The Virginian-Pilot
©
HAMPTON
The staff of Cinema Cafe did what they could to capitalize on the explosion of Phish fans that flooded the hotels around Hampton Coliseum a few blocks away this weekend.
They picked out movies they thought were friendly to Phish fans, "Pink Floyd The Wall" - a screenplay based on the psychedelic rock band's music - and "A Clockwork Orange." They advertised them on a marquee along West Mercury Boulevard, the area's main street.
Still no luck, manager Mike Dennis said.
"We got about 15 people total over the weekend" in both movies, Dennis said. "Maybe the nice weather played a role."
But if it was slow at the Cinema Cafe, that was the exception. On Sunday - with one show that evening left to go - businesses near the Coliseum were already reporting a big jump in traffic since the band and its following of thousands arrived in Hampton on Friday for three nights of performances.
"Slammed" was how Kevin Barracchini, manager of a Denny's on West Mercury, described it. There was a line out the door of the restaurant Sunday morning.
Kelly's Tavern was at capacity all weekend, said Lisa Matzeder, the manager on duty. Outside, the marquee read: "We serve Phish all week."
Nearly 14,000 people were scheduled to attend each of the three sold-out shows this weekend.
Allison Quinones, a spokeswoman for the Hampton police, said there were a few arrests Sunday, but nothing out of the ordinary. Arrests were made throughout the weekend, mostly on drug charges and minor crimes. Police said they would release the final arrest count today.
Alicia Wittmeyer, (757) 222-5216, alicia.wittmeyer@pilotonline.com
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Don't take it personally
cgergskins, you shouldn't take it so personally. I'm sure hbrogan57 did run into some ill-behaved phans, it happens. We get unruly guests all the time, have to kick people out and call the police at least once a month, and I work at a 4 star hotel! There's bad eggs in every group, doesn't mean every Phish fan is a problem. Some people simply get caught up in the excitement of events like this, and others are just plain disrespectful. I'm sure the Embassy had their share of problem guests too, but did a good job at taking care of the problems. Trust me, we appreciate the good guests! :) It sounds like everyone had an awesome weekend, good to hear it.
phresh phish
With the economy the way it is, The City of Hampton will roll out the welcome mat for Phish and any other big act that wants to come and play this world famous venue known as the mothership. So what if they trashed the hotel room, fix it and bill the card and move on. The real story is Ticketmaster and TicketsNow. The collusion and felonious scalping needs to be addressed by the Justice Department.
hbrogan57
you have no idea what you are talking about. none at all. go work a nice hotel instead of the putrid place you work. i walked all over the embassy, never smelled anything. unfortunately american's in america came to party and they reserved rooms to do so. did the hotel ever kick anyone out for illegally smoking in the rooms? gee i wonder why they did not? hbrogan did you ever report this activity to the cops? NO oh so what the heck are you complaining about? i am sure the hotels are so desperate for money after this weekend they will have to get loans to make all the repairs, oh the horror, good thing they overbooked and denied people's original reservations for the ones they could charge extra for closer to the show. everywhere i have ever toured i was always polite, tipped well, thanked my ushers, left a tip for my maid.
Smoke Odor in Hotel Rooms...
I've entered nonsmoking hotel rooms to find the smell of cigarette smoke there when I arrived. If challendged, how do you legally prove that the last guest to leave that room was the one that left the smoke odor?
Thanks Hampton!
Too bad there were some obnoxious visitors. Yet, at every restaurant, convenience store, hotel, gas station, etc I was at over the weekend, I always asked the employees, "How's everyone treating you?" Universally, the response was GREAT. I think mostly you get what you give. If you show respect, you get it. Witness the lobby of the Embassy Suites. They respected the fans by playing great music, setting up satellite bars all over the place, served late night food, and generally made for a welcoming environment. Did anyone trash the joint? No. Respect Given = Respect Returned.
update????
No...they are NOT payig to update the hotels. The only thing that get paid for is replacing the damage that they have already done. If you think that we are getting NEW rooms because of this then you are mistaken.
Check for yourself and see how much it costs to remove the smoke smell from ONE room of YOUR own place and you'll see what I mean.
We certainly didn't enjoy being forced to walk down the halls with this rancid smell permeating the hallways of each and EVERY floor that had these "PHANS" there.
As I mentione, those that actually PAID for the rooms are going to have a HUGE surprise when they get their room bill on their credit cards. It's NOT cheap.
Perhaps the hotels should get together and make arrangements with the various police departments to have them walk through with their dogs and see what happens then.
what a great weekend of
what a great weekend of shows the boys put on. too bad about the hotels.. look at the bright side, the phish phans are paying to help update to hotels! sorry, but they'll be back soon.
hbrogan57.......
soooooo, what exactly are you saying??
Another hotel employee
Ah, it sounds like you go the worst of them hbrogan57. I work at a hotel in Chesapeake, and we had a ton of Phish fans staying with us. We do actually have smoking rooms in our hotel, but I agree it was obvious that some people were smoking pot in the rooms. We didn't have much of a problem with rooms being trashed though, or people being belligerently drunk (we get our share of those every weekend anyway). It was good for business, we were sold out all weekend even though we've only been at 50% for the last few weeks. The worst problem we had was getting these folks OUT of the hotel, almost every single one requested a late check-out, which really put us behind for everyone checking in the next day. I'm actually surprised the Cinema didn't get much business, we had a lot of people asking us for things to do in the area before the shows. Overall, I didn't really mind having these folks stay with us. The kids sports teams are much worse! lol.