Let’s remember when some hippies (aka The Grateful Dead) played a free concert at Golden Gardens, on this day in 1967 (July 16)
The greatest thing to ever happen to hippies since marijuana made its way through Seattle 52 years ago today, with the Grateful Dead playing a concert at Ballard’s Golden Gardens Park. I bet it was amazing. Acid may have been dropped.
On July 16, 1967, the Grateful Dead perform at Golden Gardens Park in Seattle. Five other local bands perform at the “Be-In.” Admission is free.
Located in Ballard, Golden Gardens was typically a place where the “straights” hung out, far away from the usual hippie hangouts near the University District and Capitol Hill. The crowd of 2,000 people who gathered at the park for the Be-In was a mix of all folks who just wanted to enjoy some rock music in the hot summer sun.
The bands performed on a flatbed truck with electricity provided by a small portable generator. Brick went on first, followed by Karma, The Daily Flash, The Time Machine, and Pappa Bear’s Medicine Show. The Grateful Dead came on last.
The Dead were in Seattle for a show that evening at the Eagles Hall, and since they were veterans of many Be-Ins in San Francisco, the band and their manager, Rock Scully, decided to take part in the gathering at Ballard. The Be-In was arranged by Tim Harvey of Overall Cooperative Structure and Jerry Mathews of United Front Productions.
It seemed to have paid off, because the Dead came back to Seattle a couple of months later and played another free show in Volunteer Park, along with two ticketed shows. As a Grateful Dead fan-blog Lost Live Dead said:
Since the Grateful Dead were invited back to Eagles Auditorium, however, for two more shows (September 8–9, Friday and Saturday), the initial Seattle concert at Eagles must have gone alright. The free concert magic seems to have worked. On Saturday, September 9, between the two gigs, the Dead played another free concert in Volunteer Park in downtown Seattle. Volunteer Park was just a few miles from the University of Washington, so the Dead’s primary audience was nearby. I think the weekend at Eagles went well, but I don’t know of any eyewitness accounts of the Volunteer Park show. Still, the strategy must have worked. Certainly, the Dead owned Seattle after 1967, so they must have got something right.
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