Quote:How the Grateful Dead built the internet
3 days ago

Allegra Rosenberg

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Silicon Valley has deep roots in the countercultural movements of the 1960s. The Grateful Dead both united and inspired early tech pioneers (Credit: Getty Images)

Before the the internet took over the world, psychedelic rock band The Grateful Dead were among the first – and most influential – forces at the dawn of online communication.
The Grateful Dead weren't just a band. They were a lifestyle. Originally a local blues outfit known as the Warlocks, they soon ascended to the rank of house band for author Ken Kesey's "Acid Tests", and by the late 1960s became a force to be reckoned with on the national touring scene. The Dead, as many call them, helped define San Francisco's characteristic counterculture, fusing folk and Americana influences with Eastern spirituality – as well as forward-thinking experiments with futuristic tools.
But the Dead shaped far more than rock, psychedelia and '60s drug culture. Thanks to a group of music-loving tech enthusiasts, the Dead popularised what some call the first real online community. Generations later, the ideas formed in this pioneering digital space still reverberate through our daily lives.
Fans of the Dead, known as "Deadheads", were inspired by the band's embrace of all things technological, from their pioneering sound systems to their immersive multimedia visuals. Many fans were technologists and engineers themselves, working in Silicon Valley or at universities around America with access to early internet technology – which they were using by the late 1970s to swap hot commodities like Grateful Dead setlists and illegal drugs.
In the 1980s, years before the World Wide Web, a virtual online community emerged called the Well (the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link). Centred on the San Francisco Bay Area of California, the Well not only thrived in its own right, but proved to be one of the most influential factors in the birth of the internet as we know it today. And its long life was in large part thanks to fans of the Grateful Dead.
The Well was borne out of a project started by writer, activists and businessman Stewart Brand, who began producing a print publication he called the Whole Earth Catalog in the 1970s. Inspired by the back-to-the-land movement which was seeing thousands of hippies across America start up communes, the Catalog was designed to provide "access to tools" – its slogan – that anyone could use to build their lives around the ecological and spiritual principles of the movement. That meant that alongside the physical tools it offered for sustainable living – like solar stills, looms, and seed kits – it featured an array of books and pamphlets by thinkers – like Buckminster Fuller and Marshall McLuhan – meant to provide insight into how to lead better, more thoughtful lives. The Catalog was enormously influential, and not just on hippies. Apple cofounder Steve Jobs called it "one of the bibles of my generation" in a famous 2005 speech.
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The Grateful Dead were pioneers in music, hippie culture and, as it turns out, technology (Credit: Getty Images)

"We are as gods and might as well get used to it," the Catalog argued in the introduction to the spring 1969 edition, proposing the Catalog and its offerings as a means to develop an "intimate, personal power" to counteract the top-down, dominant "remotely done power and glory" of impersonal government and big business.
The Catalog proved very popular, selling a million copies by 1972. Larry Brilliant, a doctor and activist who also happened to be the owner of computer company Networking Technologies International, approached Brand with the idea of putting the Catalog online. It was a radical idea at a moment when most people had never even heard of the internet. But Brand saw the potential in giving readers of the Catalog a place to talk to each other. Brilliant provided the money and equipment while Brand helped onboard users and build the community's culture, and in 1985, the Well went online.
The Well was a "bulletin board system" (BBS), an early text-based approach to online communication that long predated the mainstream internet. People could dial into a BBS using a computer and a phone line, where they would send messages and share files. But the Well was more advanced than other BBS's. In the 1980s, these systems typically ran off a single modem, usually in someone's home, and only one person could dial in at a time. Real-time conversation between multiple users was impossible. The Well, operating out of the Whole Earth Catalog's San Francisco office, was among the first to change that. It was professionally run on command-line PicoSpan software, and sported the hardware necessary for multi-user use and conversation – fifty people could be online chatting at the same time. This was a revolutionary experience. 
And the Well was very different than purely commercial conferencing services like CompuServe that were around at the time: it was founded with a countercultural ethos at heart, based in the Whole Earth Catalog's do-it-yourself message, and was meant to encourage people from different walks of life to mix and mingle with each other, provoking interesting conversations and social change.
Howard Rheingold was a freelance writer working from home, looking for ways to socialise – and procrastinate. Having been a devoted reader of the Whole Earth Catalog since its first issue, he was early to the Well, signing up soon after it was launched to the public in 1985.
It was a bit of an eclectic mix with a heavy countercultural flavour – Howard Rheingold
"Writing is a lonely affair," he says. "You're alone there with your typewriter, and your words. Instead of hanging out at a bar or a coffee house, I found that I could log into the Well and have that kind of conversation in between writing things." Rheingold saw the Well as a demonstration of the promise of electronic connectivity. He coined the term "virtual community" to describe the Well in his 1992 book of the same name, Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. In the book, he observed that "[most] people who have not yet used [networked communication] remain unaware of how profoundly the social, political and scientific experiments under way today via computer networks could change all our lives in the near future".
At its launch, the Well was populated by a diverse group of conversationalists. The canny owners gave free invitations to journalists, computer enthusiasts and other prominent figures in a culture centred on Silicon Valley-style experimentation and forward thinking. The Well emphasised independence and ownership: the login screen told users "You own your own words". Many see it as the first time user-generated content was recognised as the inherent value proposition of an electronic tool.

