What does the Grateful Dead have to do with Farm Sanctuary? Our roots are deeply intertwined, going back to the 1980s—and we’re still spreading a message of kindness and love together.
Farm Sanctuary was thrilled to be invited to join Dead & Company at the famous Sphere in Las Vegas this month, raising awareness for farm animals at Participation Row from July 3-6.
“As we saw in the 1980s, people coming to see the Grateful Dead tend to have open hearts and minds and an interest in creating a kinder and more peaceful world. Tabling at Participation Row was a beautiful addition to our shared history and ongoing efforts to create a kinder world.”
Besides selling vegan hotdogs out of our van and raising awareness about factory farming, we also worked to get veggie dogs inside venues like Soldier Field, where the Dead had their 50th Anniversary shows in 2015. And our first bumper sticker, “If you love animals called ‘pets,’ why do you eat animals called ‘dinner?’” was suggested by a Dead Head buying a veggie dog in 1986.
Today, Farm Sanctuary operates sanctuaries in New York and California, and there are hundreds of other farm animal sanctuaries around the world. It all started in the 1980s with our VW van at Grateful Dead shows.
We also used the van to investigate factory farms and stockyards and to rescue animals, starting with Hilda, a sheep we found discarded on a “dead pile” at Lancaster Stockyard. She recovered and lived with us at Farm Sanctuary for over 10 years.
Our trusty van was central to Farm Sanctuary’s rescue, education, and advocacy work. From 1986 to 1989, it was a regular presence at East Coast Grateful Dead shows, where we found a receptive audience.
“It was a very open-minded crowd,” Gene Baur told guitarist Bob Weir in 2021. “…I really did appreciate the messages of peace, love, togetherness, belonging, kindness, compassion that surrounded the Grateful Dead. It created this enormous positivity.” See more in Rolling Stone.
In 2015, Gene Baur enjoyed a hot dog from Veg Out, a stand serving vegan alternatives to meat inside Soldier Field during a Grateful Dead 50th anniversary Fare Thee Well show.
This month brought a new chance to continue our outreach and our historic relationship with such an iconic group. Over four days, our team spoke with thousands of kindhearted concertgoers, including some who remember buying vegan hot dogs from us in the 1980s.
We are immensely grateful to have been invited to Participation Row at the Dead & Company experience in Las Vegas—and we appreciate everybody who stopped by our table, including almost 700 who took action to help end factory farming.
