Dead and Company’s sold-out “Final Tour” has raised $2 million dollars for charity thanks to the band’s specially curated memorabilia auctions. The funds go towards benefitting the voter registration non-profit HeadCount, along with environmental group Reverb and numerous other organizations.
The summer trek, which kicked off earlier this May in Los Angeles, features original members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart along with John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, Jeff Chimenti and Jay Lane and officially concluded on July 16 with a sold-out show at San Fransisco’s Oracle Park. According to HeadCount, the show raised over $700,000 — $275,000 of that sum coming from the sale of the official tour guitar and over $150,000 coming from Hart’s fine art sale.
Dead and Co.’s $2 million surpasses the combined total of all of the band’s previous touring charity auctions. Since 2015, the band’s cumulative sum of money raised from memorabilia sales stands at over $4 million dollars. This tour and auction made stops in Colorado, Washington, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois and more.
HeadCount has partnered with several top-charting musicians and their tours in the last few years; Harry Styles as well as Lizzo have recruited the organization for their worldwide jaunts. (Weir is a board member of HeadCount.)
Other items sold across Dead and Co.’s tours include guitars with illustrations by poster artist AJ Masthay, official tour posters and more. In addition to auctions, Dead and Co. donated two dollars from each ticket sale to HeadCount.
The “Final Tour” was announced last September with a statement from the band that included an official declaration that Dead and Company is coming to an end.
“As we put the finishing touches on booking venues, and understanding that word travels fast, we wanted to be the first to let you know that Dead and Company will be hitting the road next summer for what will be our final tour,” the statement read.
Thania Garcia
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