The Grateful Dead Picked 14 Of Their Favorite Fan Art Envelopes And Posted The Designs On Facebook
The show will be titled "Fare Thee Well," and will mark nearly two decades after the band last performed together with the late Jerry Garcia at the same 55,000-capacity venue.
Tickets for the extravaganza were first open to mail order beginning January 20th, in keeping with the band's snail mail ticketing tradition.
Fans intricately decorated envelopes in hopes of helping their chances at getting tickets - and in many cases, it worked.
The Grateful Dead wrote on their Facebook page:
"We're truly humbled by the envelopes pouring in! Check out some of our favorites so far and share your crafty work in the comments below. Counting down to Chicago!"
Check out some of the group's favorite envelope art below:
Post by Grateful Dead. Post by Grateful Dead. Post by Grateful Dead. Post by Grateful Dead. Post by Grateful Dead. Post by Grateful Dead. Post by Grateful Dead. Post by Grateful Dead. Post by Grateful Dead. Post by Grateful Dead. Post by Grateful Dead. Post by Grateful Dead.
Check out more of the band's top picks on Facebook here.
As the Grateful Dead encouraged, hundreds of fans have posted their own designs in the comments section:
Past "dead head" fan art is the subject of 2011 book "Dead Letters: The Very Best Grateful Dead Fan Mail," which showcases years of fan art on envelopes.
The book's description explains:
"Dead Heads went to extraordinary, often inspiring, lengths to get their hands on concert tickets by mailing the band and its staff. After all, the only way to get tickets for the Dead was to go directly to the source. Most often, this took the form of letters (and envelopes) with personalized Dead artwork the likes of which the U.S. Postal Service had ever seen."
For July's concerts, online tickets will first be made available to members of the Grateful Dead fan club before anyone else and range in price from $59.50-$199.50. Tickets can be purchased on a first-come-first-serve basis from Feb. 9-11.
After that, a local public presale will occur Feb. 12-13, with a general public sale to follow Feb. 14. Ticket information is available at Dead50.net.