By Lorraine Meier
The city of San Francisco celebrated 60 years of Grateful Dead's music and introduced the red carpet for The Dead & Company last month. At the celebrations, buses in San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) were gratefully inspired psychedelic colors, a special rose that was planted in the Rose Garden by Golden Gate Park and the most expected celebrations on the Polo Field and on the first weekend of August.
Tickets were sold out almost immediately after the sale. One-day tickets for $ 245 and the weekend pass cost $ 635. There was a VIP -Ticket level at $ 1,725 and a “Golden Road Super VIP” ticket for 6,346 US dollars, which was referred to as a “top level”.
Picket prices were formerly sold out at resale locations such as Stubhub, with some tickets for 10,000 US dollars.
Ticketmaster had nominal value tickets in the weeks before the shows, and one-day tickets were available at the box office on the days.
“A limited number of tickets takes place for the artist when the show is for sale,” said Ruth Carlton, Senior Vice President for concert operations in another planetary entertainment. “All non -required tickets are often published to the public, usually in the days or weeks before the event. This is a standard practice in the live music industry.”
These celebrations brought an estimated 180,000 Dead & Co. super fans to the districts in West Side together with a number of people looking for tickets.
Mint Wilson from Sausalito went around “Search for a miracle” with a finger – her plea was a piece on the grateful dead song “I need a miracle”.
“I'm looking for a bracelet to enter the show,” said Wilson. “Six of my friends got free bracelets. Five of them for all three shows. I had to work, so I came to my friends here.”
The goals for the festival were opened every day at 2:30 p.m.
On the park's Richmond editor's side, the entrance to the north gate proved to be chaotic, since many concert goers arrived at 6 a.m. and formed two different lines along the sidewalk in Fulton Street and other queues in the entire park. At least five separate lines that have merged in thousands of ticket doors, many are striving to be as close as possible on the stage as possible.
An apparently less chaotic entry -level process occurred at the South Gate input of the sunset in the 34th Avenue in the park. People sit down there at 7:30 a.m.
There was a first entry -level lottery system via a randomized drawing, with which the Ticket fans, when they were selected, are the first to enter the event location. 250 places were selected for each day.
Cherie L. traveled for the shows from St. Louis, Mo. “I paid the nominal value for tickets when they went on sale and tried for the lottery, but was not selected,” she said. So she first sat in the VIP line for the Saturday show at noon.
Some fans managed to hear the performance without a ticket. One of these people, a man who identified himself as a “fish” from the state of Washington, sat right in front of the concert site to listen to the music.
“I don't have a ticket,” he said. “I drove here in my van here and parked it in Bernal (Heights).
Psychedelic Muni
Muni buses have been specially set up to celebrate the landmark with tailor -made psychedelic designs. The decorated vehicles drove on three routes that could get to the concert: 5-fulton, 7-noriega and n-Judah.
Muni also offered $ 25 T-shirts to commemorate the opportunity.
The wrap campaigns of San Francisco Public Transportation are usually paid for by advertisers, but the city financed the three grateful, smooth vehicles from the marketing budget of Muni, partly due to the economic increase that the city expected from the events had expected.
According to the data of the mayor Daniel Lurie's office, the August concerts brought more than 150 million US dollars into the city's economy.
Shakedown Street
Not all events related to the concerts took place on the concert area. On John F. Kennedy Promenade, about a mile east of the Polo Fields, the city sanctioned a 200-foot route of the promenade from the Quervers Drive to Blue Heron Lake Drive to become “Shakedown Street” for the first weekend in August.
The Shakedown Street has followed the dead for decades. It is a marketplace that is usually organic and not organized and planned, with providers selling clothing, handmade jewelry, posters, patches and dead for dead dead tie-dye. It is usually set up in a parking lot next to the venue.
“The department for relaxation and park in San Francisco enabled Molly Henderson from Noel Mae Designs to organize Shakedown Street at the latest death and company concert,” said Tamara Aparton, deputy director of communication and public affairs for Rec. And Park. “Providers have applied directly via Ms. Henderson, who rated the participants in accordance with the provisions of the approval. A sales committee selected participants based on criteria that prioritized local dealers and artists who offer handmade, diverse goods that are suitable for the Gratful Dead Fan community.”
