Businesses hope for sales boost from Phish concert July 24, 2003 - Bangor Daily News By Beurmond Banville LIMESTONE - While organizers, municipal leaders and businesspeople are hoping for an economic boom next week when 60,000 fans of the jam band Phish arrive at the Loring Commerce Centre, not everyone knows what to expect. A 1998 study done after the last concert estimated the economic impact to be about $25 million. Five years later, Carl Flora, vice president and counsel of the Loring Development Authority, which oversees the commerce center, expects that number could be even greater after the Aug. 1-3 concert. Any time that many people head up the road and come into a neighborhood, they have to spend money for goods and services, Flora noted Wednesday. "They buy at convenience stores, gasoline stations," he said. "They spend money in Maine from the time they enter at Kittery, come to Limestone and leave again through Kittery. "People have also been working at Loring for several weeks, five or six weeks," he said. "The production company has purchased materials locally, and they have hired people." While concert fans can move in and out of the Loring venue, most don't once they are inside the former Air Force base, Flora said. He explained the phenomenon as a weekend of camping by people who have already been in traffic for many hours. Officials with Northeast Productions Inc., promoters of the concert, said they are very happy with ticket sales, but they don't release numbers of tickets sold. "It's certainly an economic boost for the tour to come here," Donna Bernier, acting town manager for Limestone, said Wednesday. "The fans put quite a bit of money into the community. "They buy gasoline, food, even places to stay until the site opens," she said. "This isn't only in Limestone, but other area communities and up and down the state." She said the town is looking forward to the concert weekend, but hoped it will be as quiet as before in terms of problems with concert-goers. Area police agencies were scheduled to meet Wednesday night with officials of the Aroostook County Emergency Management Agency on plans for police coverage. Joe Sleeper of Sleeper's Grocery and Clothing Store in Caribou said he thought the concert would help his business, at least some parts of it. He said he will put up welcome signs, inviting people into the Route 1 store, a direct line to the LCC. "We expect a likely boost in beverage, ice water and quick food items of 20 to 30 percent," he said Wednesday. "Beverage salespeople are boosting our inventories of their products. "We also expect concert-goers to pick up last-minute items after being on the road," he said. "We may even have an increase in things like sandals, a bit of Maine T-shirts, and if the weather turns bad, some extra clothing." However, he said, he knows people attending the concert are usually fairly well-prepared for any weather. The Phish concert puts "more traffic by the door, and I expect more business," he said. Carol Kelly of Kelly's Restaurant in Limestone expects to be busy next Thursday before the opening of the concert, and the following Sunday and Monday as concert-goers leave. "We don't know what to expect," Kelly said Wednesday. "The first year they had the concert, we were terribly busy, but the second year when we were prepared, they did everything on base. "We got extra business when they were going in and out," she said. "I feel it may be the same this year." She said all her staff are on call for extra hours and will be called to work as needed that weekend. Article Copyright © 2003 Bangor Daily News