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CashorTrade Summer Tour 2021 Recap

October 1, 2021 - By Dana Slattery

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For those who were able to safely attend concerts this Summer after the year without a concert, you know what we mean when we say the return of live music has revitalized us. In the 10 years we've been facilitating trades between fans, we have never seen a surge in face value ticket trading like we did in 2021. Since the start of the Summer, CashorTrade members bought, sold & traded over X~ face value tickets- making this CashorTrade's busiest ticketing season to date. Between this face-value ticketing renaissance, and our recent launch of CashorTrade Marketplace, we have been feeling full of love & light (and keeping ourselves very busy).

We decided to do what most of the music industry did this Summer & take our show on the road. In August, our street team crew hit the pavement (and prairie...) with the CashorTrade tent for the first time since 2019. For those who don't know (3.0 & 4.0ers), before it was the app we have today, CashorTrade was a tent on Phish lot. CashorTrade founders brothers Brando & Dusty Rich would pitch an EZ-Up between friends & fam before the show alongside crystal & tie-dye dealers on Shakedown Street to help connect fans looking to trade tickets.


Hershey, PA (8/10/21): Chocolate Rain
First up on our list of shows was Hershey Park Stadium in Hershey, PA. We loaded up the van with fresh merch & stickers in Burlington and arrived in Hershey Tuesday, not long before the show. The sun was shining on Shakedown on a dirt lot set up directly across from the venue. EZ-Up's, vans & coolers filled with water & beer stretched out for a mile or so down the road. CashorTrade Marketplace seller & lot comedy meme queen Fad Albert saved us a spot next to her set-up & we were up and running in no time! We met up with new friends, put faces to usernames of members of our incredible ticket trading community, and had our fill of lot food. (Jerry Rolls. If you know, you know...)

There's nothing like a first set rainbow. Paired with the First Tube opener, a light Hershey syrup drizzle on the first night was accompanied by a massive arching rainbow above the crowd across the sky. We had arrived! Highlights for the night that followed include Fuego, a beefy Soul Planet jam segued into NICU, a strange, synthy Scent Of A Mule & an amped up Rock and Roll encore that would make Lou Reed blush. Check out the full set list for 8/10/2021 via Phish.net.

Photo by Scott Harris Photo

Hershey, PA (8/11/21): Hot Chocolate
Mother Nature always has the final say in how the hours leading up to a show unfold. A few blissful hours in the Pennsylvania sunshine were met with a flash flood advisory. Around 5pm, rain had completely shut down the tent-city we had situated ourselves in along Hershey Park Drive. Our tent, shirts & Jerry Rolls were soaked. After rubbing elbows with some of Shakedown's finest, meeting some cool CashorTrade members & linking up some folks for ticket trade meet-ups the team packed it in. We changed our socks and headed into the venue for our final hurrah in Hershey.

Pictured Below: Alec Tatro & Hannah Duppen (Left), CashorTrade Support
Specialists. Dana Slattery (Right), Director of Marketing soaked on Shakedown.

Nothing sounds less sexy than a soccer stadium full of damp Phish fans... But in the 30 seconds it took for Phish to take the stage & open the set, that same crowd picked up the sweet scent of the infamous bass line that welcomes you to Hot Chocolate's 1975 masterpiece. Like a familiar fling, "You Sexy Thing" transformed that wet plastic stadium floor in Pennsylvania (40 minutes or so outside of Amish country) into the hottest dance floor on the planet. Trey confirmed that night we were there for fun by adding 'You Sexy Wombat' that followed during a sexy tease during the outro of 'Wombat'. Other highlights including a beautiful Halley's Comet, a debut of Trey's quarantine song 'Lonely Trip', and an intricate, dark & mysterious Ruby Waves.

The run closed with Show of Life > Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S. Feeling blissed out & freshly baptized in the Hershey rain, we set our eyes on The Jersey Shore. Check out the full set list for 8/11/2021 via Phish.net.

Atlantic City: Scenes from The Boardwalk of Dreams

The drive from Hershey to Atlantic City isn't long, though you do run the risk of hitting Philadelphia traffic if you're not careful. We got in on Thursday and wasted no time exploring the wealth of culture that is the Atlantic City Boardwalk. At this point, the boardwalk offered at least 2 distinct crowds: Those drinking on the beach to go gamble, and those drinking on the beach to go see Phish. By Night 3, the two would unequivocally become one singular hot mess.

Atlantic City, NJ (8/13/2021 - 8/15/2021)

Around 4pm Friday, after spending a day resting & relaxing on the sands of the Jersey Shore, we wandered down the toward the venue. The boardwalk was visibly percolating with excitement. You could see it all around you. A combination of "Is this really happening?" energy, combined with "THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING!" energy. The size of a venue like the Atlantic City Beach is hard to grasp fully until you find yourself holding space for 1 in 40,000. For context, it's about as many people as two sold out shows at Madison Square Garden being shaken up & spilled across the salty shore like a tripped out game of human Boggle. With plenty of entrances along a venue that felt like it stretched out for at least a mile (Even longer post-show), it wasn't hard to find a happy spot to settle in. Sand, wind, surf, sun & three nights of live Phish ahead of us. The band took the stage at dusk opening with Cars, Trucks & Busses, followed closely by AC/DC, and finally breaking off the leash with Blaze On for the first runaway jam of the run. Highlights from Friday include the aforementioned Blaze, Sand, and the entire second set. (Tweezer > Bathtub Gin > Everything's Right -> Possum > Also Sprach Zarathustra > Rise/Come Together > Harry Hood > More) Yes! We had arrived. Check out the full set list for 8/13/2021 via Phish.net.

Tune in for our FALL TOUR RECAP blog this Fall!