Original Grateful Dead Members Plan 60th Anniversary Celebration

Dead & Company will host The Bay area's biggest festival this year

The original members of the Grateful Dead are planning a homecoming of historic proportions to mark the band's 60th anniversary. Bob Weir and Mickey Hart, two of the founding members of the legendary San Francisco group, will reunite with their bandmates in Dead & Company for a three-night celebration at the iconic Polo Fields of Golden Gate Park from August 1 to 3.

The event is being billed as a once-in-a-lifetime tribute to the music, community, and counterculture spirit that the Grateful Dead helped spark in the 1960s. With Dead & Company leading the charge, the anniversary shows will draw from six decades of music, memory, and improvisational magic that turned a Bay Area bar band into a global phenomenon.

Dead & Company—formed in 2015—features Weir and Hart alongside guitarist John Mayer, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, bassist Oteil Burbridge, and drummer Jay Lane. The band recently wrapped up a high-tech residency at Las Vegas' Sphere and now returns to the city where it all began. For Deadheads, the Polo Fields are sacred ground—home to early free concerts by the Grateful Dead, including those with Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane.

Special guests for the weekend add even more firepower to the celebration. Bluegrass phenom Billy Strings opens on August 1. Country-rocker Sturgill Simpson, performing under his new moniker Johnny Blue Skies, and the Trey Anastasio Band—featuring the Phish frontman who famously shared the Fare Thee Well stage with Weir and company back in 2015 will round out the celebrations.

Tickets go on sale to the general public May 30^th. Up to 60,000 fans are expected each day, making it one of the summer’s biggest music events.

These will be the band’s first Bay Area shows since 2023 and their first hometown performance since the death of founding bassist Phil Lesh in late 2024. While Lesh hadn’t toured with Dead & Company, his influence still looms large over the band's legacy and sound.

Adding to the celebration, the Grateful Dead will also release a new box set on May 30 as part of a yearlong campaign marking the band’s 60th year. That release promises to offer rare and remastered live recordings spanning the Dead’s vast career.

In a press release, Bob Weir reflected on the band’s journey from the Haight-Ashbury to stadiums and back: “San Francisco is where it all started, and it’s the only place something like this could happen.”

For fans, the message is simple: after 60 years, the music never stopped—and this summer, it comes home.

Sources:

• Pitchfork
• San Francisco Chronicle
• Funcheap SF
• The Bay 88.7