- By Natalia Gurevich | Examiner staff writer
- Aug 4, 2025 (SFExaminer.com)
The significance of the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary last weekend was not lost on the tens of thousands of Deadheads who descended upon Golden Gate Park to commemorate it.
Dead & Company’s trio of sold-out San Francisco shows celebrated the original band’s milestone anniversary in the city where the group’s legendary run began.
“I never saw the Grateful Dead on the West Coast, here in their home, in San Francisco,” said Kevin Sweat, who said he moved from the East Coast to the San Francisco Bay Area 15 years ago with his wife, Jennifer. “So for me, it’s amazing. It’s a wonderful feeling.”
Kevin Sweat said the couple has seen Dead & Company perform across the country since it formed 10 years ago. He was in the crowd at Jerry Garcia’s last Grateful Dead show on July 9, 1995 at Chicago’s Soldier Field — a month before the founding frontman’s death — and the Sweats were there in San Francisco on Garcia’s birthday Friday.
“I didn’t make that connection until just now, and it just smacked me in the face,” Jennifer Sweat said. “Like, ‘Whoa, that’s right.’”
Organizers sold 57,000 tickets for each of the three days, which featured special guest sets from Billy Strings, Sturgill Simpson and Trey Anastasio Band. Many of the Sweats’ fellow attendees had unique personal stories.
When asked for his favorite song, Bay Area resident Joe Berg struggled to choose, saying it depended on the day.
“That’s a trick question, man,” Berg said. “Can I give you ten?”
“You can’t have an answer to that question for the Dead, it’s a shade of grey for everything,” he said. “Depending on the situation, that song comes into it, and that’s your favorite song.”
But many others singled out “Ripple,” from the album “American Beauty,” which was released in 1970 along with the single “Truckin.”
Berg said he and his wife, Laura, got married to the former song last year. Laura Berg isn’t as passionate a fan as her husband, she has grown to love both the song and the original band over the years as well.
“Once you go, you’re into it,” she said of the shows. “The live music, everyone’s really nice to each other. It’s a good vibe.”
Mike Eastman, who said he first saw the Dead perform back in 1982, said not much about San Francisco had changed since, except it “didn’t smell as much like urine” back then.
“It smelled more like jet fuel and salt water,” he said, chuckling that he was just “trying to paint a picture.”
Eastman, who trekked to San Francisco from Tennessee for the weekend, had just met the Bergs on their first afternoon of the show. The group insisted on getting a photo together to remember the moment, with which The Examiner’s reporter was happy to oblige.
The crowd’s intense camaraderie continued over the weekend, with people making new connections, exchanging hugs, and sharing drinks among the sea of tie-dye. But the love of the group spanned generations as well.
Audrey Heinze, whose parents introduced her to the Dead, shared that love with her now-adult daughter, Mackenzie Toddes.
“This is the genesis of this magic,” Heinze said of the event. “For every day, every mood that you’re having, there’s a Dead song that corresponds to it.”
The duo had driven to San Francisco all the way from Pennsylvania for the show, and the crowd was a bit overwhelming for Toddes, who said it was larger than she’d expected, but in a “fun way.”
Heinze said that one of the best things about coming to these shows — last week was her 15th — is the people.
“Everyone here is a friend you haven’t made yet,” she said.
Stefan Nilsen and Michaela Edwards had made the drive to The City from Yosemite with friends, and agreed that the ambience of the fan base was a key part in what made their love of the Dead so deep.
“It’s not always about specifically the music,” Edwards said. “It’s about the experience, the community.”
“I think about what life was like, what the world was like when these guys started — so much has changed,” Nilsen said about the Dead. “But it feels like this has remained, which is the community aspect.”
Nilsen and Edwards’ parents were also into the Dead, so Nilsen said the duo considers themselves as having “inherited the fandom.”
Edwards said that she grew up hearing from her dad about the shows he went to in the 1970s and ’80s. Now that her parents have reached an age where it’s harder for them physically to attend this type of event, it means a lot for her to be able to continue in their spirit.
“I just feel very fortunate that I’m able to go with my buddies, doing what they did, when they were 30 years old,” she said.