Henderson did not respond to inquiries for an interview.
Sunshine Powers, one of the organizers of the Shakedown Street, said that there was “a sanctioned event. One who was regulated. We did not want the community to burden it.”
Around 100 providers were allowed in the room, many arrived from the whole nation to sell their goods on the street. Brant and Lindsey Waite traveled from Texas to be part of the celebrations. Your business, Shakedown Streetwear, sells small clothes.
In other places “you may have to pay a fee of 100 US dollars for the facility in other places” you may have to pay a fee for the setup, as it is parking spaces that you take. And sometimes you didn't have to pay anything at all, “said Brant.
The Waites said they paid $ 700 for their place and a reimbursable deposit of $ 150 for the imprisonment if a chaos was left.
“It was worth it,” said Lindsey. “There is also a security aspect of it because they provide patrol overnight so that we can set up our status. They put fences and porta potties and other things that they would not just have in a parking space.”
“Seller fees were determined and collected by the organizer, with Rec. And Park, who received 10% of the gross revenue for the required stand fees,” said Aparton.
Many providers who have joined not had the right permission to sell their goods at the event.
“There was not much enforcement in some of these areas,” remarked Powers.
Aparton said that the city had its own enforcement teams in the park to “pursue the illegal authors, including Park Rangers, inspection supervisory authorities for public work, employees of the Ministry of Health and Official Officials in San Francisco.”
“During the dead and company weekend, they confiscated 17 hot dog carts, 145 laughing gas containers, 17 coolers and various amounts of goods, including drinks, alcohol and food that are sold,” added Aparton.
“The unhealthy providers took shops from other companies,” said Powers.
Some of the non -authorized providers sold illegal substances, dozens of large balloons filled with laughing gas (NO2) – generally known as laughing gas.
“Ice Cold Fatties. Get your ice -cold fats. Three for $ 20, one for 10,” shouted some non -stationed providers.
NO2 is known for inhaling for its euphoric, hallucinogenic effects. The legality of the nitrous gas oxide depends on what it is used for. It has legitimate uses in medical and industrial applications, but the use and sale of free time is illegal.
Although illegal, there is a long -term connection between this gas and the Grateful Dead.
As mentioned in Dennis McNally's book “A long, strange journey”, “the Grateful Dead was indeed very stoned when it recorded Aoxomoxoa. They brought learning casting tanks to the studio and really lost themselves in the mix!”
Thousands of emptied balloons littered the park to the concerts, some of which were present on Park Trails in the following days.
On Saturday, August 2, police officers arrested a 32-year-old man from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the second day of the festival, and confiscated 100 metal-lax-tanned people and numerous balloon, while he patrol into the area of the 35th Avenue and the Fulton Street.
Grateful Dead Rose
Outside the more chaotic additions to the districts, the rose from Grateful Dead is now a permanent addition to the park's rose garden. Wendy Weir, Grateful Dead founding member and guitarist Bob Weir's sister, turned to JB Williams and Associates, an independent plant hybridizer specializing in roses, with the idea of making a special rose to commemorate the band.
The Ruby Red Grateful Dead Rose is a hybrid of two different flowers, which according to ABC News lasted two years.
A red rose was associated with the Grateful Dead, which return to 1966, and the album of the Skull and Roses album on the album “Gratful Dead” from 1971. “The Rose” by The Grateful Dead will be available to the public in limited quantities. You can find more information at gratitude Fuldadadrose.com.
“Next year, another Planet entertainment will be obliged to negotiate a new agreement with the city via external countries,” said District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio. “This new agreement requires the approval of the Supervisory Board. Every new agreement must ensure that the participation of local retailers gives more options, the feedback from the residents is processed quickly and the access of the community to the Golden Gate Park is received during the event setup and the staging.”
The music will come back to the Golden Gate Park in October with the hardly strictly strictly strictly strictly strict Bluegrass Festival. The following weekend on October 11th, the Midway SF will present the global superstar Khalid and join him, LauV will be in Robin Williams Meadow.