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Deadheads embrace of the Well, an online platform that predated the World Wide Web, was a driving force in the internet's early popularisation (Credit: Getty Images)

"It was a bit of an eclectic mix with a heavy countercultural flavour," says Rheingold. One of the recipients of these free invitations was David Gans, a Bay Area musician, DJ and Deadhead who was interested in the idea of finding an online home for the thriving Grateful Dead community. The Well was a perfect fit. Alongside cofounders Bennett Falk and Mary Eisenhart, he spun up the Grateful Dead forum.
Eisenhart, at the time the editor of a Bay Area computer magazine MicroTimes, remembers how Grateful Dead fanzines made her think about connecting members of the fandom. "[The fanzines] would get these heartrending letters from people who thought they were the only Deadheads in their state, but now at least they could connect with other Heads," she says. "I was very drawn to the ability to overcome the barriers of time and space to connect with those you had some actual affinity with."
Before long, the Well's Grateful Dead space exploded in popularity. At $2 an hour to dial in (about $6 or £4.50 today) along with its $8 membership fee ($23 or £17.20 today), the Deadheads' devotion to endless discussion of their favourite band helped fund the entire platform. 
What was there to talk about? Well, a lot, according to Gans. Not all Grateful Dead fans went "over the wall" to the rest of the Well. Plenty stayed within their bubble, chatting away. The single forum for Deadheads got so unwieldy it had to be split into multiple forums, with separate ones popping up for tours, tickets and tape recordings of live shows, says Gans. There was also the deadlit conference – "conference" being the Well's terminology for an individual, topic-based forum within the larger platform – where users could talk about the Dead's connections to literature, and dissect the poetry of the band's lyricists Robert Hunter and John Perry Barlow.
Barlow himself was a major figure at the intersection of the Grateful Dead and the history of the internet. Raised on a ranch in Wyoming, and introduced to LSD by Timothy Leary himself during college, he ended up falling in with the Dead in the 1970s. He wrote songs for the band before heading back to take over his family ranch, where his distance from the Bay Area contributed to his interest in the burgeoning field of personal computing and online connection.
Gans remembers interviewing him in 1982, a few years before the Well came into being. "He said [of the Deadheads], 'this is a community without a physical location.' And that really stuck with me." Grateful Dead fans already a nationally distributed group which came together regularly at concerts, and through the Dead's sizeable mailing list. In fact, the Well wasn't even Deadheads' first foray into digital communication. According to Gans, one of the first non-technical groups that formed on Arpanet, a precursor to the internet run by universities and the US government, was devoted to discussion of the Grateful Dead. A full embrace of cyberspace was a natural next step.
Barlow wasn't immediately on board, however. Gans recalls his skepticism: "[He said] 'Well, I'm not sure I want to be part of anything where you have to make up a nickname for yourself.'"
But it wasn't long before Barlow embraced the Well, and soon, he came a pioneering force in as the internet launched into the mainstream.
He was the first person to apply Neuromancer author William Gibson's term "cyberspace" to the emerging network of computer and telecommunications systems linking people together around the globe. Barlow started referring to cyberspace as an "electronic frontier," drawing on his experiences growing up in Wyoming, in the Mountain West of America. The Well and other similar outposts, like Prodigy and The Source, were akin to the Wild West, writes Barlow, "vast, unmapped, culturally and legally ambiguous [...] hard to get around in, and up for grabs".
Barlow found a home within the Well's community of hackers, free speech enthusiasts and home computing pioneers. He quickly understood the Well's potential as a harbinger for the ways the internet would change the face of human communication forever. On the Well, Barlow engaged in long discussions, often debating with anonymous hackers and "phreaks" – or telephone hackers – about the role that networked communication was to play in the future of humanity. 
After some run-ins with clueless law enforcement officers, Barlow recognised a growing need to defend the internet users against the overreach of institutions and governments who would want to control it. In 1990, he founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) – an advocacy group that fights for free-speech and other civil rights in the digital world.
"The next thing I know, he's founding the EFF and he's the Lord Mayor of cyberspace!", Gans says. The EFF quickly gained a national profile, and 35 years later, it's still one of the most influential forces in the world of technology policy.

