Nearly 46 years after the Grateful Dead’s famous May 8, 1977 Barton Hall performance, Dead and Company announced a return to the concert venue. The band, consisting of former members of the Grateful Dead, teased the concert through an Instagram post on Tuesday, but confirmed they will be playing a benefit concert on May 8 on Thursday evening.
“There’s a lot of excitement brewing about what’s to come at Cornell University,” the post read. “Yes — it’s true — Dead and Company will be playing a benefit concert at Cornell University!”
All proceeds from the concert will go towards MusiCares and the Cornell 2030 Project. MusiCares is a charity that provides a safety net for health and wellness services for musicians in areas relating to mental health, addiction, health insurance and basic living expenses. The Cornell 2030 Project is a University climate initiative that is committed to generating real-world solutions to address climate change by helping to remove silos, activate research and utilize faculty expertise across disciplines.
Dead and Company’s show will commemorate the Grateful Dead’s past Cornell performance, which sold out ticket sales, generating around $59,000 and marking Cornell’s largest-ever concert at the time. Widely considered to be one of the band’s best performances, the concert was memorialized in “Cornell 5/8/77,” a live album from the show.
The Grateful Dead also played in Barton Hall in 1980 and 1981 and another band founded by Grateful Dead members, Furthur, played at Barton on Valentine’s Day in 2010.
This concert will come two days after their appearance at the annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and a week and a half before the band kicks off its Summer 2023 “Final Tour.”