Grateful Dead

Bobloblaw wrote: "Thanks for the suggestions! How efficient is the public transit in Chicago? Can you get to where you need with a 3-day pass? I'm not presently planning to go without show tickets, but I still have a plane ticket so you never know. Cheers." To which I answer: IMO, Chicago public transportation is relatively efficient, but depends largely on what your starting point and destinations are. The 'EL' (for elevated) trains run well around the city, the secondary bus service, not so much. Unfortunately, the EL does not run to Soldier Field. Fortunately, if you are in reasonable shape, you can walk there, and to most major destinations, from an EL station. I have no experience with a three day pass, so I won't comment on that. One caveat: don't forget Chicago is still a very big city with some very big problems, so keep your wits about you on public transportation. Those of us dressed in full tie-dye regalia (or 'Dead Giveaways' as we like to call it) and riding public transportation will stick out from the herd. As Jerry used to tell us, 'keep your money in your shoe.' I've been at every Soldier Field Dead show, and when you arrive or depart at night's end, you will be in the human slipstream. Go With The Flow.

Anyone else in hear counting down for the Citi pre-sale? Hope this isn't the clusterfoo for tix Chicago ended up being. Good luck all!

You have given so much to the world and this blessed community. Thank you for sharing your songs and lives for so many years. I am humbled to attend Chicago and to tune in to that sweet sound. The music and grateful vibes will endure through the centuries so for you folks to do one last gig it is beyond more than enough. To ask more is selfish when so much has been given already. SO THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No email, no pinky, hope fading...still there, but fading. Email moon, liberate me From the middle of eternity (10friends attempting mail order and TM...8 pinky's, 2 limbo, 1TM score 3 three day seats on top of the stadium)

Don't disagree with you, but here's a couple of my thoughts. I have the opinion that originally the no view seats were not going to be on sale. But GDTSTOO got slammed and wanted more tix from the bucket, but they couldn't get them because of contracts with TM. So what did they do? They made more tickets available by offering the no view seats. Then TM was given all those crappy seats along with some good ones to get their cut and GDTSTOO was given more good seats. One of the biggest problems here are the three day passes. Every three day pass excludes 2 people from seeing a show. If they played 5 nights, we would have 5 day passes and be in the same boat.

Scored my Dear Jerry Tix on the Citi pre-sale! Ensuing lawn Frolic!

Man we here on the west coast are getting jacked. Remember the west coast? Home of the Grateful Dead. We need a show out here...

Wow even presale for DearJerry is a hard ticket to get. Hopefully that means more for the masses. But I doubt it. I think the privileged frat boys who invaded the scene in the late 80's are still trying to go to shows. First that horde killed the scene, moved us to stadiums.. (yuck) then they killed Jerry and we still can not shake them. ;-) The sad truth is that I think we are still infested with frat boys, they are harder to get rid of then fleas in the bus. Open letter to Fraternity members... Dear Frat boy, please leave the baseball cap hanging on the wall it is 2015 you have a family now, probably your second or third attempt at that because you are selfish and arrogant, regardless please stay home. Listening to Bob Marley at the frat house and going to Dead shows does not change some basic facts about you. Yes Bobby may look like a brother and the boys probably have done as much coke as you would like to. But really it is not the same. You have your club, go to your alma mater's homecoming and objectify women (you call them girls or babes) and leave our scene alone. If we were not so disorganized we would have asked the hell's angels to kick you out of every parking lot you infested, but alas it is too late for that. Do not come to these shows. This is not your party anymore. When you show up in Chicago, or DC we will be checking the parking lot for BMW's, $200 sun glasses, hair product, grooming habits and the like that make you easily detected. Trained dogs will be smelling you and they will smell the coke on your cash, the axe body spray on your flesh, the pedicure on your wives toes. You will be removed. I know some of you are kind, and maybe humble I apologize, you can come. The rest of you.. see above. --end of letter and rant--- Back to the post.. I was number 2,000 in the queue for citibank presale for the dear jerry show in Maryland and was too late. *note to ticketmaster* Ticketfly implements what seems to be a genuine queue, you know a line where the first one in line is served first and you know your place in line. Nothing random happens, nothing breaks. The simple challenge of implementing an online queue is something that ticketmaster has chosen to implement poorly. So it goes.

