Produced as an annual celebration of and fundraiser for Mount Tamalpais State Park by Roots & Branches Conservancy, the annual one-day festival has raised $175,000 for Mount Tam in just its first three years. Last year, San Francisco Magazine named Sound Summit as Best Festival of the North Bay in its annual Best of the Bay issue, citing its quality and intimacy.

Folsom Field – For decades, the venue has been a legendary haven for Deadheads dating back to the early 1970’s. While the Dead had played numerous shows in the Colorado area before, including the Miller Ballroom at CU in ’69, and two acoustic shows in ’70 at the Mammoth Garden (now the Fillmore), nothing quite sparked the interest of the Grateful Dead in the Centennial State quite like the legendary 1972 performance at Folsom Field in Boulder.

"The Grateful Dead picked up their instruments and hit the first note with perfection. They never missed a note for the next three and one-half hours. People followed the flow of the tunes. Down on the floor in front of the stage was a sea of heads keeping time with the music. No one sat still. No one, except the youngsters behind us sat still. They were still and stunned." - The Power County Press

With a few nights off and a first-time tour stop for the band, anticipation was high for Dead & Company’s performance in the Duke City, and Albuquerque’s Isleta Amphitheater was to play host to the night’s festivities. Being the smallest venue of the tour, it was surprising that by Wednesday, ticket sales had just barely reached 10,000, and the virtual secondary market was showing multiple signs of over-purchasing.

Observing the full Dead & Company experience on July 2 at Shoreline Amphitheatre, from early afternoon happenings outside the San Francisco Bay Area venue through the encore’s final exclamation of “We Will Survive!” confirmed that the band’s cultural anthropology, centered around spirited live renderings of Grateful Dead music, still colorfully and cheerfully thrives.

Dead & Company resumed their summer tour last night, after stops in the Northwest and Shoreline, at the Mattress Firm Amphitheater in Chula Vista, CA.  Though the area is gripped in a heat wave like most of the country, the near 100-degree temperatures did not dissuade the faithful from coming out in full force.

Night two, “One More Saturday Night” at Citi Field is in the books! Very lucky to have attended both shows. The weather was spectacular on this second night of the two-night run at the ballpark. The Dead & Company 2018 Summer tour is in full swing and at the halfway point. I have been following Dead & Company since their inception and witnessing what I see as an evolution.