but eating a giant cookie and being gobsmacked for about 12 hours. I do remember being better after the music started. Thanks!

Thanks for posting this! It's great to hear with a clearer head!

Trying to take nothing away from the performers, but the real show was in the campground the night before. Bonfires and drummers circles, calliopies and clowns, knights in armor and maidens to be rescued, too much of everything was just enough! And there was that asshole wandering around naked at 6 am yelling over and over "Im blaming it all on the tweakers". I was rethinking my opposition to the death penalty!

Needless to say, many of us were not in top form for the show, so it's great to hear a quality recording of it. Thanks to the taper!

Usually I try to seperate the live experience from the quality of the performance, but I'm giving this one five stars regardless, it was that special!

This was a patch from Derek G - we used this rig to record some Blues Traveler, Hedges and other shows together.

This was a patch from my rig. Nice. I never transferred it.

Not surprising that there were strange elements to this day, seeing as how it was on the Country Fair lot, purportedly the same spot where there would have been the third decadal celebration with the Grateful Dead in 1992.

Emotions were mixed one year after Jerry's passing. All the NW freaks were there, in force, as well as some braver souls who had actually followed the Furthur festivals. The dividing line between the lot and the venue, in my hazy memory, seemed like little more than hay bails and some sort of waist-high fence. This was a completely pastoral, Country Fair-style bacchanal, complete with overnight camping.

Before Ratdog's set, Kesey, Babbs, Romney, and many other Pranksters (two or three generations worth), rode atop the facsimile bus–the one of Smithsonian fame–waving banners, tooting horns, shouting, etc. Kesey had one of those old fire extinguishers which one pumps, and he was spraying the audience. People either ran to the spray or cringed away in fear, not knowing which sort of prank it might be. (Indeed, one friend of mine had been pranked earlier in the day to the point where he had a hard time recognizing me. I think his involved a squirt gun.)

Ratdog's music was bittersweet as Bobby consciously left a hole in the tunes where our departed friend would be. Jorma filled in some, but there was a palpable absence in the air; and yet, we soldier on. . . . The others on stage were the rag-tag Prankster collection who had ridden in on the bus, and the only ones who come to mind are Babbs and Romney. Kesey's and Babbs's sons must have been among them, too, but it was hard to tell.

Now, some 16 years removed, it's odd to think that this was a seminal moment which can't be repeated. The whole scene had more to do with that famous Bill Graham usher's quote–"The Grateful Dead aren't just music, they're an environment"–than anything else. It's an environment I've only seen small remnants of ever since.

Great show! A one of a kind!
Wish there was more information on the personal involved.

Thanks Dean