Rainbow Over Grateful Dead Concert Evokes Visions Of Jerry Garcia, Gay Pride During Epic Weekend
SANTA CLARA (CBS SF) -- During an epic week in America that saw same sex couple gain equal rights to marriage on the eve of Pride weekend, and an epic week in music as the Grateful Dead play their final concerts with a show Saturday night and again Sunday at Levi's Stadium, fans couldn't help but embrace a rainbow over the concert as a sign of the late Jerry Garcia looking down on them, and celebrating pride.
John Mayer wrote, "We all knew who this rainbow was."
BravoAndy writes "Rainbow over the #GratefulDead !!! It's Jerry!! @johnmayer #HappyPride"
There was speculation that the rainbow may have been an incredibly advanced lighting effect, even prompting Billboard to question it, writing an insider had told them it cost $50,000 to produce, however later Billboard updated that story to say that the rainbow was not in fact a special effect.
Likewise, several photos of rainbows were captured around the San Jose Area Saturday night as intense weather moved through bringing lightning and thunder to parts of Northern California. Many were shared on the http://cbsSF.com/photos page
The concert Saturday was the first of two in Santa Clara before the legendary band moves on to Chicago for its final nights of the Fare Thee Well tour, ending a 50 year run as a counterculture icon.
WATCH NEWLY DISCOVERED KPIX 5 INTERVIEW: Jerry Garcia talks about band, drugs, arrest, life, future
The surviving four members of the band's Saturday concert was the kickoff for the final tour, starting in the same place where the band got its start in the South Bay.
The group played nearly four hours of music to a crowd of around 80,000, opening with "Truckin'."
"I'm in the right place at the right time and all the right people are here with me and it's all perfect," 47-year-old Montana resident Sabrina Donahue told the Associated Press.
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