Dead & Company Continues Upward Climb With $40M Grossed On Summertime Ticket Sales

This year’s trek through U.S. cities launched on May 31 at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, Calif., and continued for a five-week period before wrapping in Boulder, Colo., July 6. The trek totaled 19 concerts in 10 outdoor amphitheaters and four stadiums Stateside. The total gross stretched more than $40.8 million from a sold-ticket count of 460,891.

The latest jaunt is the highest-grossing tour of all the band’s summertime treks, finishing with sales 14% higher than last year’s run that produced a gross of $35.1 million from 495,124 tickets. Actually, the annual summer gross has climbed each year since the initial 2016 run that took in $29.3 million from 420,396 fans. The second summer saw a 12% bump over 2016 with $33.4 million in sales and 447,984 tickets sold.

Dead & Company first hit the road on the heels of the much-heralded Fare Thee Well concerts celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead. Original members of that iconic band Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Bob Weir created the new group with John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti and played their first dates in the last quarter of 2015. Their first summer touring effort came the following year during June and July and included a Bonnaroo appearance, 15 amphitheater shows, one arena concert and three stadium dates. Two of those stadiums – New York’s Citi Field and Folsom Field at the University of Colorado in Boulder – have been on the schedule in all four summers.

This year’s tour finale was held at the Boulder stadium on July 5-6, drawing 67,836 fans for a $6.5 million take, the band’s best box-office counts at the stadium during the four-year span. Overall at the venue, they have grossed over $20.2 million from all four tours, moving a total of 235,788 tickets.

In New York City, the group has performed six times at Citi Field since 2016, earning a total of $18.3 million from 176,370 sold seats during the four-year period. This year’s engagement on June 23 was a sellout with $4 million earned from 39,726 tickets.

Among the amphitheaters that have hosted Dead & Company during the four summer treks, three of them have been booked in all four years. The highest grosser of the three is Shoreline Amphitheatre with an overall gross of $8.6 million from 137,893 sold tickets at seven shows – one in 2016 and two-show stints in the remaining years. The group also played Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on all four tours with a single concert each year. The four-year gross total is $4.8 million from 82,575 total tickets. Finally, BB&T Pavilion in Camden, N.J,. was also on the itinerary each summer with $6.6 million earned from 103,820 tickets at five concerts (two shows in 2018).