Grateful Dead Loads ‘Summer Magic 1985’ Box Set With 7 Previously Unreleased Shows

The Grateful Dead showed they were no nostalgia act in the summer of 1985 during their “Twenty Years So Far” Tour with one standout concert after another. Seven previously unreleased shows from the celebratory trek have been compiled for Summer Magic 1985, a 20CD boxed set due out September 18 via Rhino.

Recorded by Dan Healy and mastered by Grammy-winning engineer David Glasser, the physical version of legendary band’s 2026 box set comes housed in a custom, individually numbered box with art from Marcos Alvardo and design by Pablo Valdez and Steve Vance. Limited to 10,000 copies, the collection features new essays by Nicholas G. Meriweather and David Lemieux. ALAC ad High Res FLAC downloads are also set to arrive on September 18.

Summer Magic 1985 starts with the Dead’s official 20th anniversary shows at the Berkeley Greek (June 14 – 16). The set also includes performances from SPAC (June 27), Hershey Park Stadium (June 28) and Merriweather Post Pavilion (June 30 and July 1).

The band — made up at the time by guitarists Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, bassist Phil Lesh, keyboardist Brent Mydland and drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann — were firing on all cylinders. Highlights from the run include such rare moments as a debut cover of Eric Clapton’s “Keep On Growing,” the first “Cryptical Envelopment” in 13 years, an unusual first set “Crazy Fingers,” a “Supplication” jam and pairing of “Down In The Bottom” and “I Ain’t Superstitious.”

“Certain things are indicative of the Grateful Dead being ‘on,’ and a rare double encore always means they’re having a blast and don’t want the show to end. This boxed set’s seven gigs feature THREE double encores, and it’s those ‘little things’ that reveal a band still having more fun than a frog in a glass of milk,” David Lemieux said.

“The seven shows this box presents… offer a snapshot of the artistic process that was the Grateful Dead, making a powerful statement of the band’s project as they marked their 20th anniversary. …this box not only lets us revisit what these shows sounded like at a peak of the band’s PA prowess, it lets us finally hear what these shows meant, the alchemy of time and memory finally revealing the gold of those concerts,” wrote Nicholas G. Meriweather (Executive Director, Grateful Dead Studies Association) in the liner notes.

The Grateful Dead’s first of two nights in Maryland will also be released on September 18 as Merriweather 6/30/85. 3CD and 4LP versions are available for pre-order now.

Preview Summer Magic 1985 and Merriweather 6/30/85 by streaming “Sugar Magnolia” from the sets:

Summer Magic 1985 Concert Listing

• Greek Theatre, University of California, Berkeley, CA (6/14/85)
• Greek Theatre, University of California, Berkeley, CA (6/15/85)
• Greek Theatre, University of California, Berkeley, CA (6/16/85)
• Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY (6/27/85)
• Hershey Park Stadium, Hershey, PA (6/28/85)
• Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD (6/30/85)
• Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD (7/1/85)