atlanta, GA (near Ameris Bank Amphitheatre, July 31st and August 1st)
• Springfield Middle School of Springfield, TN (near Ascend Amphitheater, August 3rd and 4th)

Twenty years ago today, the Mockingbird Foundation released the double-disc Sharin' in the Groove, featuring 23 artists who (with their studios, managers, producers, and more) donated their time gratis to record a Phish cover and help fundraise for music education for children. CDs still sell, believe it or not, and the digital tracks continue to raise grant funds every week, even 20 years later - and we encourage you to pick it up, at any of the 80+ outlets for it, from Amazon and the Apple Store to Spotify and beyond.

Sharin' in the Groove was unusual, as "tribute" albums go. Above all, the performers aren't bands influenced by Phish - it's the bands, acts, and genres that influenced Phish, from school bands (high school orchetra and college marching band) to the international champion barbershop quartet, and every manner of jazz, funk, soul, rock, pop, ballad, and more in between: Little Feat (who recorded "Sample in a Jar", then took it on the road) and the Wailers (doing their first track in over a decade, with their original producer); members of Talking Heads and Los Lobos; Son Seals and Arlo Guthrie - and Jimmy Buffet, with his entire Coral Reef Band.

And it's organized like a show, opening with a clean and vibrant cover of "Bouncin'" by Arlo Guthrie playing with a band that includes 2 of his kids, winding its way through a solid first set CD, then diving into some weirdness for set (CD) two - such as drum-n-bass masters Lake Trout reimagining a chunk of Picture of Nectar, and Japanese oddity The Boredoms mashing up "Free" and "End of Session" - before finishing out with the "Golgi" encore.

In celebration of Pride Month, an all-volunteer nonprofit founded and run entirely by Phish fans has announced an unsolicited $1,500 grant to the Los Angeles LGBT Center's Youth Services. The Mockingbird Foundation grant will support musical arts programming for approximately 120 youth.

The Mockingbird Foundation has announced fifteen new grants totaling $113,600 to support music education of children nationwide. These grants - the 26th round of competitive grants considered and awarded by Mockingbird - brings to 508 the total number of grants (and $1.9M the total granted) in the history of the all-volunteer charity started by Phish fans in 1996.

The Mockingbird Foundation has announced the schedule for this weekend's free, 3-day livestream celebrating 25 years of music education! Follow more news here, at mbird.org/mbird25, and on Twitter with the hashtag #mbird25.

The Mockingbird Foundation has put all 493 of its grants (so far) into an interactive map. Find one (or more) near you, supporting music education and funded by Phish fans. Explore at mbird.org/grantsmap – or start with this intro tour:

The all-volunteer Mockingbird Foundation is proud to commemorate 25 years of providing music education to America’s young people by presenting The Mockingbird Sessions, a three-day celebration of music, education, and community.  This free event - livestreaming on Fans.live June 4, 5, and 6 - will bring together a diverse group of musicians, educators, and foundations to promote music education throughout America.

Thanks to the efforts of dozens of people and multiple studios across the U.S., Mockingbird Sessions includes artists such as Marco Benevento, Joe Russo, and Christian McBride in a once-in-a-lifetime quartet with harpist Mikalea Davis; The Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio; The Yonder Mountain String Trio; Paul Hoffman (from Greensky Bluegrass); and many others in unique pairings and groups that were curated specifically for this event.

Masterclasses will also be presented, showcasing the artistic philosophies of various artists and instruments, like the bass panel featuring Reed Mathis, Karina Rykman, and Chris Wood and hosted by Dr. Stephanie Jenkins (noted host of the Phish Studies Conference in 2019).  Testimonials by grantees will be sporadically shared during the weekend as well, and a limited edition print from artist Cory Rowe will be available for purchase.

And we're hoping other Phish fans, especially our community here at Phish.net, can help spread the word on social. We're using the hashtag #mbird25, of course, and we've created two URL shortcuts: mbird.org/mbird25 is an evolving splash page for attendees, and mbird.org/25 goes to a conventional press release for journalists. (Please send it to a couple; you might be surprised when they get back to you!)

After much anticipation, Phish has announced a reworked Summer and Fall tour beginning in Arkansas and ending with a four night run in Vegas. Some shows are onsale now, and a request period has opened for others. If you already have tickets, they will be transferred to the new dates unless you ask for a refund in the next month. See the announcement on phish.com for details.

