Dead Tradition Lives On : Fans Flock to Fairgrounds for Reunion Concert--Minus Jerry Garcia

They spilled out of rusting Volvos and VW vans, swarming at the western tip of the city for a ritual that has perhaps lost some of its meaning but little of its tradition.

The Grateful Dead is no more now that Jerry Garcia is dead.

But a reunion of the band’s surviving members at the Ventura County Fairgrounds on Thursday proved that fans think the Dead show must, well, go on.

“Jerry started this years and years ago,” said 52-year-old Phoenix resident Tom Langham, one of more than 8,500 fans who packed a dusty arena for the seven-hour concert. “If we were to let the tradition fade away, there would be a lot missing, in my life at least.”

As always, a long line of mainly bare-chested men wearing worn Birkenstocks along with women clad in tie-dyed tank tops and billowy skirts formed outside the gates hours before the concert began.

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When the doors finally opened at 2 p.m., aging hippies and younger bohemians streamed into the arena toward the stage, sending dust and the thick scent of patchouli oil swirling into the air.

“I was like this close in Vegas,” B.J. Ganguin, a 50-year-old Apple Valley resident, exclaimed to her friends about her spot inches from the stage. Ganguin--as Deadheads often do--was referring to a past Grateful Dead show, this one in Las Vegas.

While concert-goers filled the seaside arena, Ventura law enforcement officials braced for an invasion by the die-hard fans, who in the past have earned a reputation for smoking pot and taking other drugs.

Under pressure from residents living near the fairgrounds, county fair officials decided to bar the band from performing at the venue about a decade ago after six people were arrested at a Dead show and hundreds of others went skinny dipping at Surfers Point.

Though officials later lifted the restriction, the original Dead never returned. But the Jerry Garcia Band was allowed to play in Ventura and performed at the fairgrounds as recently as 1994.

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Although some of Ventura’s beachfront residents said they were concerned that a new set of Deadheads in town might bring trouble, others said the fans of the ‘90s appeared well-behaved.

“I was just thinking to myself, ‘I thought the hippy days were over,’ ” said Janice Hawkins, 44, who noticed an abundance of young people with dreadlocks and tie-dyed clothes hours before the concert. “I was glad to see they weren’t.”

That’s not to say the crowd was perfect.

By Thursday evening, Lt. Carl Handy of Ventura’s Police Department said authorities had arrested one person for possession of hashish for sale, another person for hitting a security guard, two people for selling hallucinogenic “magic” mushrooms outside the concert and a fifth person for selling marijuana. Concert promoters, he added, will be charged for the cost of providing the narcotics agents, police officers, security guards and sheriff’s deputies on horseback who combed through the crowd.

“We’re not going to tolerate any type of drugs at all,” Handy said.

But many blamed a minority of the concert-goers for the bad image that Dead shows get as drug-filled free-for-alls--a reputation that spoils it for the rest of the fans.

“It’s about getting high off the music and the atmosphere,” said Michele Desgroseilliers , a 26-year-old fan from Ithaca, N.Y. “It’s not about getting high off of illegal substances.”

Like many of the faithful, Desgroseilliers said Thursday’s show had deep significance for Deadheads because the day would have marked the band leader’s 54th birthday.

“He’ll be listening to us,” she said.

The crowd, meanwhile, listened to former Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir jam with his current band, Ratdog, which includes bassist Rob Wasserman.

The group’s former drummer, Mickey Hart, now playing with Music Box, and sometimes band pianist Bruce Hornsby also performed separately, as did bands Los Lobos and Hot Tuna.

The Furthur Festival, as this gathering of former Dead members is called, moves today to the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre and will eventually hit a total of 32 U.S. cities.

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“It’s still fun, but there is something missing,” said Florida resident Maya Wells, 25, as she summed up the prevailing attitude among fans on the band without Garcia.

Said Wells’ friend Alyson Robbins, 25: “When Jerry used to play, it was just like electricity used to fill the air.”

The beefy, bearded guitarist and band’s most famous member died last Aug. 9 of a heart attack.

“It was like Kennedy getting shot,” Larry Johnson, a 50-year-old Riverside resident, said of Garcia’s death. “It’s a thing you always remember, I guess.”

But Garcia or no Garcia, many fans vowed to continue what started as a tradition of trekking across the country to attend Grateful Dead concerts.

“All the shows are different,” said 44-year-old Terry Barton, a metalworker from Long Beach who said he has seen the Grateful Dead in concert more than 190 times. “You don’t know when the best one is going to be, so you have to go to every one.”

Correspondent Scott Hadly contributed to this story.