Chicago About To Come Alive With Grateful Dead Fans
(CBS) --Chicago's about to come alive with fans of the Grateful Dead.
The band's final three concerts ever take place this weekend at Soldier Field and are sold out.
CBS 2's Vince Gerasole got inside the brain of "dead-heads" today.
70,000 people will see the band each night. The fan base dates back to the pot smoking free love days of the 60's, but 50 years later, these are not your grandfather's dead heads.
For decades The Grateful Dead's kept something alive in fans.
Since his teens, attorney Bill Stanczak's attended over two dozen concerts, painted the band's logo on his '83 Ford, and sewn it on his legal satchel.
"I have it on the briefcase --- my wife thinks that's a poor business decision but you know you gotta fly your flag," Stanczak said.
He's shelled out $2,700 for 12 coveted tickets, not just to enjoy the music but the preconcert deadhead camaraderie.
"It was tailgating before sports tailgating," he said.
"I can never remember in my 30 years at WXRT more desperation about getting tickets to any concert at any time," said Lin Brehmer.
Brehmer says in their youth dead fans quit their jobs to follow the band, but the thousands converging on Chicago this weekend are grown up now.
"These are the people that have the best hotel rooms that have made reservations at the Michelin star restaurants," Brehmer said.
The ritzy Virgin Hotels Chicago is featuring an exhibit of Grateful Dead photography and reports tight bookings.
Soldier Field is busy constructing a fan tent city, and tickets are now selling for $300 to $11,000 online.
"I have one extra ticket for Sunday night and I wanted to bring my oldest daughter who is eight and that wasn't going to happen according to my wife," Stanczak said.
Tickets sold out so fast in January, these two concerts were added in California last month. If you can't afford to make it to Soldier Field, several clubs and movie theaters in town are streaming the dead.