This Weekend’s Golden Gate Park Shows Are Band’s First With Legal Cannabis Sales & Consumption

What a long, strange trip it continues to be. For most of their colorful history, the Grateful Dead and cannabis have gone together like an extended jam that ends on the perfect note going back to the mid-1960s when they hastened the rise of the counterculture movement on the streets of Haight-Ashbury complete with acid tests, a communal ethos and virtuoso musicianship.

This weekend, Dead & Company – the group which includes founding members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart along with John Mayer (guitar and vocals), Oteil Burbridge (bass), Jeff Chimenti (key boards), and Jay Lane (drums)– will celebrate “60 years of the Grateful Dead’s music” at San Francisco’s fabled Golden Gate Park, with three shows Aug. 1-3 featuring special guest sets by Billy Strings (Friday), Sturgill Simpson’s Johnny Blue Skies (Saturday) and the Trey Anastasio Band (Sunday).

And for the first time ever at a Dead & Company show, cannabis will be legally sold and consumed during their shows, unlike perhaps the more illicit transactions one might expect on Shakedown Street, the Dead’s open-air market once held in venue parking lots. The full-circle historic moment is all due to the presence of Grass Lands, the on-site consumption area first introduced at Outside Lands in 2018, with sales following in 2019. Then Grass Lands returns the following weekend at Outside Lands, August 8-10, featuring headliners Tyler, the Creator, Hozier and Doja Cat, where it will be sponsored by the rolling paper company Zig-Zag.

The Dead & Co celebration of music and cannabis is being presented at Grass Lands by Embarc Events, a leading cannabis concessionaire and retailer, co-founded by CEO Lauren Carpenter, which includes one-time Red Light Management agent Jim Lewi, who specialized in cannabis initiatives like the Emerald Cup for the firm. To show how times have changed, Carpenter, a self-described policy nerd, activist and “bridge builder,” just returned from 17 days at the California State Fair in Sacramento, where embarc sold cannabis right alongside corn dogs and cotton candy.

In recognition of the tremendous role early cannabis pioneers and legacy farmers have played, Grass Lands will prominently feature Humboldt Family Farms, a collective of craft, sun-grown farms in northern California in what is known as the Emerald Triangle.

“Sixty years ago, some of the world’s best cannabis farmers moved into the hills and hid their cultivation in fear of persecution,” said Embarc’s Carpenter. “Many are coming back down to Golden Gate Park to openly celebrate cannabis, community and music in the very place where so much of this cultural movement began. We are proud to help honor the spirit and legacy of nearly half a century of courageous championing of freedom, community, and authentic living, especially when it wasn’t popular or safe to do so. Most of these small legacy farmers were pioneers in cannabis cultivation and culture just as the Dead have been in music for the past 60 years.”

“Humboldt Family Farms is more than cannabis — it’s a celebration of community, environmental stewardship, and the meticulous craft of cultivation,” added Scott Vasterling, Humboldt Family Farms founder. “We’re honored to celebrate the legacy of this region with the fans attending these Golden Gate Park events.”

Additional participants for the August 1-3 concerts include Papa’s Herb, Humboldt Seed Company, Space Gems, Sol Spirit Farms, Sonoma Hills Farms (2025 Golden Bear winner), Emerald Sky, Blazy Susan, Solful, Woodstock, Raw Garden and the Legacy Market by Equity Trade Network, among others.

Another Planet Entertainment, the Bay Area concert promotion company founded by former Bill Graham Presents execs Gregg Perloff, Sherry Wasserman and Steve Welkom, made Outside Lands the first mainstream festival to integrate legal cannabis sales and consumption seven years ago.

Said COO Welkom, “The integration of legal sales and consumption represents the culmination of decades of cultural evolution that music fans helped inspire. The counterculture movement in San Francisco paved the way for moments like this to be possible.”

“Another Planet has been at the forefront of the legalization movement,” concluded Carpenter, whose husband Dustin Moore was the deputy campaign manager for Proposition 64, the 2016 state ballot measure which legalized recreational adult use cannabis in California. “For them to step up and create a space where we can educate people on cannabis at a large-scale public event like Outside Lands has really helped shape the narrative while enriching the fan experience.”

Aside from offering some of the world’s highest-quality cannabis, this weekend’s Dead & Company festivities include a community drum circle led by drumSTRONG, and art exhibitions by Haight Street Art Center, Moon Alice, and Jerome Baker Designs.