Phish postpone New Year's residency at Madison Square Garden over Omicron spike

Phish have announced they’ll be postponing their run of shows at Madison Square Garden over the New Year’s period due to a spike in Omicron cases.

The outfit were slated to play four shows at the New York venue from December 29 to January 1, including a three-set performance on New Year’s Eve. The dates have now been pushed back to April 2022, with the triple-set stint taking place on April 22.

“With the Omicron variant of Covid-19 surging in New York City, we have made the very difficult decision to reschedule next week’s run of shows at Madison Square Garden,” the band wrote on their website.

“The health and safety of Phish fans, our crew, and venue staff is paramount in our minds. While Phish has played shows this year as the pandemic has continued, this variant’s ability for rapid transmission is unprecedented.”

“We are also mindful that a significant number of people travel for these shows and then return to their communities, and we want to avoid accelerating transmission of the virus. Finally, even with the strictest of tour Covid protocols, the prolonged exposure of a four-night indoor run (plus the days of preparation and travel) to critical crew and staff considerably increases the possibility of having to shut the shows down once they’ve started.”

Ticketholders are able to request a refund if they aren’t able to attend the new dates or keep their tickets for the rescheduled shows.

New York recorded 38,835 new positive daily cases at the time of writing.

Back in October, one man died and two more were injured during a Phish concert in San Francisco. Two were believed to have fallen from an area in the venue’s upper levels, while the third was injured by one of the men falling on him.