What started in 2002 as a small celebration to honor late Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia is now a free annual concert drawing thousands to John McLaren Park.
The all-volunteer group behind Jerry Day has pulled out all the stops for this year's celebration. Event founder Tom Murphy, senior intern and project manager Gina Storniolo and the Jerry Day Committee have organized more than just the usual concert for its 23rd year. And not just because this year’s the Dead's 60th year and Jerry Day weekend coincides with Dead & Company playing a pricy, sold-out three-day concert in Golden Gate Park, drawing Deadheads from all over.
On Friday, Aug. 1, there will be a street sign installation on Garcia’s birthday, near the musician’s childhood home on the corner of Mission and Harrington streets that commemorates Garcia.
On Saturday, Aug. 2, Melvin Seals & JGB w/ Mads Tolling, Stu Allen & Mars Hotel and Peter Rowan will perform. Afterward, there will be Jerry Nite, after-parties in and around the Excelsior at the Recovery Room, the Halfway Club, the Check-In Lounge and more. The Excelsior Night Market will have a Jerry Garcia theme.
“There's going to be tie-dye all over the place at that point,” Murphy said. “The beauty of it for us is that there are a lot of new people in the city, especially city government. They're going to see the impact this has.”
But not everything is simple and fun. The committee is fundraising for next year’s event after losing 80% of its funding from the city in budget cuts.
The Ingleside Light talked with Murphy and Storniolo about this year’s special celebration.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did you get involved with Jerry Day?
Murphy: In 1995, I found out that Garcia came from the neighborhood. I was blown away. Fast forward to 2000-2001, I went to a park rebuild for a Crocker-Amazon playground, and the idea of a band shell came up. They asked, “Do you know anybody's artwork we could put on this band shell?” and I slowly raised my hand, and they called me. I said, “Well, what about Jerry Garcia’s artwork?” and they're like, “He didn't grow up here,” and I'm like, “Yes, he did grow up here.” They're all, “Contact his family's estate and get back to us.” So I did. I sent an email, and they responded. That was the start of our relationship.
On the bandshell project, that never came to fruition, but we did. We ended up selling a Jerry Garcia Excelsior t-shirt, which was a fundraiser for the Crocker-Amazon playground in 2002. That was at the Italian American Social Club and we had a small Jerry Garcia Excelsior celebration there. After that, a few of us got together and we said, “Okay, let's keep this party going.” We moved it up to the amphitheater, which was named McLaren Park Amphitheater at that time, and it's now the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater. Then we started Jerry Day. That was like May of 2003. We had the event the first weekend of August in 2003. Shortly after that, the next year, we decided to collect signatures and got the amphitheater renamed to Jerry Garcia Amphitheater in 2005.
Storniolo: One of my close family friends let me know that things were happening in the Excelsior with Jerry Day and invited me to one of the meetings, so I came along. I really wanted to be involved. I joined about one year ago.
My family grew up in the Excelsior. They grew up across the street from one of Jerry’s childhood homes, the one on Amazon, so I’m a little familiar with the area and things like that. I’m also a big fan of the Grateful Dead. I actually took a student-led class on The Grateful Dead my first semester [at UC Berkeley] that was really fun. I just love to be involved with the community and all things civic and bringing music and engagement to people.”
What can people expect at this year’s celebration?
Murphy: We already knew it was going to be a big year. I was working on this before last year's event and I had all these plans because it's the 30-year anniversary of his passing, the 20-year anniversary of the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater and the 60-year anniversary of the Grateful Dead.
Headlining the act will be Melvin Seals & JGB. Melvin's played the event since 2007. Melvin lives in Bayview. He absolutely loves this event. He goes out of his way to make sure he can play this event. He absolutely loves it. I'm so excited this year because we got a fiddle player playing. His name is Mads Tolling. He's a two-time Grammy winner. He is going to be amazing. I can't wait to see him in front of that crowd and then, of course, we have Stu Allen & Mars Hotel. He should have an all-star lineup. Opening, we're going to have a special guest and that's Peter Rowan. He's going to do a special acoustic set.
Why should people come to Jerry Day?
Murphy: It's a celebration of life, art, music. It is the thing I get told the most, especially from Deadheads who were in the scene in the ‘60s, that Jerry Day is the closest to the real thing that you'll ever get. That's a pretty phenomenal comment. This year's lineup with Peter Rowan opening up with acoustic, old in the way and old Jerry acoustic and then leading into Garcia's solo band stuff with Melvin and then a good old-fashioned Grateful Dead set with Stu Allen. A Jerry fan’s going to be in absolute heaven with this lineup. And who knows? We might have some special guests come through.
The best thing people can do is go out on the day of Jerry Day and go to local establishments and say we want to celebrate Jerry. Whether it's the Ocean Ale House, Tala Wine, the Recovery Room, the Halfway Club, the Check-in Lounge, just go out and celebrate. It's a celebration of life, art and music. There's going to be a pretty festive atmosphere throughout the city. You got after-parties in the Richmond. After-parties at Pier 48. After-parties in the Haight. After-parties in Excelsior. North Beach even has after-parties going on. It's going to be a citywide celebration. It's going to be big.
Storniolo: It’s been 23 years now, and we just want to keep this going. It’s super important to us. It’s growing every single year, and things like this need to be supported more, especially for the Excelsior Community. We want to put a lot more emphasis on the arts and youth engagement in the arts, and this is a step toward that. I just want this to be an opportunity for people to celebrate the Excelsior and be able to support local businesses. Come out and, of course, support Jerry Day, but also all the local businesses.
Anne Marie Kristoff (she/her) is a recent graduate from San Francisco State University's journalism program. She enjoys writing about the arts, entertainment and nature.