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Silicon Valley has deep roots in the countercultural movements of the 1960s. The Grateful Dead both united and inspired early tech pioneers (Credit: Getty Images)

For cyberspace denizens who wanted to engage in discussion and collaborate with the people who were shaping the future of virtual communities, the Well was the place to be. Alongside the Well's many Deadheads, members included technology journalists like John Markoff and Steve Levy; entrepreneurs Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist; Steve Case, founder of AOL; homebrew computer enthusiasts like Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak; phone phreakers and hackers; libertarians; hippies; and even the founders of Wired magazine.
"Over the years, we've had people that were retired captains of submarines, we've had journalism professors. Jane Hirschfield, a very famous poet, is a regular, and John Carroll, who was a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, was the host of the media conference for many years," Gans recalls of the diversity of the Well's user base.
Many of these groups got into frequent disagreements. But that was part of the convivial spirit of the Well, says Rheingold. "You don't have a lot of great conversations with people who agree with each other about everything all the time," he points out. "Having some friction can help foster a lot of lively conversation."
At first, geography limited the Well's early users to the area surround its servers in San Francisco. Long-distance users had to pay requisite phone fees to dial in up, until 1990 when the Well was connected with the global internet.

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Deadheads early forays into the internet became a model for the ideas, tools and social structures that run our daily lives online to this day (Credit: Getty Images)

Though there were never more than 5,000 or so users of the Well at its peak, its coverage and innovators of the day and its starring role in the creation of the EFF gave it an outsized reputation compared to more popular mainstream platforms like CompuServe and Prodigy. "Being on The Well kept me six months ahead of other people about what was actually happening on the internet," said tech executive Jim Rutt in a 2022 interview. It was a vital incubator for ideas and movements in computing, communications and social change.
But as it grew, Well faced some difficulties in governance, as Rheingold recalled, thanks to its libertarian free-speech ethos. "There was no police. It was consensus, which meant that in order to be sanctioned or to even be thrown out for bad behaviour, it required people on the Well to argue about it endlessly. I mean, thousands of posts." Lessons about moderation were learned, such as – for Rheingold – the vital importance of moderators being more like hosts at a party, becoming intensely proactive about what content to allow and promote. "Moderators are filters and sensors," he said, whereas hosts "greet people at the door, introduce them to each other, break up the fights."
As for the Well, it subsequently came under the ownership of a variety of different companies, including Salon magazine, which acquired it in 1999. And it's still around today, home to a slowly dwindling but loyal group of users, many of whom have been on the Well for almost 40 years, says Gans. He reveals that discussions are beginning on how best to archive and sunset the platform at some point in the future, preserving it for future generations to look back on.
Looking back at the history of virtual communities and social media since the Well's heyday, Rheingold reflects on the fact that small, dedicated affinity communities are a dying breed. "Facebook really put a damper on the proliferation of smaller communities of people with a shared interest," he says, in favour of larger platforms full of audiences which could be mined for data and served with advertisements. "Once your community members are the product rather than the customer, you don't have a community," says Eisenhart.
The Well represents a moment in history when, as founder Stewart Brand put it in Rheingold's book, "personal computer revolutionaries were the counterculture". Long before the mainstreaming of social media and smartphones, a virtual community was a truly groundbreaking concept.

