VENTURA : Officials Expect No Concert Rowdiness

A band headed by the lead singer of the Grateful Dead will perform at the Ventura County Fairgrounds on July 31, but fair and police officials said they do not expect the event to be as rowdy as the three-day Dead festival in 1988.

“The Grateful Dead is more of a happening than it is a concert,” said Assistant Fair Manager Art Amelio. “It attracts a completely different crowd.”

Amelio said he plans to limit attendance to 10,000 people, or 8,000 less than the crowd at the Grateful Dead’s 1988 concert. That event prompted homeowners living near the fair to lobby for a ban against the band in Ventura.

“If Jerry Garcia erupts into a huge event, we will be as surprised as he will,” Amelio said.

Ventura Police Lt. Steve Bowman said he has called police departments in other cities where the Jerry Garcia Band has played, looking for horror stories. He found none.

Irvine police told him to expect “a very, very quiet event,” he said.

Bowman said the fair will hire eight Ventura police officers for security inside the venue at a cost of $2,500.

Jan Gomez, who manages one of the condominium complexes whose owners lobbied against the Dead’s return to Ventura, remembers the trouble well.

“There were terrible things that happened,” she said. “People were having sex on lawns, they were defecating on lawns, using them as bathrooms. There was vandalism, windows broken, very noisy, discourteous people.”

But so far, she said, news of the Jerry Garcia Band’s one-night debut in Ventura County has not triggered fears of a repeat performance by Deadheads.

“I don’t think anyone is aware of who he is,” Gomez said. “Not (one homeowner) has mentioned a thing.