A few weeks ago, we announced an approaching milestone, and promised a Mockingbird t-shirt and sticker to the 4,000th unique donor to the Mockingbird Foundation. That milestone's been passed, and we'd like to thank user @wharfrat1, to whom we'll be sending those thank yous this week.

This is a year full of milestones for Mockingbird. The 10,000th donation came on January 1st, and disbursements will surprass 500 grants and $2M total distributed sometime this summer. We appreciate everyone's ongoing support for music education. Grants for the 26th competitive round will be announced this June.

The Mockingbird Foundation is proud to announce the continuation of the DeLucia Awards, recognizing outstanding examples in music education. Established in 2004, and previously awarded in 2010, 2015, 2017, and 2019, the DeLucia Awards honor Mockingbird founder Craig DeLucia, and seek to recognize demonstrated passion for teaching music through the use of unconventional genres, methods, instruments, environments, and/or other aspects of music education.

The awards are administered by educator, saxophonist, recreational cellist, and Mockingbird board member Matt Sexauer, assisted by a fantastic panel of musicians and educators. The process begins with an online form, which opens today, April 1st. Nominations close this year on April 25, at 5 p.m. EDT. Announcement is anticipated for mid-May.

As in previous instances, there may be up to five DeLucia Award recipients in a given year, with the first place recipient awarded the DeLucia Prize, a monetary complement of $1,000. This year for the first time, four runners up will be awarded $250. The recipient(s) will have demonstrated a passion for music education such as by teaching in an exceptional, innovative, or unique manner; impacting their communities in a substantial way; or using unconventional techniques, discourse, or concepts in their roles as music educators.

The Mockingbird Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit run entirely by volunteers, supports music education for children by fundraising through Phish-related projects. Organized by Phish fans in 1996, formally incorporated in 1997, and celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, the Foundation has since distributed over $1,800,000 through 492 grants in all 50 states.

The Foundation is also the leading provider of historical information about Phish and its music, having cultivated intellectual property through www.phish.net since 1994 and having published three editions of the popular books The Phish Companion: A Guide to the Band and Their Music.

We've made massive updates to the Phish.net Timeline, not only catching up on the four years it was behind, but backfilling scores of earlier events and milestones for Phish.net, the Mockingbird Foundation, and related efforts. We've also added historical links to almost every entry, emoji to help navigate the ~220 entries, and prospective entries for 2021, which is shaping up to be quite a year...

Popular music concert website JamBase has announced a surprise covers compilation aimed at reimagining Phish’s 2000 album, "Farmhouse."  "A true reimagining of Farmhouse, the songs on Cluster Flies are presented in an entirely new sequence with five bonus tracks alongside the 12 others on the original album, all expertly mastered by engineer Joe Lambert." reads the website, clusterflies.com.  

Spanning 17 Farmhouse-era songs, the limited-edition 3LP release features custom artwork and a poster designed by Phish collaborator Jim Pollock. Phish covers were recorded by Umphrey’s McGee’s Brendan Bayliss, Club d’Elf, Daniel Donato, Chris Forsyth, Neal Francis, Jennifer Hartswick, Amy Helm, Lindsay Lou, Reed Mathis, White Denim’s James Petralli, Strand Of Oaks, Sylvan Esso, William Tyler, Sadler Vaden, Vetiver, Ryley Walker, and a supergroup led by Tim Palmieri. 

You can purchase Cluster Flies and see the entire track listing at clusterflies.com. By purchasing a copy, you'll also be supporting JamBase, who has been faithfully following and reporting on the music community throughout this pandemic.  You can check out "Sand," the first of the tracks to be released, below. 

Phamous Mockingbird, a Phish tribute act based out of Chicago, IL, (see Instagram & YouTube), sent showering praise for what the Mockingbird Foundation does "to give towards music education for our youth and [they] want to help out where we can!" So, they're planning to donate to Mockingbird half of any proceeds from their live album release tomorrow (2/2/21 at 10am EST) on BandCamp. Check 'em out, support good tunes, and help fundraise for music education!

The entirely volunteer Mockingbird Foundation, started and run entirely by fans, has announced sixteen new grants totalling $111,771 in its 25th round of competitive funding for music education for children. Two of these grants were 50% funded by the band's own Waterwheel Foundation, and a third was 50% funded by the Kristy Anastasio Memorial Fund. Mockingbird has now made 491 grants totalling more than $1.8M.

There is still time to make a tax-deductible donation to Mockingbird this year - and we'll start reviewing inquiries for Round 26 in less than three weeks. We hope to celebrate the Foundation's 25th birthday in 2021 with our 500th grant, and several other landmark achievements - help us get there!