🎪 Let It Shine: The Summer the Dead Took Over Watkins Glen

~The untold harmony of mud, music, and 600,000 dancing souls

There are moments in music history when the stars align, the amps hum just right, and something bigger than a concert takes shape. Not just a show—but a shimmering, wild, communal experience that lingers across decades like the last notes of a favorite song.

Watkins Glen was that kind of moment.

🌀 Bigger Than Woodstock

It was July 28, 1973. The sleepy town of Watkins Glen, New York, was bracing for a rock festival expected to draw 150,000 fans.

Instead, over 600,000 people showed up.

Crowd at Watkins Glen 1973

That’s twice the size of Woodstock, and by many counts, the largest crowd ever assembled for a single concert in U.S. history.

More than a show, it became a movement—peaceful, blissed-out, and overflowing with raw, human connection. Roads backed up for miles. Fans ditched their cars and walked for hours just to be part of it. Helicopters dropped in supplies. And yet somehow, it worked.

“No fences. No security. Just music, mud, and the unmistakable feeling that you were part of something real.”

🎶 The Soundcheck That Became a Set

On Friday night, the Dead took the stage to test the PA system. What followed wasn’t a soundcheck—it was a full 90-minute jam for tens of thousands already on site.

This impromptu session is now known as the Watkins Glen Soundcheck Jam—a legendary set in the Dead’s sprawling lore. Dreamy, exploratory, loose in the best way. For many, it was the real highlight of the weekend. A piece of it is here, on Spotify...and if you don't have a Spotify account, here it is on YouTube.

🌤️ A Field of Freaks & Forever Vibes

By Saturday morning, the grounds had transformed into a psychedelic village.

Frisbees flew. Naked swimming happened. Communal meals were passed hand to hand. Drum circles popped up like fireflies. It was Deadhead utopia, wide open and weirdly functional.

The Dead’s actual set? Sprawling, soulful, and unforgettable.

Bertha

Beat it on Down the Line

Brown Eyed Women

Mexicali Blues

Box of Rain

Here Comes Sunshine

Looks Like Rain

Row Jimmy

Jack Straw

Deal

Playing in the Band

Around and Around

Loose Lucy

Big River

He's Gone

Truckin'

Nobody's Jam

El Paso

China Cat Sunflower

I Know You Rider

Stella Blue

Eyes of the World

Sugar Magnolia

Sing Me Back Home

“If your shoes were muddy and your tent was soaked, it just added to the myth.”

📻 The Afterglow

Unlike Woodstock, there was no documentary. No official merch. No commemorative box set. Just stories. Bootlegs. Photos. Memory.

Watkins Glen wasn’t about hype—it was about presence. And it proved something powerful: that a band without a hit single, without radio play, could still pull together a tribe of hundreds of thousands. Through word of mouth alone.

🌹 Echoes in the Now

As Michelle and I look ahead to the 60th anniversary celebrations in Golden Gate Park this August, Watkins Glen is echoing in our hearts. It reminds us that this music, this scene, was never just about the songs—it’s about gathering. About feeling alive and connected under the open sky. About dancing with strangers who somehow feel like kin.

If you’re heading to the Park, come say hi. We’ll have China Cat Chat stickers and postcards in our pockets and smiles to share. And if we’re lucky, maybe the wind will carry a few notes from a jam in a muddy New York field, half a century ago, on the other side of the country.

See you on the bus. ✌️🌹⚡