Trust me, I'm no frat boy, but I fell in love with the Dead during the 20 year so far tour. I couldn't drive yet...legally. I am a true middle man. If you are looking for an apology from people that enjoy something that you enjoyed first, good luck. Sorry for the negative snap, I just get sick of hearing that crap

First, while I empathize with those who are frustrated and wish to cast some blame somewhere, the simple fact of the matter is that demand for tickets for these shows far outstrips demand. Those folks at GDTSTOO did as well as they could. Most were not going to get in just based upon the odds. If the reports are correct, there were over 300k tickets requested via mail order and over 500k PEOPLE trying to get tickets via TM. Conservatively estimating a request of 4 tickets from the TM sale, that is 2 million tickets. Bashing the band members for not wanting to get on the road-- really? They are in their 70s and if they don't want to load up onto touring buses, that is their prerogative. There is also the consideration of Trey, who likely can't hit the road with the Dead. My guess is that they did not think the demand would be this high for a Jerry-less Dead weekend. They advertised it as last shows ever and it is difficult to walk back that statement. Again, I empathize with you, but people need to get in a better state of mind about this. I got lucky via the Bears presale through a friend, but was mentally prepared to not go after I received my mail order rejection. There are bigger things in life and some perspective is needed. Enjoy a fine holiday weekend with family and friends instead, but don't let the high demand sour your relationship with this band that you clearly love. Chicago tips so far have been good. I second the Greek Islands tip-- great place. If that restaurant is too crowded, there are other good Greek places in the neighborhood. CTA trains are pretty good and should be able to get most folks around most of the time.

Excluding entire groups of people because you don't agree with their assumed values does not seem to be in the spirit of the Grateful Dead. But what the heck do I know? I never met any of them. PS: I'm not a frat boy, never was, did not encourage my sons to be: it's just the point.

well said. ditto.And you're right... I am VERY frustrated.

Either that or someone being clever pretending to be a Dead Head. Sunshine Daydream Package at Renaissance Chicago Downtown Hotel – $2,360 + service fees. This prick wants $15,000!!!! It makes me sick!! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Grateful-Dead-Tickets-2-Premium-3-day-passes-7-…

Perhaps my hynocracy was mistaken for hypocrisy.

I foresee many Dead Heads with money order or TM tickets getting 4 tickets for 2 people and then selling the other 2 to pay for their trip, and more!! So sad. I have loved the Grateful Dead for so long, and being a Dead Head I even named my company Dire Wolf Cichlids in honor of a song. But I am truly sick to my stomach seeing what I am seeing.

Don't be telling those without tickets how they should be handling not going. You got tickets and are going and you obviously have wealthy friends if you got a buddy to buy Bears Presale for you. So congratulations you get to go and have really no leg to stand on trying to instruct the ticketless and poorer fans how they should govern their response to not going. Thanks for the empathy can I have a ticket?!

Hi All, So, I am compelled to come in here and read comments in hopes of seeing less and less negative ones, and more and more set lists, hope for obscure songs, positive vibrations, heart warming stories and peaceful intentions. Instead, I see the same ole same ole, like Trey sucks, why Chicago, Chicago sucks, tickets blah blah blah. and now frat boys killed Jerry? Really? It couldn't have possibly been a life time addiction to milkshakes, road food, touring non stop, the health issues that touring brings and, of course, his love for opiates. Nope, it was frat boys. I am thrilled I am going to at least one show. I am happy it is in my home town, but man oh man, good friend of mine, all GOOD things in all GOOD time......please? Everyone who wants to go, has positive energy, respects the planet, loves their neighbor, and is excited about one more shot with the boys on stage will get in. The last Grateful Dead show didn't sell out until an hour before show time. There will be tickets available through TicketMaster as soon as they configure the sound board. Scalpers will HAVE to dump their seats if we ALL just ignore them. Now please, can we pretty please with sugar on top of it STOP with the negativity and start thinking about the positive stuff this three day event under the sun, moon and stars is going to bring? I see jams in the parking lot, the smell of kind bud in the air, someone walking by saying , "Chinese doses, eat in or carry out" the warm lake breeze, the smell of stir fry, the taste of grilled cheese....come on people, learn to live light and bright.