Quote:The Heart of Town


Join us at Pier 48 in Mission Rock for a special three-night concert series hosted by Grahame Lesh & Friends, celebrating the Grateful Dead’s 60th Anniversary and the spirit of San Francisco.
Show/Door Times:

• July 31 - Doors at 7 p.m., show starts at 8 p.m.
  
• August 1 - Doors at 10 p.m., show starts at 11 p.m.
  
• August 2 - Doors at 10 p.m., show starts at 11 p.m.
  

Tickets:

• Three-day passes will go on sale starting Friday, June 27 at 10 a.m. PT.
  
• Daily passes will go on sale Monday, June 30 at 10 a.m. PT.
  

GENERAL ADMISSION

• Entry to the general admission viewing area inside the historic Pier 48
  
• Access to curated food and beverage offerings for purchase from local vendors
  
• Immersive live music experience featuring Grahame Lesh & Friends with rotating special guests
  
• Shakedown Street-themed vending village featuring rows of artisan vendors, tapestries and handmade jewelry for purchase
  

TERRAPIN STATION VIP
Includes all benefits of GA pass, plus:

• Separate priority entry lane
  
• Dedicated viewing area near the stage
  
• Private bar with premium selections for purchase
  
• Limited lounge seating (first come, first served)
  
• Commemorative laminate badge
  
• Exclusive ‘The Heart of Town’ poster signed and numbered by the illustrator
  
• Access to private restrooms
  

Please note: All passes are standing room only
Lineup:
Grahame Lesh & Friends with special guests rotating throughout the weekend:

Adam Deitch, Alex Koford, Andy Frasco, Cody Dickinson, Cotter Ellis, Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz, Duane Betts, Elliott Peck, Eric Krasno, Eric Coomes, Garret Deloian, Griffin Goldsmith, Holly Bowling, Ivan Neville, Jackie Greene, Jake Brownstein, Jake Peavy, Jason Crosby, Jennifer Hartswick, Jeremy Hoenig, John Lee Shannon, John Kadlecik, John Medeski, John Molo, JP McLean, Kanika Moore, Karina Rykman, Karl Denson, Leslie Mendelson, Luther Dickinson, Melvin Seals, Mikaela Davis, Natalie Cressman, Nathan Graham, Neal Francis, Nicki Bluhm, Pete Sears, Reed Mathis, Sam Grisman, Scott Law, Steve Molitz, Taylor Goldsmith, Tom Hamilton, Tony Hall, Trevor Weekz

*Lineup subject to change
Venue:
Located just steps from Oracle Park, Pier 48 is a historic waterfront venue that recently hosted the NBA All-Star Concert Series.
'The Heart of Town' will feature a thematic vending village with rows of tapestry and jewelry retailers for ticketholders to peruse and purchase items. Highlighting fan-favorite vendors immersed in projections and flowing tapestries, Pier 48 will transform into a Shakedown Street experience each night.
                 It’s the perfect place to begin the epic weekend and keep the music going.

