Grateful Dead Music Forum

thanks for giving me a good idea about how large of a party it was.

like I said, Wakarusa (~15,000) seemed huge to me during the main acts.

Man I wish I was born 20 years before.

phreaker wrote:I don't intend for this to get drawn out into a long discussion, I just want to have an idea of how many people showed up for concerts at the Deads prime? not just on the board, but the actuall attendance.

I saw them in spring of '90. Not prime but pretty good.

groovemongrel wrote:

phreaker wrote:I don't intend for this to get drawn out into a long discussion, I just want to have an idea of how many people showed up for concerts at the Deads prime? not just on the board, but the actuall attendance.

I saw them in spring of '90. Not prime but pretty good.

1990? And it wasn't packed/soldout?? Which show?

1987-1995 = prime attendance for the GD. I don't think they played one show that entire time that wasn't totally soldout with legions of ticketless heads outside. They had already been playing very big shows, basically ever since the early 70's, but the difference between 1985&1986 crowds (when I first started going, and when tickets could be easily found)) and the CRUSH of 1987-and on, post-"Touch of Grey" was very noticeable.

tigerstrat wrote:

groovemongrel wrote:

phreaker wrote:I don't intend for this to get drawn out into a long discussion, I just want to have an idea of how many people showed up for concerts at the Deads prime? not just on the board, but the actuall attendance.

I saw them in spring of '90. Not prime but pretty good.

1990? And it wasn't packed/soldout?? Which show?

1987-1995 = prime attendance for the GD. I don't think they played one show that entire time that wasn't totally soldout with legions of ticketless heads outside. They had already been playing very big shows, basically ever since the early 70's, but the difference between 1985&1986 crowds (when I first started going, and when tickets could be easily found)) and the CRUSH of 1987-and on, post-"Touch of Grey" was very noticeable.

Spring of 90---not prime?? I'd like to know what was more prime??!

As for attendance, like TS said, almost every show from Touch of Grey's impact was sold out. Used to get a ticket at the box office in the early to mid-80s, but after, say, 1987 this was increasingly rare. When they used to play RFK, JFK, Giants and other stadiums and places like Buckeye and Maine, there were easier tickets but they still had about 50000+ inside the shows....that wouldn't count the throngs that simply hung out in the lots the whole time. Smallest crowd I ever was witness to at a GD show was prolly 9,000 in '81. There were smaller ones but they also were tougher tickets.