The Dead

[Drunk Monk]

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/01/53/57/22/2...9_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.

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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.

Furthur...