On a special edition of SiriusXM’s Tales from the Golden Road, Relix/Jambands.com publisher Peter Shapiro confirmed that the core four surviving members of the Grateful Dead will play two additional Fare Thee Well shows. The performances will take place at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA on June 27-28. As with the previously announced three-night run at Soldier Field, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir will be joined by Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio, pianist Bruce Hornsby and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti.
In a letter from the band that was read during the broadcast (full text below), the core four said, “If we get to go back to Chicago to say goodbye, it has become clear to us that we also need to go back to our beginnings, where we first said hello — to each other and to all of you.”
The letter addressed the unprecedented demand for the Soldier Field shows. The statement notes, “None of us expected the massive outpouring of love following our initial announcement, and we were blown away by the response to our shows at Soldier Field.” The band added they “tried to do the right thing” when it came to the Chicago shows, and that they were unhappy to see overpriced tickets on the secondary market as well.
The letter also confirms that 70,000 tickets per night will be available via an online mail-order ticketing platform. That number is an increase from the Chicago shows, where 60,000 mail order tickets were issued for the entire run.
The letter closes with a statement that there will not be any more Fare Thee Well Shows. “The three Chicago shows will be our final stand,” it reads. “We agreed to these two Santa Clara shows as a way to enable more of you to celebrate with us one more time, but this is it.”
Ticketing information for the Santa Clara Fare Thee Well shows can be found at Dead50.net.
Dear Heads,
In 1995, Grateful Dead ended its long, strange trip in Chicago, although none of us knew that when we walked off-stage at Soldier Field that final night. As you are aware, 20 years later, we’re returning to Chicago to say Fare Thee Well, properly.
Every good ending must start with a beginning. 50 years ago, we — Bobby, Billy, Phil, Pigpen, and Jerry — grabbed some instruments from the walls of a music store in Palo Alto, and we began banging away on them in the back room, at night, when the store would close for the evening.
If we get to go back to Chicago to say goodbye, it has become clear to us that we also need to go back to our beginnings, where we first said hello — to each other and to all of you.
So it is that, on June 27 and 28, we will plug in for two shows at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, 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.
To be clear, all five of these final Fare Thee Well shows came together because we want to celebrate the incredible community that you’ve created with us. These shows are intended as our thank you — to both the fans and the music.
Ours wasn’t just a long, strange trip… It was a VERY long, VERY strange trip! We were not sure what it was going to be like to put a punctuation mark on the end of it. None of us expected the massive outpouring of love following our initial announcement, and we were blown away by the response to our shows at Soldier Field.
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 considered ways to honor the roots of our Deadhead experience, even in the face of changing technologies. Remember, Ticketmaster didn’t even go on-line until we got out of the game.
Approximately half of the initial Soldier Field tickets were sold through our traditional mail-order process, which we revived for these three shows as a service to you. All told, 60,000 tickets were issued for the Chicago shows by the kind folks at Grateful Dead Ticketing. Yet, we were still crushed to see how many of your beautifully designed envelopes did not get tickets.
For shows of this magnitude, it would be impossible to eliminate every scalper. However, we offer you this: working with our partners, we are using an on-line mail-order ticketing platform for the Levi’s shows that will help facilitate tickets getting into the right hands — into the hands of our fans. We believe, given the short window of time until June, that this is the best way to give each of you an equal opportunity to buy tickets. We are happy to say that 70,000 tickets per night will be available via the on-line 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 agreed to these two Santa Clara shows as a way to enable more of you to celebrate with us one more time, but this is it.
We love you guys, and we hope to see you in the Bay Area or Chicago. If you can’t make it out, we are working on ways for you to still experience the shows, wherever you might be. Stay tuned for those details…
Fare thee well,
Billy, Bobby, Mickey & Phil
As previously reported, the Chicago Fare Thee Well shows will take place from July 3-5. The performances will also mark the 20th anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s final shows, which took place at Solider Field on July 8 and 9, 1995. Lesh, Hart, Weir, Kreutzmann and Hornsby will all also perform with their individual projects at Columbia, MD’s Merriweather Post Pavilion on May 14 as part of the Dear Jerry all-star celebration.
No Comments comments associated with this post