Grateful Dead

dead.net the official site

High pt of my life for many yrs! 1st show. I remember: waiting outside for the gates to open, seeing the deadheadforever signs all around the stadium, wondering "What could it mean?" The yellow shirted people with "Good 'ol Grateful Dead" printed on the shirts, them leaning over the top of the stadium at us waiting outside saying "Who needs a ticket?" A few hands in the crowd go up, the yellow shirts throwing a handful of tickets at us with advice to "pass 'em around", then "who needs a lid?", many hands going up, and the yellow shirts throwing out armfuls of sacks, saying "pass 'em around". A few minutes later the gates finally opened, and a wave of humanity moves through with hands holding tickets in the air, people carrying backpacks, coolers, etc, no time to check, just let 'em roll on in. The tunes: 1st set seeming to be kind of standard, good stuff, crystal clear, spontaneous chants of "turn it up" finally getting to whoever in charge of volume... later amazing mind control realizations as everyone is up dancing and at some point music winding down, slower, softer, everyone's sitting, then music stopping for some seconds, you could hear a pin drop, before the spell breaks and the cheering begins...then tuning up (due to heat?) coheres eventually and you're up dancing and its a song, its the same song...How'd they do that? The smoke signals: Seeing bursts of something brownish/silver (doves? jumbo confetti?) in the crowd at various points suddenly. My brain is braising and can't wrap around the fact that to have one, I'd have to stand up and catch a 4-finger sack of fine weed complete with matches, papers, and rolling machine, when they are released into the air from somewhere in the crowd close to us. Oh, well, we already had plenty to smoke. My addled think-muscle is confounded...how did they get all those sacks in here? Big truckloads? Gunny sacks full through the gates? Mulish yellow shirts? Transporter? Some time later, the Folsom Field looked to resemble some form of extremely wide, short chimney in a fun factory in full production, which, it turns out sent a challenge to the gods of weather. The rain! Starting out as a beautiful late summer day on the front range, a thunderstorm blew up, trembled and exploded onto us during the 2nd set. This was a mixed blessing/curse as my feet seemed to have been in some mescaline induced torpor which wouldn't allow me to move them to the concession stand, and my mouth was so dry... anyhoo it rained inches, buckets, torrential biblical delugical amounts of water in a short time...I tilt my head back and get a wetted whistle...I see the backstage people trying to empty the water from the tarps covering the stage/backstage and the slosh going all over equipment...I see guys with a saw cutting holes in the stage for drainage...I see my buddy Mike next to me who had enough forethought to bring a raincoat but enough synapse cross-wiring to forget to put the hood up.. I see Bobby(?) making some quip about "aquapiano" on stage, then the band playing some warmup music for a third wake o' the flood set. Then I knew what the flags were trying to tell me, and I was on the bus!

Who remembers the little girl going from one picnac basket to the next on the west side of the stadium bleachers? She loved twinkies and brownies! Who remembers the rain that we stopped by the sheer force of our minds? Who remembers what was tossed into the crowd from the guys that came off the stage? Was that a show or was that a party? I love Boulder!

Thanks to the earlier posters who revived many great memories. I was high up in the stadium and was too far to catch any of the free dope, but it was fun to watch. I seem to remember security trying to get to the folks who were vaulting the prized packages into the crowd, but they kept popping up at different parts of the field, and all we could see were the plastic baggies shooting up into the crowd like fireworks. No one mentioned it, but I could have sworn that after the rain delay, they came out and played Harrison's Here Comes the Sun. The other thing I remember was the show went over 6.5 hrs and the tix were $3.50

G,Rexroad...it rained? darn....must have been the Owsley....a wonderful day....as we left Not Fade Away echoed in the parking lot....I got ripped, I had to pay about 7 bucks! I got to sit to the left high up but my head was still between the speakers. I had a really nice blind date my friend Richard Broadwell provided, beautiful red hair.....as far away as I was, my head was still between the speakers.

