Tickets are sold out for 5.8.23 Dead & Company show, but we can still see it
Dead & Company, the band that features members of the Grateful Dead, launched ticket lotteries in early March for the May 8th performance they say will be “an intimate concert on May 8, 2023, the same date and venue as the Grateful Dead’s highly acclaimed performance at Cornell in 1977,” and lodging partners quickly sold out of VIP packages that included hotel rooms, receptions, and guaranteed concert seats, but all is not lost: Dead & Co fans still have some opportunities to see the show, including a live pay-per-view video, a live free audio stream, a SiriusXM broadcast on the Grateful Dead channel, and locally, a livestream event at the State Theatre in Downtown Ithaca.
The 5.8.23 concert is a fundraising benefit, and Dead & Company has partnered with Fandiem to host a sweepstakes with a chance to win a package including two VIP pit tickets, round trip travel, hotel, and limited signed show poster. Use code CORNELL100 for 100 bonus entries. Donate to enter by 11:59pm PT on Monday, April 24th.
The State Theatre of Ithaca announced on Thursday that they’ll host a livestream event “on the biggest screen in Ithaca,” with $35 tickets available to the general public as well as tickets for Cornell alumni.
“Proceeds from the concert, a charitable event hosted on the Cornell University campus, will benefit the Recording Academy’s MusiCares organization, which provides a safety net of critical health and welfare services to the music industry, and Cornell University’s 2030 Project, in which researchers combine science, scholarship and innovation to develop climate-change solutions,” organizers said in March.
“Ticket sales for the State Theatre livestream event in Ithaca will also benefit MusiCares and Cornell’s 2030 Project,” State Theatre executive director Doug Levine told us on Thursday, who says he’s also a longtime Deadhead himself. “The first time I remember hearing of Ithaca was on the spine of a cassette recording of the 5.8.77 concert. Maybe that had some impact on where I went to college,” Levine muses.
“Cornell 1977 holds a special place in Grateful Dead lore. That magical night lives forever and will always link Cornell and the Grateful Dead,” said drummer Mickey Hart in a statement. “On that fateful night in 1977, my wife Caryl was a student at Cornell but missed that performance. Many twists and turns later, we wind up once again at Cornell to celebrate that 1977 performance with a benefit concert at Barton Hall. If anyone finds some of my old brain cells that I lost back in ’77 in Barton Hall, please advise.”
“The legacy of the 5/8/77 show is well-known to fans around the world. That Dead & Co. would come back to Cornell and play at Barton Hall, and do so while supporting the Cornell 2030 Project and MusiCares on their farewell tour, is truly special,” said Cornell alum Rob Klein ’97, an ILR major and a longtime fan of the Grateful Dead and Dead & Company, who was instrumental in organizing the upcoming show via his professional networks in the sports media entertainment industry.
The band has been known to reprise Grateful Dead shows of the past; Dead & Company played Bethel Woods in 2019, fifty years after the Grateful Dead appearance at Woodstock, performing the same playlist.
The Dead also played Barton Hall in 1980 and 1981, but it’s the 1977 show that’s widely regarded as one of the band’s best, not least because of the exceptional quality of an audience recording shared widely then and since. Furthur, another band founded by Grateful Dead members, played Barton Hall on Valentine’s Day 2010.
The ticket lotteries offered $77 tickets available only to students, $300 tickets available to Cornell staff, faculty, and alumni, and tickets for the general public at a range of prices from $300-1,500. A source tells 14850 Magazine that concert organizers received nearly 40,000 lottery entries for a total of 2,000 available tickets. A Cornell spokesperson declined to comment on the number of requests or the number of seats available at the venue, which nominally holds 4,800 people, though the 1977 Grateful Dead show had nearly twice that many attendees.
Related: Ticket lottery announced for Dead & Company concert at Cornell
“In total, more than half the available tickets have been prioritized for the student, employee, and alumni lotteries,” said organizers. “We look forward to welcoming generations of Cornellians to Barton Hall on May 8!”
“I was at the ’80 and ’81 shows,” says Todd Kurzweil, a Deadhead and co-owner of Sunny Days and Uncle Toddy’s Ithacan Flea Market. “I hope when it happens the community enjoys the homecoming that will accompany the event,” Kurzweil tells 14850 Magazine. “I’ll try my best to get a ticket and attend!”
Shop: Grateful Dead 5.8.77 inspired merchandise at Sunny Days
That iconic 1977 show is the subject of the Peter Conners book Cornell ’77: The Music, The Myth, and the Magnificence of the Grateful Dead’s Concert at Barton Hall, released by Cornell University Press in time for the 40th anniversary of the show, and in time for Grateful Dead Day in Tompkins County.
Related: 40th anniversary Grateful Dead event and a county proclamation
Cornell’s chimesmasters played a special half hour chimes concert of Grateful Dead tunes for the occasion, and have repeated the concert since, most recently in May 2022.
Related: Watch: Cornell Chimes play the Grateful Dead in a special concert
“The 1977 show was great in part due to the intimate setting at Barton Hall,” Klein said. “The intent is to re-create this magic for students and the broader university community once again.”
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