Quote:

Melvin Seals & JGB w/ Mads TollingStu Allen & Mars Hotel
Special Guests (TBA)

July 21st, 202520 Year Anniversary Jerry Garcia AmphitheaterAugust 1st, 2025 Jerry Garcia Street Sign UnveilingHarrington and Mission (4540 Mission St) - 11am

[b]August 2nd, 2025[/b]

[b]Jerry Day [/b]

[b]Jerry Garcia AmphitheaterMcLaren Park, San Francisco20 year anniversary ofJerry Garcia Amphitheater60 Year Anniversary of Grateful Dead[/b]

August 2nd, 2025First Weekend of August

Jerry Day 2025 - 23rd Anniversary

82nd Birthday Celebration

Jerry Garcia Amphitheater

McLaren Park, San Francisco 

Doors: 11:00am

Start: 11:30am

Melvin Seals & JGBStu Allen & Mars HotelSpecial Guests (TBA)

Jerry Day After Party (5:30pm -10pm):  

TBD@ The Halfway Club - 1166 Geneva Ave - 5:30pmTBD @ Check In Lounge - 201 Ocean Ave - 6pmTBD @ Recovery Room - 4528 Mission St - 6pmTBD @ Excelsior Night Market - Harrington / Mission St - 6pm

Quote:PROMISELANDead 60 Afterparty for the Dead & CO
The Great Northern
15696 followers
Dead 60 Afterparty for the Dead and Co Shows in Golden Gate Park LATE NIGHT DEAD ALL STARS With JOE MARCINEK, Angeline Saris, Stephanie Salva Little John with Matt Hartle on live guitar Mason’s Children Floratura (Live) Visuals by Stefan G
Events in this collection

• 
  PROMISELAND: Dead 60 Afterparty w/ LATE NIGHT DEAD ALL STARS and MORE!
  Fri, Aug 1 • 10:00 PM
  The Great Northern
  From $25.40
  Save this event: PROMISELAND: Dead 60 Afterparty w/ LATE NIGHT DEAD ALL STARS and MORE!
  
  

[/url]

(07-18-2025, 03:13 PM)Drunk Monk Wrote: I got deadheads who I haven't seen in years reaching out to see if I can add them to the Rock Med list. 

I can not.

Quote:Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart to bring major art show to S.F. ahead of Dead & Company’s sold-out concerts
By Zara Irshad,Staff WriterUpdated July 17, 2025 12:25 p.m.
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Nearly 100 pieces of art made by Mickey Hart will be on view in San Francisco ahead of his three-night stint of Dead & Company performances at Golden Gate Park.
C Flanigan/Getty Images
[url=https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/movies-tv/mickey-hart-espn-documentary-19594159?_gl=1*lctb5e*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE3NTA5ODM1NTIuQ2p3S0NBanczX1BDQmhBMkVpd0FrSF9qNGg3NTZ6a2taenFDYXlYNEgxdmhST0pBcmg5NU5CemgybmlUeXdteFVobEtQa2p2b0NJX2lCb0NkblFRQXZEX0J3RQ..*_gcl_au*MTk1NDkxMTE4MC4xNzUwMDk1Nzgy*_ga*MTY1MzU5NTM3OC4xNzE1OTAwODYz*_ga_56G0ZT3ZD0*czE3NTIyNjM5NzckbzEzMjkkZzEkdDE3NTIyNjg5MzYkajU0JGwwJGgw]Mickey Hart plans to debut his largest-ever art exhibition in San Francisco ahead of two major Grateful Dead 60th anniversary concerts in the city this month.
The Dead drummer, who joined the Bay Area jam band in 1967 and now performs in the spinoff band Dead & Company with fellow Dead veteran Bob Weir, will showcase nearly 100 original paintings and prints as part of “Mickey Hart: Art of the Edge of Magic,” on view from Thursday, July 24, through Sept. 21, at Haight Street Art Center. It will mark Hart’s first art show in a San Francisco museum. 
An opening reception is scheduled at the nonprofit art center from 4-9 p.m. July 31, the night before Dead & Company’s three-night stint at Golden Gate Park.  

“Gronk” is one of nearly 100 pieces by Mickey Hart set to be part of his upcoming exhibit at the Haight Street Art Center.
Courtesy of Mickey Hart
“We have always gravitated to art that transforms and transports viewers,” Kelly Harris, executive director of the Haight Street Art Center, said in a statement. “Hart’s entire musical career has been devoted to doing just that, while his art of the past several decades has expanded this ethos into the visual realm.”

