COVENTRY, Vt. (AP) – Sheets of rain did little to dampen enthusiasm as thousands of fans arrived Thursday to wait for Phish’s farewell performance this weekend.

But the weather did prompt concert organizers to ask fans to hold off traveling to the show until Saturday if possible. Reading from a statement, Adam Lewis of Great Northeast Productions said the rain was hindering efforts to ease traffic on roads and at campgrounds inside the site of the two-day festival, the sprawling Newport State Airport in northeastern Vermont.

Fans of the band, many of whom had spent the night driving cross-country to see the show, found themselves stuck in a line of traffic hundreds of cars long waiting to set up camp and settle in for the festival, which officially kicks off with Phish’s first performance Saturday evening.

What started as groups of cars trickling into Coventry on Wednesday night and early Thursday morning blossomed into a traffic jam that stretched for eight miles from the airport entrance to an Interstate 91 exit. Vermont State Police Sgt. Bruce Melendy said officials were predicting the backups would worsen as the crowd grew to its estimated size of 70,000 people.

“The main reason why it’s going slowly is because people here have to be processed,” said Melendy, referring to the security and ticket checks that greet fans as they arrive. “It’s going as smoothly as can be expected.”

Phish devotees consoled themselves while waiting by thinking of the happier times they hoped would lie in store.

“People will start waking up,” said Jeff Goodman, who left his home in Patchogue, N.Y., Wednesday to pick up his girlfriend in Syracuse and then hightail to Coventry, a town of around 1,000 just a few miles south of the Canadian border.

The effort paid off: Arriving in Coventry just after midnight Thursday, the couple was shepherded into a holding area around 2:30 a.m., where they sat and waited for the gates to open, tired, a little worn – but among the first in line.

Melendy said the day passed without incident with one exception: police arrested a Massachusetts man working on the electrical systems for the concerts on an outstanding armed robbery warrant from his home state. Edward Traeger, 30, was taken into custody and was being held at the state police barracks in nearby Derby.

Organizers say the Vermont-based Phish will play three sets daily, and it’s that promise that seemed to keep most fans happy even when the clouds threatened to open up at any minute.

Not far from a row of portable toilets in the holding area, Michael Mustin of Anderson, Ind., sat on the hood of his car and played lead guitar on an acoustic rendition of Bob Marley’s reggae song “Stir It Up.” He, too, had driven all night, stopping only in Erie, Pa., to fix a flat tire and for food in Burlington, 90 miles to the southwest.

Phish, a band loved for its improvisational skills and intelligent lyrics, can count numerous musicians among its legions of fans. That quickly became evident as Mustin and another guitarist were joined by a third guitar player and a woman who sang backup. The group strummed and harmonized their way through an impromptu jam session, introducing themselves to each other just before the set ended.

Mustin said playing music was a good way to pass the time before he could set up camp for the weekend.

“I think so. What else are you going to do?” he said.

People found other ways to keep themselves entertained. Rounds of cards were played; a group of men and women hit bongos in a drum circle stationed around the trunk of someone’s car. Some fans slept in cars parked along the side of the road; many others smoked cigarettes or enjoyed a late-morning drink.

Organizers opened the gates shortly before 11 a.m. Security guards vetted the incoming cars, campers and trucks as hordes of fans inched their way from the back of the airport to a slowly expanding tent city at the end of the runway.

The going wasn’t always easy: Waterlogged fields inside the airport showed no prejudice against sedan or sports utility vehicle, snaring both in muddy ruts as fans tried to park their cars in lots next to one campground. Workers tried to smooth the way by filling in potholes with wood chips and plywood, the afternoon deluges quickly voiding the effort.

Estimates on the size of the crowd varied. State police counted 1,000 by mid-afternoon, but earlier in the day security officials said 1,366 cars were parked in one of the two holding areas. Walking around the campground in late afternoon it appeared there were at least several thousand people inside the airport.

The weather at outdoor festivals is always a wild card, and despite the less-than-cheery forecast – rain or the threat of rain throughout the weekend – concertgoers made the best of their new surroundings.

Sitting under what he called his “living space” – a tarpaulin hitched to four metal poles – Sean Martin of Yarmouth, Maine, said the weather couldn’t change the spirit of the event.

“Definitely the atmosphere is what you come for,” said Martin, 18. “It’s a different kind of spirit.”

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On the Net: http://www.phish.com

AP-ES-08-12-04 1925EDT