Dead & Company Raises $2 Million for Charity Through Memorabilia Auctions During Final Tour
Dead & Company is selling its greatest possessions, all for a noble cause. The group — which consists of former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart alongside John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, Jeff Chimenti and Jay Lane — has raised a total of $2 million from memorabilia auctions held during various stops on its Final Tour.
Dead & Co.’s Final Tour officially concluded on July 16 with a sold out show at San Fransisco’s Oracle Park. By the end of the tour run, which included stops in Colorado, Washington, California, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois and more, auctions from the group’s Participation Row — the charity social action village which has traveled with the Dead & Company tour over the past eight years — raised $2 million in new funding from selling memorabilia, bringing its cumulative sum to $4,000,984 in proceeds raised for charities since 2015.
According to HeadCount, a non-profit promoting voting rights where Weir serves a board member, the San Francisco shows “raised over $700,000 to benefit HeadCount, Reverb, and more favorite Dead Family non-profit organizations. This included a remarkable $275,000 for the official tour guitar, $238,000 for the guitar commemorating the final shows in San Francisco, over $150,000 for unique pieces of Mickey Hart’s fine art, and other [miscellaneous] items tallied up the remaining numbers.”
In addition to the Participation Row auctions, Dead & Co. donated two dollars from each ticket sale to HeadCount and ran multiple promotions through their official website to further get DeadHeads involved.
See HeadCount’s post following the conclusion of the auctions below on Instagram.
Starr Bowenbank
Billboard