Screenshot via YouTube

“The kids are alright” took on new meaning last week after students from three elementary schools convened to stage a theatrical performance that paid homage to Phish’s Gamehendge epic. Put on for the friends and families of a cast made up of Colorado kindergarten through fifth graders, the presentation leaned into a full bank of Phish material, supported by a five-piece live band, including the program’s mastermind, music teacher Kirk Kubicek. 

Kubicek is a known musical force in the community, staging student-driven performances annually, such as odes to The Beatles and a specialty tribute to Boulder’s Caribou Ranch–a location where the Beach Boys, Elton John, and U2 all recorded. The educator told Rolling Stone that during the tail end of the 2025 school year, he was approached by a student, “He said, ‘Mr. Kirk, are we gonna do a Phish show next year?’ Almost as if it were a rumor or something,” 

In preparation for the staging, Kubicek sought out other elementary schools’ references to the band and their material, which led him to fellow music teacher Mark Filoramo, who had taken on the Vermont band’s songs for his own end-of-year production. Kubicek’s rendition revives some of the concepts initiated by Filoramo and takes them further into a Phish trance: deep lore and examples of Gamehendge standards.

According to the setlist, different grade levels delivered specifics, such as the production’s all-ages entry via “The Wedge.” Kindergarteners took on “Simple” and saved “Sparkle” for the elementary second years. Grade two was responsible for “Character Zero,” while “Contact” brought out the 3rd grade. Eventually, “Possum” was sung by fourth-graders, while “The Lizards” and “Birds of a Feather” were taken on by fifth-graders. 

Collection renditions of “Bouncing Around the Room,” and yes, even a “Tweezer Reprise” encore, capped the experience. “I wanted to recreate what it feels like to be at a Phish show,” Kubicek said. “We had moving lights and a haze machine. I wanted to create a spectacle.”

The complete Nederland, Jamestown, and Gold Hill Elementary Schools Present: The Helping Friendly Book – 5.14.2026 can be viewed below.