May 5, 1968: Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane Free Concert at Central Park Band Shell

I turned 18 on May 5, 1968. On that day, there was a free concert at the Central Park band shell featuring the Dead, the Airplane, and the Butterfield Blues band. I wish I’d gone, but the truth is I didn’t even know about it. I’d been busted for selling weed a few weeks before and was due in court soon. Guess I had other things on my mind. Here’s a somewhat amusing account of the day from The New York Times (Note, the accompanying photo appears to be of the Dead looking out at the crowd of 6,000. Since the seat at the drum kit is empty, would anyone know if that’s Hart in front of it, partly obscured by a cymbal?):

May 5, 1968: Central Park, New York City
6,000 IN PARK ROCK TO WEST COAST SOUND
It was a beautiful day in Central Park yesterday for lollipops, dogs, pretty girls, wisteria, and hard rock. The rock was provided for free by three of the currently best-known groups on the rock ’n’ roll scene — the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, the Jefferson Airplane, and the Grateful Dead.
The area’s normal Sunday denizens — pretty girls in their slimmest pants suits walking dogs in hopes of meeting the lawyers and advertising men in their weekend Nehru jackets and turtlenecks — were all but swamped in the horde of young people who flocked to the concert. About six thousand, the police estimated…