By Tom Collins
Staff Writer

Would someone pay $100,000 to see one of the final concerts of the band they’ve devoted most of their life to? For fans of the Grateful Dead, known to follow the group from city to city on tour in order to catch as many shows as possible, that may be the resale price they have to pay to see the final performances if they missed out on face value tickets.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of their original formation, the four surviving members of the Grateful Dead—guitarist Bob Weir, bassist Phil Lesh and drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann—have announced three shows on July 3, 4, and 5 at Soldier Field in Chicago, where, in 1995, the group performed their final concert before the death of lead guitarist Jerry Garcia and subsequent dissolution of the band.
While the remaining members have played together in various incarnations since the Dead’s breakup, these concerts, billed as “Fare Thee Well”, will mark the last time the four members will share the stage together.
Joining Weir, Lesh, Hart and Kreutzmann are Bruce Hornsby, a solo artist who toured as an extra piano player with the Grateful Dead in the early 1990s, Jeff Chimenti, a keyboardist who has played with the surviving members in several of their solo and reunion projects and, filling in for the late Jerry Garcia, Trey Anastasio, lead singer and guitarist of Phish.
“This is such an important moment for the band, their fans, and for everybody that loves live music,” event producer, and self proclaimed Deadhead, Peter Shapiro, said in the initial press release, ”This is the band that caused so much to happen, that led to the creation of so many bands that have been influenced by what they achieved, both musically and culturally. The Grateful Dead truly are the great American Rock & Roll band so to have their final shows take place July 4th weekend in Chicago creates a lot of potential for magic to be made.”
With such high demand, in order to prevent scalpers from getting their hands on tickets, the group opted to offer fans the opportunity to request tickets before the onsale via mail, like the Grateful Dead was known to do throughout their career. Their ticketing system, GDSTOO, received over 60,000 mail order requests for tickets, causing the public onsale to be pushed back from the original date of Feb. 14.
On February 28, tickets to the historic shows, ranging from $56.50 to $169.50 for single day tickets and $169.50 to $589.50 for three day passes, went on sale via Ticketmaster. Over half a million people were in queue trying to purchase tickets, breaking Ticketmaster records.
The shows sold out within an hour, and within another hour, despite the Dead’s efforts, scalpers were posting tickets on resale sites. Currently, on Stubhub, the cheapest price for a single day ticket, behind the stage, with no view, is $469.50, and if someone wants to get a ticket for the general admission field, they will have to shell out $100,000. Even passes to get into the parking lot, where music can be heard from Soldier Field, are going for $200 a night.
While many may speculate that the billing the shows as the Dead’s final performances is simply being done to increase the hype for the concerts and demand for tickets, most fans don’t want to take the chance. Rest assured, Deadheads—with tickets and without—will make their pilgrimage to Chicago this Fourth of July weekend to experience the music they’ve dedicated their lives to one last time.