I was living on The Hill at the time. Five of us walked over to the stadium early and were able to sit on the grass about thirty yards back from the stage. When the rain came we were to messed up to move so we just put the blanket over us and waited. I remember people were worried that the someone on stage would be electrocuted like what happened to Les Harvey from Stone the Crows a year or two earlier. The highlight memory of the concert was when out of the corner of my eye I spotted what looked like birds being release into the air but they disappeared. I asked my friends if they saw it and they are like sure man whatever you say. A few minutes later I saw the birds coming at us and I caught one and it was a perfect lid of good Mexican weed complete with rolling papers and farmers matches. It looked like they Deads roadies had bushel baskets or cardboard box full of lids and they were grabbing them and throwing them out to an appreciative crowd. I know I rolled all mine up and passed it around. About that time Jerry Garcia said something to the effect of we love you Boulder or enjoy it Boulder. We were at the field for over six hours and it goes down and one of the best two concerts I have ever attended. The other one was the same year in June of 1972 at the Denver Coliseum for the Rolling Stones concert.1972 a fine year for music and sweet memories. Thank you Grateful Dead you forever live in our hearts.

Driving all day, and night, from Ohio for this particular show, the Boulder radio station was playing " The Other One" from the live album (Grateful Dead) when we cruised over the hill from Genoa, CO. (TOO has been my fav ever since) . Upon arriving at Folsom , we found tickets for $3. This price definitely took a chunk out of our motel and beer funds. Anyway, never having seen a Dead show, I was suspicious of all the weird pepole, especially the STP drug crowd. Orange Barrels and Purple Haze (Owsley?) took the edge off the long drive, and the STP folks in front of us, acting wild and drunk.Midway through the show, bags of pot were bouncing off our faces, likely thrown by stage hands. I'm not sure when this occurred, due to the statement above about Purple Haze. Check out my photos for proof that I was there. I was forever impressed by the Dead.

I drove my 1966 Ford pickup down from Aspen for that, my first show. There were half a dozen of my mountain hippie friends on board and we were ready for our first Grateful Dead show, or so we thought. $3.50 got us in the gate, and my life has never been the same. The day and the music went on forever, through sun, heat, rain & fun. I remember crowds flocking to the entrances to the field, and to my amazement, beautiful bags of green herb, each with papers and match's, flying into the hands of any head who could catch em. As the band played on, the crowd rolled joints, and suddenly I had thousands of new best friends, brothers and sisters. Over the years my wife and I have been to countless Dead and Dead related shows, right up to and including the last shows at Soldier Field, Chicago, 1995, and everyone was special, unique and above all, great. But I'll never forget the feeling that day in Boulder. It was truly Christmas for the senses. The amazing music, the loving people, the charm that oozed from the band and their roadies. We drove back up to Aspen that evening and I knew I had found my home. It was wherever the Grateful Dead were, because thats where I knew my new family was. Today, Nearly 40 years later, we live on our sailboat, "Sunshine Daydream" in the Florida Keys. If you get near, you'll be certain to hear the Glass Tiger wafting across the water, as if Jerry never left. He really didn't, you know. Nope, he will live on with us until the last Dead Head takes their last breath, and then "We can all be together, forever and ever, when we make it to the Promised Land" ! Until then, lets "Keep the mother rollin" Love to all G&D

