Grateful Dead Announce Additional Fare Thee Well Shows In Bay Area

After crushing demand for the initially announced Fare Thee Well shows at Soldier Field in Chicago 4th of July weekend, the Grateful Dead have announced additional shows to take place June 27-28 in Santa Clara, CA on their Bay Area home turf. The remaining members of the band made the announcement in a letter today.

Dear Heads,

Although none of us knew it when we walked off the stage at Soldier Field on July 9, 1995, the Grateful Dead’s long strange trip ended in Chicago that night. As you are aware, twenty years later, we’re returning to Chicago to properly say Fare Thee Well.

But every good ending must start with a beginning. For us, it all began fifty years ago when we grabbed a bunch of instruments off the walls of a music store in Palo Alto California and began banging away on them in the back room, at night after the store had closed for the day.

Since we made the decision to go back to Chicago to say our final goodbye, it has become clear to us that we first need to return to our beginnings, where we first said hello — to each other and to all of you.

And so it is that we have decided to plug in for two additional shows on June 27 and 28 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California — just a dozen miles south of where Dana Morgan’s Music Store once stood. At Levi’s — as at Soldier Field — we will have the pleasure of being joined by Trey Anastasio, Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti.

Ours wasn’t just a long, strange trip — it was a VERY long, VERY strange trip. We weren’t sure what it was going to be like to put a punctuation mark on the end of it. None of us anticipated the overwhelming outpouring of love and interest following our initial announcement of the shows at Soldier Field, and we were blown away by the response.

We have tried to do the right thing wherever we could for the Chicago shows by honoring the roots of where we came from, while dealing with the realities of the current times. But that’s hardly comforting when you’re shit outta luck for tickets and your only option is inflated prices on secondary ticketing websites. That would piss us off too.

From the moment these shows were first talked about, we have been thinking about what we could do to honor the roots of our Deadhead experience, even in the face of changing technologies. (Remember: Ticketmaster didn’t even go online until we got out of the game.) These shows were always intended as an expression of our gratitude, to both the music and the fans, so it’s important that we get things as right as we can.

We have always been proud of our in-house mail order ticketing process, and the phenomenal way our fans have built a tradition out of turning a standard envelope into a frame-worthy piece of art. Some 60,000 mail order tickets were issued for the Soldier Field shows by the good folks at Grateful Dead Ticket Sales — yet we were still crushed to see how many of your beautifully designed envelopes did not get tickets.

For shows of this magnitude, it’s impossible to eliminate every scalper. However, we offer you this: Working with our partners, we are using an online ticketing platform for the Levi’s shows that will help ensure that the tickets for these shows will get into the right hands, the hands of our true fans. We believe that this process is the best way to give each of you an equal opportunity to obtain tickets at the most affordable possible prices. We are are proud to announce that 65,000 tickets per night will be available via the “online mail order” for the Levi’s shows. For the nuts and bolts, go to Dead50.net.

We will not be adding any more Fare Thee Well shows. The three Chicago shows will still be our final stand. We decided to add these two Santa Clara shows to enable more of our fans to celebrate with us one more time. But this is it.

We love you guys more than words can tell, and hope to see you in the Bay Area or Chicago. If you can’t make it to the shows, we are working on ways for you to still experience our Fare Thee Well, from wherever you might be. Stay tuned for those details.

Gratefully yours,

Billy, Bobby, Mickey & Phil

These shows will most definitely sell out as fast as the other ones. Ticketing info can be found below:

All tickets for the Levi’s Stadium shows are available now through this on-line ticketing system through Tuesday April 14 at 11:59PM EDT.

All requests, regardless of when they are placed, are treated equally in the system. You can request tickets to one or both shows, but your entire ticket request for all shows must be placed at one time.

Please note that depending upon the demand for tickets, we may not be able to fulfill every request that we receive. This allotment will contain tickets in all areas in the venue across all price levels where applicable, including general admission pit, general admission floor, reserved seats in front of the stage, as well as side and rear limited view seats.

The request time ends: Tuesday April 14 at 11:59PM EDT

PURCHASING INSTRUCTIONS

This form serves as a request form only. Filling out this form does not guarantee that you will receive tickets. You are not actually purchasing anything at this time, rather you are adding your name to the list from which ticket buyers will be randomly selected.

All requests are subject to availability. No Refunds. No Exchanges.

Please note there is a four ticket limit per show (two Taper Ticket limit)

Only one request will be accepted per person, household, or credit card. We will conduct a thorough sweep of all orders and disqualify any order that exceeds our ticket limit. If you wish to request tickets for more than one show, you must do so all at once in the same ticket request.

To request tickets for multiple shows:

select the first show you want to request tickets for
then choose the quantity and type of tickets for your request
click ‘Add to Cart’
repeat this process for the second show
Select ‘Continue’ to proceed and finalize your ticket request

Our shows have multiple tickets prices.

In trying to be sympathetic to everyone’s budgets, we have grouped our ticket request types into four options:

Option 1: Best Available

Puts your request in the running for tickets in any of the six prices including general admission pit, general admission floor, reserved front of stage, as well as side and rear of stage limited view seating.

You would be eligible to receive tickets in the following price categories: $199.50, $149.50, $119.50, $99.50, $79.50, and $59.50.

The ticket price listed on the ticket request is the highest priced ticket you can expect to purchase should you be granted tickets. If you are selected for tickets and the top priced tickets are no longer available, you may be granted lower priced tickets and will be charged the appropriate amount.

Option 2: Top Four Tiers

Puts your request in the running for tickets only the top four prices including general admission pit, general admission floor, as well as reserved front of stage.

You would be eligible to receive tickets in the following price categories: $199.50, $149.50, $119.50, $99.50

Option 3: Lowest Three Tiers

Puts your request in the running for tickets only in the lowest three ticket prices including general admission pit, reserved front of stage, as well as side and rear of stage limited view seating.

You would be eligible to receive tickets in the following price categories: $99.50, $79.50, $59.50

Option 4: Taper Only

(two ticket limit per show)
Puts your request in the running for tickets in the Taper section of the general admission floor area @ $199.50

What is a Taper Ticket? Taper Tickets are located in the GA Floor section. A designated taper’s ticket is required to bring recording gear into the show. The bearer of a taper’s ticket is permitted to bring ONE audio recording device and ONE microphone stand/set of microphones into the venue. No video devices are ever allowed. The enjoyment of the audience at a show takes precedence over recording efforts – tapers should not require others to be quiet or otherwise interfere with their enjoyment of the show. If all Taper tickets are sold out and your request is granted, you will be given non-Taper ticket(s) in the best available location across all prices.

The request period ends Tuesday April 14 at 11:59AM EDT

Ticket prices do not include a $4.00 facility fee and service fees.

Our technology will randomly select the orders, assign seats, charge credit cards and all customers will be notified whether they will receive tickets or not.

We are excited to once again team up with CID Entertainment, offering Ticket and Travel Packages that will enhance your experience in Santa Clara!CID Experiences include premium seats and amenities. Travel Packages offer a wide range of hotel choices in the Bay Area with round-trip transportation to Levi’s Stadium included, and can be purchased with your preferred ticket type.