You are correct, direwulf, I shouldn't suggest to people how to feel. The negativity here just got to me. Apologies. I just know how I mentally prepared myself in the weeks prior to getting the rejection from mail order-- I was fully prepared to have that nice holiday weekend with family without any negative feelings to the boys or GDTS. I always understood there was a good chance I wasn't going based upon the reported demand. Just for the record, wasn't a wealthy friend-- he just works for a company that had the proper PSL and nobody else used it. Got lucky.

People make comments on a comment board. Some people are pissed about the situation and others are chill. Personally, I am not happy with the band's choices but I have decided to move past my own negativity. For those who haven't/won't, I support their ability to share their comments, good or bad. We've got bashing, we've got negativity, we've got pollyannas, and we've got blatant shilling for "the system" going on. It's all just fine and I enjoy reading all the comments, even the ones I disagree with.

(Frat boys) You will be removed. Heehee, that's pretty funny stuff Tom!

Report this guy. I called CID and packages are NON TRANSFERABLE. part of purchasing these packages was agreeing that you would not resell. My guess is it is a scam.

It's funny when you guys brought up the American Beauty brew, was the same day I popped in that CD in the car. It had been a while since I listened to that timeless classic (and played it for my 85 year old mom, and she liked it!) Anyway, one of my favorite (studio) dead tunes is on that album and pretty sure there aren't many live versions of this song if any. 'Til the morning comes! "MAKE YOURSELF EASY..."

Well, if it's a comment board and we're all being honest... It's sounds like there are a lot of bitter, whiny, entitled "fans" who are pissing on the parade of others. What's more undead like? Is it the remaining members of an iconic American band celebrating the music on their terms and getting paid commensurate to their age, stature, and that of other old rock bands? Or is it the continuous negativity from "fans" who didn't get things the way they wanted? I think it's the latter, and they should take their ball and go home if they have nothing positive to say. The negativity posted here does absolutely nothing besides attempt to ruin other people's good time. It's simply self-serving which is undead like. If all these people with negative comments really want to make a difference, take it up with those they feel have wronged them. Now for some positive news, it sounds like some people have gotten new emails and all hope is not lost for those of us who have not gotten rejection letters. Sure, it's a slim chance but it's something. More good news is there is still a very small percentage of tickets available on the aftermarket. I truly believe there will be a lot of face value kick downs and peer to peer sharing of tickets in June and the weekend of the shows. It's going to be a fantastic celebration. Whether I just get to see old friends on the lot and watch via pay per view or get tickets for a few nights, I super stoked for the celebrating the music of one of the most influential bands in American history. :)

In the spring of '82 I was checking out the fraternity rush scene at my university and came across a chapter with the most unusual decoration adorning the parking lot--a giant SYF painted on the asphalt. They fashioned themselves as an "anti-frat" and I met some pretty cool people there. Guilty as charged. The next thing you know, starting in Oct. '82, we had a pleasant eight-year run of shows at Frost. Hey now!

I did read official CID somewhere at some point they can be name transferred. Not sure why they would tell you otherwise. It would make sense if someone gets ill or dies or anything else that can come up. Still sad to see the rip offs from Dead Heads!!!

I just found this in the Q&A. Q. I can no longer attend, can I receive a refund? A. Our packages are non-refundable and non-transferable. If you have any questions, please contact guest services at 888-805-8930 I do find this somewhat hard to believe, see my comment below.