Quote:More Information
“Mickey Hart: Art at the Edge of Magic”: Poured paintings. Noon-6 p.m. Thursday-Sundays. July 24-Sept. 21. Free. Haight Street Art Center, 215 Haight St., S.F. www.haightstreetart.org 

Though he works with paint, Hart rarely uses paintbrushes. Instead, he pours paint onto surfaces, utilizing subwoofer vibrations to shape his works, a process he refers to as “vibrational expressionism.”  
“When I paint, I can feel the vibration, I can see it in the colors,” Hart said in a statement. “This mix is exotic and profound in a vibratory and sensual way. I use musical instruments to create and power the paintings out of the vibrations that are formed. When I approach a canvas, it is just like I approach my drums in performance, with an open mind.”

“Nagara Psychopomp” is one of nearly 100 pieces by Mickey Hart that will be part of his upcoming exhibit at the Haight Street Art Center.
Courtesy of Mickey Hart
Hart plans to show his paintings lit from behind in addition to having pieces on “plexiglass rendered in pigments sensitive to blacklight,” according to the museum. 
The exhibition is also expected to feature the devices Hart uses to create his poured paintings as well as a musical audio experience.
Hart previously brought the immersive art exhibition to Las Vegas to coincide with Dead & Company’s first residency at the Sphere last year. 
“Just like the Grateful Dead’s music transcends the surface level of rock and roll, my art serves as a vessel for raising consciousness, striving to create a slightly better world,” Hart said.


Dead & Company are set to perform in Golden Gate Park on Aug. 1-3, in celebration of the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary.
Adam Pardee/For the S.F. Chronicle
Hart played drums for the Dead from 1967 to 1971. He briefly left the band after his father, the Dead’s money manager at the time, was found embezzling approximately $155,000 of the group’s profits. Mickey Hart was not involved in the scandal and eventually rejoined the Dead in 1974. He performed with the band until its final show in 1995 and has since continued collaborating with former Dead members in projects like The Other Ones, The Dead and, since 2015, Dead & Company.
Meanwhile, Grahame Lesh, son of the late Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, who died in October, is also hosting his own string of concerts for Deadheads to enjoy during the milestone celebration later this month. 
His three-night concert series, titled Heart of Town, is set to run July 31 through Aug. 2, at Pier 48. It will feature performances from Grahame’s jam band, Grahame Lesh & Friends, as well as other artists such as Santa Ana saxophonist Karl Denson, Louisville jazz musician John Medeski and New York indie rock singer Karina Rykman.  

(05-29-2025, 02:16 PM)Greg Wrote: Since you will be at the concert, I guess you won't be backpacking with us in August?

Quote:Grateful Dead’s Shakedown Street goes legit for Golden Gate Park shows
By Aidin Vaziri,Staff WriterJuly 15, 2025


A sign is posted at Shakedown Street along the San Francisco Bay Trail outside Oracle Stadium before the first of three Dead & Company concerts in July 2023. Shakedown Street, an area where fans of the band buy food, clothes and other goods, will be a sanctioned event at the band’s August shows this year. 
Adam Pardee/For the S.F. Chronicle

As Grateful Dead veterans Bob Weir and Mickey Hart return to their spiritual home for Dead & Company’s celebratory run of shows in Golden Gate Park, the legendary Shakedown Street is once again setting up shop, this time with civic coordination.
This year’s incarnation of the free-spirited marketplace, which has followed the Dead since the 1980s, is scheduled to run from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 1-3, along a 200-foot stretch of JFK Promenade between Transverse and Blue Heron Lake drives.
The location sits about a mile east of the Polo Fields, where Dead & Company is set to perform each day for an expected 60,000 fans, joined by special guests Trey Anastasio, Billy Strings and Sturgill Simpson.