I drove my 1966 Ford pickup down from Aspen for that, my first show. There were half a dozen of my mountain hippie friends on board and we were ready for our first Grateful Dead show, or so we thought. $3.50 got us in the gate, and my life has never been the same. The day and the music went on forever, through sun, heat, rain & fun. I remember crowds flocking to the entrances to the field, and to my amazement, beautiful bags of green herb, each with papers and match's, flying into the hands of any head who could catch em. As the band played on, the crowd rolled joints, and suddenly I had thousands of new best friends, brothers and sisters. Over the years my wife and I have been to countless Dead and Dead related shows, right up to and including the last shows at Soldier Field, Chicago, 1995, and everyone was special, unique and above all, great. But I'll never forget the feeling that day in Boulder. It was truly Christmas for the senses. The amazing music, the loving people, the charm that oozed from the band and their roadies. We drove back up to Aspen that evening and I knew I had found my home. It was wherever the Grateful Dead were, because thats where I knew my new family was. Today, Nearly 40 years later, we live on our sailboat, "Sunshine Daydream" in the Florida Keys. If you get near, you'll be certain to hear the Glass Tiger wafting across the water, as if Jerry never left. He really didn't, you know. Nope, he will live on with us until the last Dead Head takes their last breath, and then "We can all be together, forever and ever, when we make it to the Promised Land" ! Until then, lets "Keep the mother rollin" Love to all G&D

I was living in a co-op behind the Sink...ended up at this show with a few friends and we were all tripping..i ended up naked which was my norm when on acid and not sure if I remember much else...though I do recall the flock of birds already mentioned being lids...

Lived in Boulder then, 2 blocks west of The Hill on University. We walked to Folsom with many skins of Almaden etc. Remember helicopters? dropping relief bags or herb, completly out fitted. Band ripped of out the gate on first set. Remember seeing black storm heading for us. We were quick enough to make it to a tunnel when storm cut loose. Dead were playing appropriate tune for a storm. Shortly, we heard opening notes to Sugar Mag & huge roar from crowd. Walked back out to field, blue skies & double rainbow above all of us. And the band played on.....unforgettable!

I was a country bumpkin, right off the farm in Illinois, on my first trip west. I was traveling with two friends and we had no idea that the Dead were playing in Boulder. Actually, I had heard Truckin' and Casey Jones on the radio and that was about it. We just happened to be in the right place! I remember walking in to the stadium and my life immediately changed. Couldn't believe it... the band actually began on time... frisbees, balloons... a father telling his son to remind mommy not to forget the peyote. "We can't forget the goodies1" Yep.... survival bags of pot filtered all the way back to us. Yep... lots of rain. I remember them sing a song that mentioned the Colorado rain. I also remember wandering down onto the field and smoking a joint with a couple during Johnnie B Goode as the rain poured down. Spent the last set right down front. The bus definitely stopped for me that day.

A couple of things stand out in my memory.We had bought tickets to pickup at the ticket office. We got there and our tickets were not waiting for us. What to do, waiting for the gates to open and no tickets. After the first rush of people got in, they went straight to the top of the stadium and threw their tickets down. Right into our hands. It was a miracle. I had enough rain gear to hunker down and wait the storm out. The next miracle, and I'm surprised no one has mentioned it, but when they played I Know You Rider - I swear this is true - when they sang "I'd shine my light on cool Colorado Range" the Sun came out for the first time lighting up the front range of the Rockies, right on cue. Everyone who sat high enough in the stadium to see it let out a roar. I'll never forget it.

I was a University of Colorado freshman living on campus at the time of the 9/3/72 show. Quite an introduction to college life!

Beep, that is one heavyweight of a cool looking show, lucky you got to see it. If Dave released that show I don't think you would hear many complaints.

I have my ticket. How do I post it?
We gave away 1,000 four finger lids of rainbow cannabis. Jerry approved and let us bring in the cannabis with the stage equipment. After we gave them all away. Jerry said" Smoke em and pass them around". Awesome time.
Gregor

I have my ticket and the review from the Denver Post on 9/4/72. How do I post them?

September 3rd, 1972
The first time that the Grateful Dead played at Folsom Field Boulder Colorado, Donna and Keith Godchaux first Colorado show.

At my birthday show at Ken Kesey Creamery, we told Jerry that we were planning
to give away a thousand baggies of ganja to the folks for free at Folsom Field
and could he help us get the ganja in

Will repost in a few weeks

Six and half hours of joyful blessings

You and your crew are LEGENDARY!
What a great story.
I think my older sister was there too.
Cheers

Bluecrow was talking about someone he worked with "on a crew" many years later who was at that show, not you.