Grateful Dead Coming Home?

Surviving members of the Grateful Dead are reportedly planning a few nights on the West Coast on top of the sold out 50th anniversary shows at Chicago’s Soldiers Field.

Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., is supposedly set to host the Grateful Dead June 27-28, the weekend before the July 3-5 residency at Soldiers Field, according to Sports Business Daily. Citing “sources,” the website says that promoter Peter Shapiro added more dates because of a huge demand for tickets and that the Levi’s Stadium shows represent a final homecoming for the band.

The venue is located about 14 miles outside of Palo Alto, the Bay Area city where the Grateful Dead was formed in 1965.

Above is an example of the decorative envelopes mailed in to the Grateful Dead Ticketing Service in hopes of getting tickects to the July 3-5 "Fare Thee Well" shows.

The March 23 post from Sports Business Daily follows reports earlier this month that the Grateful Dead was thinking about adding shows at Levi’s Stadium, the home of the San Francisco 49ers.

Representatives with the venue were not available at post time. The same goes for the publicist that handled the announcement for the Soldiers Field shows.

Sports Business Daily’s report didn’t mention if the Santa Clara lineup would match the roster for the Chicago gigs, dubbed “Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of Grateful Dead.” Along with Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, the July 3-5 concerts feature Phish’s Trey Anastasio on guitar, Jeff Chimenti on keyboard and Bruce Hornsby on piano.

The sports site wasn’t joking about the huge demand. An online presale for the Chicago shows was called off after the Grateful Dead Ticking Service received more than 60,000 envelopes filled with more than 350,000 ticket requests.

A post on Grateful Dead 50’s Facebook page says that after tickets officially went on sale to the general public Feb. 28, fans “broke Ticketmaster’s on-sale record when nearly half a million” Deadheads tried to get tickets.

The Feb. 28 post – the most recent update on social media from Grateful Dead 50 – adds, “We are working on various ways to help everyone experience these shows in a way that will help you share this special moment with us. Stay tuned, and thank you for showing your love, we feel it!”