Longtime Deadhead and clothing designer Molly Henderson, left, a San Francisco native who previously organized markets for the band’s shows at Oracle Park and the Sphere in Las Vegas, is leading the effort to organize Shakedown Street for Dead & Company’s Golden Gate Park concerts.
Courtesy of Molly Henderson

Longtime Deadhead and clothing designer Molly Henderson, a San Francisco native who previously organized markets for the band’s shows at Oracle Park and the Sphere in Las Vegas, is leading the effort in partnership with Jay and Liora Soladay and Sunshine Powers, owner of Love on Haight.
“Shakedown Street is a part of the culture of the whole Grateful Dead scene. It’s an integral part of the Deadhead experience,” Henderson told the Chronicle. “It began during the counterculture movement. People created a way to barter their wares to make their way to the next city.”
Now a sanctioned event, the market will feature nearly 100 vendors selling tie-dye apparel, handmade jewelry, vintage Grateful Dead merchandise, original prints, patches and collectible posters.


Dead & Company perform their second set during the first of three concerts in San Francisco in July 2023.
Adam Pardee/For the S.F. Chronicle

“It’s a vibrant, colorful bazaar of modern-day hippies selling their wares,” Henderson said.

Quote:More Information
Shakedown Street: 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Aug. 1-3. Free. JFK Promenade between Transverse and Blue Heron Lake drives, Golden Gate Park, S.F.
Dead & Company: Celebrating 60 Years of the Grateful Dead’s Music: 4 p.m. Aug. 1-3. Tickets start at $245. Polo Field, Golden Gate Park, S.F. www.ticketmaster.com

Organizers collaborated with city officials and concert promoters to secure permits and minimize disruption to nearby neighborhoods.
“There were a lot of logistics involved,” Henderson said. “The vendors are coming no matter what. Having a sanctioned, safe place for this to happen was a large consideration.”
Auxiliary markets and events are expected to pop up across the city to mark the 60th anniversary of the Dead, including the Heart of Town concert series at Pier 48, Jerry Day in McLaren Park, and activations in the Haight and Sunset neighborhoods.

Quote:Grateful Dead offshoot's SF shows to be a historic first for legal weed

Jerry Garcia, guitarist and singer for the rock group the Grateful Dead, smokes a marijuana cigarette.
Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS/VCG via Getty Images/Illustration by SFGATE
By Lester Black,Cannabis editorJuly 22, 2025
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The Grateful Dead is almost synonymous with cannabis. The band is [url=https://www.sfgate.com/cannabis/article/original-420-cannabis-party-was-in-san-francisco-20277215.php]likely the reason 420 became an international code word for cannabis, and for over half a century, the band’s fans have been buying, selling and smoking marijuana in the parking lots surrounding its shows.

But for the first time in history, fans at next month’s Dead and Company shows in Golden Gate Park will be able to purchase cannabis legally, according to Robby Saady, a vice president at Holistic Industries, which is the parent company for the Garcia Hand Picked cannabis brand. 
The Dead and Company shows are slated to take place at the park’s Polo Field and feature a cannabis consumption lounge and marketplace, similar to how the Outside Lands music festival has set up a legal place to buy and smoke pot. Saady called the upcoming legal cannabis sales a “major milestone” for cannabis culture. 
“It’s hard to overstate how symbolic it is to offer legal cannabis at Golden Gate Park, where the Dead once played for free to crowds gathered on the grass. What was once underground and countercultural is now out in the open. That shift says a lot about how far things have come,” Saady said in an emailed statement to SFGATE.

Deadheads attend a Grateful Dead and Jefferson Starship Concert in Golden Gate Park on Sept. 28, 1975. 
Terry Schmitt/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead performs live at Golden Gate Park in 1975 in San Francisco.
Richard McCaffrey/Michael Ochs Archive/ Getty Images
https://s.hdnux.com/photos/01/53/57/22/28243125/3/ratio16x9_960.webp
Deadheads attend a Grateful Dead and Jefferson Starship Concert in Golden Gate Park on Sept. 28, 1975.
Terry Schmitt/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
The city expects up to 60,000 people to attend each of the sold-out Dead and Company shows, which are also scheduled to include performances by Billy Strings, Sturgill Simpson and Trey Anastasio. Dead and Company features original Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart, as well as new members like John Mayer. The band has been touring since 2015.


Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead plays live in front of a large Polo Field crowd on May 7, 1969, at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
This year’s shows are also slated to mark the California return of Garcia Hand Picked, a cannabis brand created by Jerry Garcia’s surviving family members. Despite Garcia growing up in San Francisco and being an iconic California cannabis celebrity, the brand left the state in 2023. Its unexpected departure was seen as a bellwether for the major challenges facing California’s legal cannabis companies, which have complained about high regulatory costs and competition from the illicit market.
The Garcia Hand Picked brand is partnering with local retailer Solful for a limited-edition run of three different pre-roll varieties, with packs of Orange Sunshine grown by Alpenglow Farms, Klamath River Chemdog from Terapin Farms, and Green Lantern grown by Greenshock Farms. The retailer plans to sell the joints at Golden Gate Park during the Dead and Company shows and at its three locations. Single pre-rolls will be $12, with five-packs selling for $40.

Quote:Muni Is Truckin’ Grateful Dead-Themed Buses for Next Weekend’s Big Dead & Co. Concerts


Your next Muni vessel might look like an LSD sunshine daydream, as the 7-Haight/Noriega, 5-Fulton, and N-Judah lines now have these psychedelic themed transit vehicles to whisk people to and from Golden Gate Park.
We are now ten days from the very-much-ballyhooed Dead & Company concerts in Golden Gate Park (August 1-3), set to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Grateful Dead. And we’ve all had long and strange trips while riding Muni, but this takes it to the next level. The Chronicle reports that on Tuesday morning, Muni rolled out Grateful Dead-themed buses and light-rail trains with psychedelic exterior takeover-wrapping, saying that each of these buses “looks more like an acid flashback,” and assures you that “you’re not tripping” if you see them. (Note: You still might be tripping, regardless!)
Here’s Mayor Daniel Lurie at his Tuesday morning press conference introducing the designs, which will be wrapped on vessels covering the 7-Haight/Noriega, 5-Fulton, and N-Judah lines. (Each of these lines goes to and from Golden Gate Park.) These vehicles entered service today, and the Chron says “The colorful buses will likely run through the rest of the summer.”
Lurie’s office said in a press release that “The ‘PsychideliBus’ and ‘TrippyTrain’ designs include iconic tie-dye, paisley, and 1960s and ‘70s design elements capturing the cultural phenomenon influenced by the Grateful Dead in San Francisco’s legendary Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.”

Image: @DanielLurie via Twitter

Here’s a look a full bus with the tripped-out design. Lurie’s release adds that “The 60th anniversary concert series is expected to increase transit ridership as concertgoers and fans take public transit to easily move to, from, and around San Francisco.”
Wait, will people who paid $635 for these tickets willingly be relegated to public transportation? They might, because Muni will be free all weekend to anyone who has tickets (and the concert route will likely be so packed that fare inspectors won’t even bother with those buses). Lurie’s office says that the free Muni deal is “In partnership with Another Planet Entertainment,” so it sounds like Another Planet kicked something in to sweeten this deal.

Image: @DanielLurie via Twitter

And what’s this tie-dye Muni t-shirt being held aloft by Lurie, and being worn by SFMTA director Julie Kirschbaum? Is this shirt available to the general public?

Screenshot: The Muni Store

Yep, it’s called the “Psychedelic Muni Tie-Dye Shirt, Unisex” and it is available now in the Muni Store for $25, in sizes Small through 3X-Large.

There will probably be some complaints about the cost of this promotion, as unlike those Lunchables ads that covered buses in the 2022 back-to-school season, this is not a paid promotion. The Chronicle reports that SFMTA "paid for them from the agency’s marketing budget.”
But the cost was probably pretty marginal. It appears there are only three individual Muni vehicles with this wrap-around design. So that means if you are heading to Golden Gate Park for the Dead and Company shows, you are statistically unlikely to get one of these Dead-themed vehicles.
But if you’re going to those shows, there is a ‘high’ likelihood you will be experiencing some of the same hallucinations that inspired the design.