Sorry disappointment and sense of loss is not negativity. Human emotions are valid expressions of peoples internal struggle with impactful events. If you can't handle some people being disappointed and think they are trying to "ruin your good time", go jump in a lake and cool off. On the flipside, yes some posters on here are complete jackasses, but they are trolling for a purpose so don't give them satisfcation. If you can't appreciate that this is going to remain a controversial event until 50 years from, I got nothing to say. It's the Grateful Dead they are born out of controversy and "wherever he goes the people all complain" Id rather live in the land of the dead than the land of the lotus eaters!

I know where this is coming from cause the same type of thing happened with Phish (and prolly Harley Davidsons for that matter). With Phish, the crowd changed and then came the stadiums. I remember at a Pittsburg dead show a couple of younger frat types critized my brother and I. We were zoning out watching and enjoying the show. Evidently, we were supposed to act in a particular way and be dancing in our seats like them. Hell, we were intently watching the show. At that point right then I knew sh1t had changed.

They must have changed it because I distinctly remember the web site saying prior to the sale that transfering simply required calling them and changing the ownership.

What's your angle, Svengali? You show up here nine days ago (the day after the TM fiasco) trying to calm everyone down by saying "the system worked." Just yesterday, you again used those specific words. What exactly was the system and how did it work? Was it the mail order system that worked by leaving a bunch of people in limbo almost two months later? Was it the presale system that worked after it was canceled? Was it the CID system that worked with its "don't refresh, oh sorry, your order timed out" software? Was it the TM system which managed to land a bunch of tickets on third party sites at exorbitant prices? I don't know you, but your posts are entirely consistent with those of a person that has a stake in the game and is trying to quell reasonable criticisms of how this event was handled. What do you care if people feel that way? Are you some sort of vibe police? Are you affiliated with the promoter? At least you aren't continuing to peddle the misinformation regarding GDTS TOO getting 2/3 of the tickets anymore. Sorry if I'm ruining your good time.

They should have made them non-transferable....but they didn't. --------------------------------------------------------------- All Sales Final. No Refunds. Thank you for purchasing a Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead Travel Package - brought to you by CID Entertainment. Followup We are thrilled to have you on board and are ready to deliver an experience you will never forget! We hope your purchase process was easy and convenient. You will receive an email at least two weeks prior to the event with instructions on how to redeem all elements of your order. Name Changes Name changes will only be offered at the sole discretion of CID Entertainment. If you need to transfer your package, please email guestservices@cidentertainment.com with the subject line GRATEFUL DEAD NAME CHANGE REQUEST and include the following: Your Name, Your Order Number, the package purchased, the date and time it was purchased, and the new Guest Name.

I'd bet you could transfer though it's frowned upon. If not, I'm sure one could show up, grab the tickets and passes, and hand them over to someone else. It's not like they'll be checking ID's at the gate. It's a shame, but thankfully it's few and far between. I don't think Phish ever made it to stadiums. Now, they have trouble selling out a Sunday show at Hampton Coliseum. There has been a tremendous drop-off from the surge of the late 90's. The two hiatus' were a good thing for many reasons. As far as frat boys, by looks of the lack of tickets available I don't think we'll see large groups of snickering frat boys. It is 4th of July weekend and I think there will be a large local contingency that aren't hard core. Meh, that's always been a dead show. A lot people show up for the party, and I find people from Chicago know how to party. I will say this, when the show is over find somewhere to go. The Chicago PD were very good at letting it all hang out during the day of the show. However, after 12 plus hours on the job, they want you to leave at a reasonably rate after the shows. They did not want us vending and keeping people in the lot late into the night.

I am sure if you had a rock solid(with evidence) reason, they would issue you a refund. I do not believe they would ever let you transfer a package. So good luck to the 20 something people who bid on this package on ebay. REPORT THE SCAMMER

Is anyone else having difficulties with Live Music Archive? It is super choppy since they introduced their beta version...and no (before someone says to stop using it) I am not using the beta version. I HAVE but it also doesn't seem to work. In this day and age, the question of connectivity on my end is not a concern either (I work at a university...)

