CHICAGO — The Grateful Dead "Fare Thee Well" shows in Chicago will keep truckin' this weekend, with a few new health and safety measures in place, officials said Saturday.
Deadheads can expect higher temps tonight and tomorrow compared to Friday, said Soldier Field spokesman Luca Serra. To protect people from heat-related illness, CTA cooling buses will be available on both ends of the stadium.
Serra also reminded the throngs of Grateful Dead fans crowding into Chicago for the farewell shows to stay hydrated, and that water fountains are all along the outside of Soldier Field for that purpose.
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Fans with tickets for the day's show only will be allowed into "Shakedown Street," the gathering of food and merchandise vendors that's been mainstay through decades of Grateful Dead concerts, Serra said.
"People who want to tailgate or have friends with tickets and want to park in the lots, they're more than welcome," Serra said. "But after the show starts [at 7 p.m.] they'll be asked to leave."
Serra acknowledged that some concertgoers last night were unsettled by the rush to leave the stadium, with some readers telling DNAinfo Chicago that they were packed into a "crowded tunnel" and feared for their safety.
Serra said, "Our goal is to make everyone feel safe as best as possible. ... Sometimes, with 70,000 people exiting the building all at once, there is difficulty."
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He said that many people attempted to go to the east side of the Field Museum last night, creating overcrowding in that area, and that event officials will be directing more people to the west side of the Field Museum tonight to avoid that problem.
The popular group, which popularized the jam band genre 50 years ago, has attracted crowds from all over the country, including some without tickets or a place to stay, for what is billed as they last time the Grateful Dead will perform together.
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