Fare Thee Well Grateful Dead 50 Organizers Exploring Simulcast
By Scott Bernstein Mar 1, 2015 • 12:00 pm PST
As we reported, tickets for Fare Thee Well Celebrating 50 Years Of Grateful Dead sold out yesterday as nearly a half-million were cued up as tickets went up for grabs breaking a Ticketmaster on-sale record. Concert organizers issued a statement that advised the ticketless they were plotting ways to “help you share this special moment with us.” Today, Fare Thee Well co-producer Peter Shapiro discussed one such way.
Shapiro told Billboard that organizers “want to provide video and audio, the best shit out there, and try to bring it to people with the same vibe as being there.” The impresario revealed concert planners are looking at a variety of venues for “pay per view events [that] would take place not only in Chicago but potentially across the country,” to host simulcasts of the concerts. A potential plan of simulcasts was mentioned by Shapiro to Rolling Stone, who said Peter “is working on simulcasting the shows around the country” adding that “Shapiro is already holding the dates at his venues, including the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, and the Brooklyn Bowl.” There’s no word yet about whether the shows would be webcast over the internet or whether organizers will team with cable and satellite providers to offer a broadcast on a pay-per-view basis as Shapiro and Phil Lesh did for PhilRad’s New Year’s Eve concert at The Capitol Theatre.
Billboard’s report also indicates “Shapiro and Madison House are fine-tuning plans to host after-show concerts and events at various venues around Chicago.” We have a feeling there will be plenty of Fare Thee Well post-shows announced in the coming weeks and months. As for yesterday’s sell out, Shapiro told Billboard, “It would have sold out in an instant, the only thing that took a little time was the computers and stuff,” before adding that Ticketmaster was able to handle the volume with approximately 100K tickets sold. “Ticketmaster did not go down,” Shapiro clarified.
Fare Thee Well -a celebration of 50 years of Grateful Dead takes place July 3 -5 at Soldier Field in Chicago featuring Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Trey Anastasio, Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti.
