Dead & Company Will Play Three 60th Anniversary Shows at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in August

Dead & Company will wrap up the group’s run at Sphere in Las Vegas this weekend, but that will not mark an end to to the live commemoration of the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary this year. On Tuesday, word got out that the spinoff group will play three shows this summer at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

The concerts will take place on three consecutive days, Aug. 1-3, in the famed park. Although no official announcement or statement has yet been forthcoming from the band, the news came from a pretty reliable source in San Francisco.

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The announcement was made by Daniel Lurie, mayor of San Francisco, in a tweeted video filmed in front of an expansive lawn at Golden Gate Park and posted on X Monday morning.

“We have some really big news,” Lurie says in the short video. “Dead & Co., three shows, August 1, 2 and 3, right here in the city that is the home of the Grateful Dead. What better way to celebrate. We’ll see you out here in August.”

Band reps did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the caption for the video indicated that the band will be formally issuing information about the concerts soon. “Stay tuned for more details from the band coming soon!” it read.

The San Francisco Standard reported that the concerts still have to be approved by the Recreation and Park Commission at a meeting Thursday, which may be the band’s reasoning for holding off on an official announcement. But the mayor obviously felt confident enough about getting a rubber stamp to let the cat out of the bag.

The August shows are expected to draw as many as 60,000 fans a day.

It will be the first appearance for Dead & Company in San Francisco since the band’s farewell tour, during which they played for three nights at Oracle Park on July 14-16, 2023.

Some fans or observers have been confused about why Dead & Company is continuing to do concerts after the farewell tour — but, as with Elton John’s farewell tour, none of these artists declared that they were doing a final concert, only that they were giving up being on the road.

In the Dead offshoot group’s case, the only concerts the band has done since the farewell tour — up until these forthcoming SF shows — have been the 2024 and 2025 residencies at Sphere, plus a set at the MusiCares salute to the Grateful Dead at the L.A. Convention Center earlier this year.

Besides the 60th anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s first concerts, 2025 also marks the 10-year anniversary of Dead & Company. The group includes original members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart, joined by John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, Jeff Chimenti and Jay Lane.

Dead & Company has not performed at Golden Gate Park during those 10 years, but Far Out magazine says the original Grateful Dead played there “at least” 14 times.

“Deadhead consensus agrees that at least 14 free shows were played at Golden Gate,” the magazine has written, “likely starting with their billing along with Big Brother and the Holding Company at the ’66 Love Pageant Rally in the park’s panhandle section, protesting the Californian state legislature’s ban on LSD. … In 1991, the band played its last show in the park — a tribute to concert promoter Bill Graham, who died in a helicopter crash days earlier.”

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