Berkeley’s beloved Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center, a nonprofit cultural hub since 1973, continues its mission of bringing together diverse traditions, joyful dance, and live music for all ages. From Grateful Dead tributes and old-time jams to zydeco, reggae, Balkan rhythms, and hip hop, the fall calendar is stacked with sounds that speak to Berkeley’s communal spirit.

The sun was shining with a light breeze, not a cloud in the sky. Tonight at the Buchanan Commons, the Happy Campers threw an end-of-summer blowout known as Shakedown Saturday. Ironic this year, as downtown Buchanan has no streets at present. The fans didn’t care—this yearly event has become iconic and draws a large crowd that fills the venue.

DelFest, Relix, and Rex Foundation are proud to present preorders for DelFest Does Dead, a special limited-edition 2-LP release capturing unforgettable Grateful Dead covers performed live at DelFest 2025 in Cumberland, Maryland.

In the extended world of Grateful Dead connectivity, both Jackie Greene and Tim Flannery have earned worthy bona fides. The first time I ever heard of Greene was when he played a Phil & Friends gig in San Francisco almost twenty years ago. A tad more recently, Flannery joined Phil Lesh and Bob Weir to sing the National Anthem at a Giants game, and Weir also has performed on stage with Flannery and his band The Lunatic Fringe. Here at Grateful Web we like to note this sort of thing.

The Betty Boards Foundation, a charitable campaign administered by Music's Promise, and Positive Legacy, a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit that integrates music and service to benefit people and the planet, have joined forces to auction off signed memorabilia including concert tickets, instruments, posters, and more during a special two-week online event.

Mr. Hat Presents, in collaboration with Harlan Records, invites the Bay Area to finish out the summer with SUNDAYS ARE DEAD, a free outdoor funky jam festival on Sunday, August 31, 2025, outside Harlan Records—just one block from Montgomery BART. From noon to 8:00 pm (live music from 1:00 pm), the street transforms into a family-friendly celebration featuring two groove-heavy bands putting their own spin on the Grateful Dead songbook and more, plus food and drinks for purchase, Shakedown Vendors, and a Kids Zone.

When you look at the Grateful Dead’s vibrant subculture around the world, it’s as strong as ever. The culture revolves around the music and lifestyle of the band and its followers, affectionately known as Deadheads. The band's music is a time capsule that embodies peace, love, kindness, and adventure for everyone who wants in. From the early beginnings of Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir meeting at a music store in Palo Alto, California, in 1965 to the recent sixty-year celebration of the Grateful Dead’s music performed by Dead & Co.

Luther Dickinson of North Mississippi Allstars will release Dead Blues Vol. 1 on October 17, 2025 via Strolling Bones Records. The 9-song set was produced by the 10-time GRAMMY Award-nominated Dickinson and is a collection of blues songs the Grateful Dead performed throughout their career by Blind Lemon Jefferson, Bo Diddley, the Mississippi Sheiks, Willie Dixon, and more.

I was twenty-four, a couple months out of college, manning the phones at my first real job in New York City. The owners were in L.A. for a conference, which meant I had the whole place to myself—just a swivel chair, a humming computer, and a window that didn’t open. It felt like adulthood in miniature: hold down the fort, answer professionally, don’t screw up.

When the Grateful Dead took a self-imposed hiatus in 1974 after their farewell run at Winterland, they left the road with no clear sense of when—or if—they'd return. A year later, the band surprised everyone when they reemerged with Blues for Allah, one of the most forward-thinking, sonically adventurous albums of their career.