Melvin Seals

Animated attendees gathered for The 14th Annual Gem & Jam Festival (February 4-6, 2022) in the scenic desert landscape of Tucson, Arizona, to be taken away by the audio, escape in the visual, and indulge in a full-spectrum sensory experience—an experience encapsulating even the non-physical depths of community. This art and music festival— with over 250 programmed acts—once again, delivered  unforgettable entertainment, education, and natural beauty.

Melvin Seals and JGB brought their classic Jerry Garcia Band tunes to the sold out Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, CA last Saturday night. Both Seals and the original Sweetwater venue have long time ties to Jerry Garcia, making this performance extra sweet for the band and fans alike.

Today, the torch-bearing Grateful Dead tribute act Dark Star Orchestra announces the lineup for their ninth annual Dark Star Jubilee music festival. Produced by All Good Presents, the event was created as a band-curated continuation of the ongoing celebration of the music of the Grateful Dead, the Dark Star Jubilee has become a Midwest tradition for kicking off the summer season with three-nights of music, camping and community.

SKULL & ROSES is a four-day festival exploring unique Interpretations of Grateful Dead music & the community that surrounds it. The festival was postponed in 2020 and is looking forward to its grand return for the 4th - and what is sure to be the best - installment so far at the holy grail of the West Coast Grateful Dead scene, the Ventura County Fairgrounds (California), from April 7-10, 2022.

Let’s look at the creativity and courageousness exposing the truths, the deep meaning underfoot, like bugs after the rain, this past year has been insane. Rearranged and renamed, complaints unrestrained, this is the new normal. I’d wanted to write scripture about Shoe Fest, some sort of article of faith, a declaration of devotion to what made me fall in love with festivals in the first place… Alas, this is my iconoclast blast that shall be touted on Facebook groups across America, the finest in toilet reading material.

It took 26 months for the second “annual” BeachLife Festival to transpire, September 10-12, but the Covid-19-includes delay only strengthened the shindig’s vision and spirit to deliver a celebratory tip of the cap to the Los Angeles South Bay seaside’s musical and lifestyle identity. The weekend’s music exemplified many genres, but there was a decidedly distinct number of post-punk rock and alt-pop bands who first blazed their ways to glory in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s.

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