Who knows, you guys are probably right. With enough smooth talking and BS, CID will allow anything. As far as selling your passes/tix after picking them up, at least then a lucky Head may get a fair price.

Geeze, I really did not mean to troll and I did not mean to offend ANYBODY. I painted frat boys with a broad brush and I claimed they killed Jerry.. I was trying to be funny. It is hard to be funny in a message board so cut me some slack. Please re-read the post... I suggest that we have frat boy sniffing dogs at the show, does that sound remotely serious? I am just surprised at the demand for tickets. I mean dear jerry just has the core four present, with no promise to play together and it seems likely to be another hard ticket to get. I am more surprised by this than angry. And for frat boys here who I have offended.. relax.. please get over it. If you are a kind generous person I could care less about what organization you belong to. Something however happened in the end, the scene got too big. Gates were crashed, the burden of choosing a place to play increased for the band as the load we placed on communities they visited grew. You can not deny that a burden came along with the popularity. I did shows from 1981 till sometime shortly after Brent died. I quit going. It was no longer the scene I enjoyed. Stadiums, nitrous, gate crashing, hard drugs and other behavior. I am actually sort of perplexed that I am trying to go to these mega events. I got caught up in the mania I guess. The mob is a dangerous beast. Perhaps I am feeding the beast by trying to get to these.. who knows. I wonder if we drew comparisons, is this going to be woodstock or woodstock 99? It can go either way. I hope to push it towards good, if I came across as to negative then I went to far. Geeze.. I made a video of my cats in a tour bus.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3hOdHh6gzk Do not take me too seriously. As for the scene that I remember.. honestly a fest like lock'n or a show by Billy and the kids with no crazy crowds might be a lot closer to what I would like to experience again. I have mixed feelings.. see the core four or find a chill scene that is similar to the vibe I remember. Regardless.. nothing ends here it goes on.

I got the humor in the original frat message, it didn't offend me one bit, and I laughed out loud. Thanks for the humor Mr. Hanlon, I for one appreciate it!

I actually joined under another name well prior to the on sale, but a glitch in the system that they could not fix would only allow my posts to show if approved by a moderator. I have been a long time lurker, but activity was rather low prior to this event. It's still rather low compared to many message boards. The system worked as in it's the same as it ever was for high demand shows, and with the mail order option statistics show that very few tickets and the best seats aren't in the hands of scalpers. I'm sure for some people this is hard to understand. Especially those that don't frequent big events. For random example, there are almost 1500 tickets available for The Who at Staples Center on StubHub. Staples holds 18k. There are just over 1500 single seats for the Sunday Fare the Well show on Stubhub. Soldier Field holds 70k for this event. The Who offered no mail order. You were able to pay $55 to join the fan club in order to do the presale via TM. My lower bowl tickets for Oakland cost about $200 a piece. Some floor seats were around $400. According to Gans, the presale was cancelled so GDTS could be alloted more tickets. He also stated they got the majority of seats and the majority of good seats. He alluded to 2/3's. So far, besides Shapiro saying GDTS received a much larger portion than the usual 10%, no information has diputed Gans reporting. Regardless, Dead fans with the help of GDTS got a much better deal than most fans of bands. Was the antiquated mail order system perfect? No. Prior to sending in your MO's on the 20th, did they promise to have your money back? No. Did you have to take the chance of sending in for this extra option that 99% of bands don't offer? No. Would most of us rather have a 1 in 10 chance through GDTS than just throught TM? I think, YES! Is it TM's fault this was the biggest event on their online history? No. If the TM system would have worked more smoothly would it have statically increased your chances of getting tickets? Absolutely not. LOL!!! Do I work for Shapiro, GDTS, CID, TM or anyone else affiliated to this event. Absolutely not. I'm a hard core rock fan who has spent a majority of his life on the road with the GD, Phish, Radiohead, and many more bands, festivals, and concerts. I don't care if people are disappointed because they didn't get lucky. That is fine. That is totally different than being a whiny, entitled person who makes up conspiracies and distorts information about how it all went down because they didn't get what they wanted. So, I guess my angle is that I feel like I know what I'm talking about having spent my life around the industry, and that I really dislike entitled cry babies that don't know what their talking about. ;)

Clarification the trolling comment was not directed at anything or anyone today or recently, it was in reference to the person spouting homophobic and severely derogatory comments in the week prior because they couldn't get in,that just had no place here. You can say what you want until you attack someone's humanity then the bear gets mad. And if it matters I can't stand frat guys, sorry I'm trying so hard to work on that one but in my experience they are not people I wanna be around, especially when I'm on a spaceship. Still trying for a face ticket and I'll keep my fingers crossed til I have to drive July 1. My biggest complaint in my years using this comment board is that you can not branch of single posts so sometimes when people post there is serious miscommunication as to whom they are addressing or commenting on. Maybe with all this new cash influx this year the band can step up there website.

spoken like a true fratboy!!!! :-) How ya been? Yeah, I know still waiting for a miracle..... Hang in there..... Your mom liked American Beauty....quite cool, she has good taste in music.... Problem is clowns fuckin' scare me....but that's my issue... Peace...

anyone really know if they cannot be transferred??? See Q&A Q. I can no longer attend, can I receive a refund? A. Our packages are non-refundable and non-transferable. If you have any questions, please contact guest services at 888-805-8930

I don't what I laughed at more -- the kitty on the bus, or the lion in the fireplace. (Clowns scare me, too...)

Yeah, it can. Please transfer it to me! Lol. You need to contact them to arrange it.

the Q&A states it CANNOT though

I was one of the lucky few. I clipped this from my confirmation email. See the section regarding "Name Changes": All Sales Final. No Refunds. Thank you for purchasing a Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead Travel Package - brought to you by CID Entertainment. Followup We are thrilled to have you on board and are ready to deliver an experience you will never forget! We hope your purchase process was easy and convenient. You will receive an email at least two weeks prior to the event with instructions on how to redeem all elements of your order. Name Changes Name changes will only be offered at the sole discretion of CID Entertainment. If you need to transfer your package, please email guestservices@cidentertainment.com with the subject line GRATEFUL DEAD NAME CHANGE REQUEST and include the following: Your Name, Your Order Number, the package purchased, the date and time it was purchased, and the new Guest Name.

and a guy on this forum posted below he called and they said NO.

Thanks. I do see it "IS" at their discretion!

With all this superior industry knowledge you have, why are you cherry-picking statistics to support your premise? You selected the Who concert on their tour that has the most secondary market ticket availability. Most of the tour dates have from 200-700 tickets available on Stubhub. So of course you choose the outlier Staples Center show to prove your point. Let's go with the Oakland show, the one you are attending (and on the higher end of gross availability). 723 tickets are available with an Oracle Arena concert capacity of 20,000. 3.6% availability. The Friday FTW show has 2,475 tickets available (including 3-day pass tickets) with a capacity of 70K. 3.5% availability. All you have shown is that this concert, on the surface, is like any other, except that a cluster ensued to get us to this point. Unlike you, I don't pretend to have all the knowledge of what went down. I think it is a fluid situation that will reveal more info in the future. I don't particularly believe in a conspiracy theory, but I know a lot of people are disappointed and justifiably upset about a variety of things. I don't really see where you get off berating others. One man's whining entitlement is another man's condescending arrogance. If it really kills your buzz, maybe you could just skip over those comments.

Hey dude! I'm doing pretty good, got a possibility of a ticket but not getting my hopes up too much. Although I don't think my chances are very good, with the help of the kind folks here I might just get that miracle. I appreciate all the support I get on this forum (good and bad). Would sure love to go to Chicago for one last "circus." By the way I am not a real clown (in the pure sense), it's just my avatar (and he doesn't bite). Don't fear the clown. Send in the klowns, where are the klowns? Don't bother, THEY'RE HERE!

indeed