The 26th local celebration of Jerry Garcia, called the Jerry Bash, returns to Pioneer Park on Saturday. Last year’s event had to be cancelled, at the last minute, because there was too much smoke from massive north state wildfires. The pandemic shut it down the year before. But festival producer, Christian Gutt, says they’ve got a traditional slate of familiar bands excited about returning. In addition to the headliners, the Deadbeats, who founded the event in 1994, there’s Wolf Jett, Sugar Mountain, Bob Woods and Juliet Gobert, as well as one of the younger local favorites, the Broken Compass Band…

click to listen to Christian Gutt

Gutt says there’s always been a strong local fan base for Grateful Dead music…

click to listen to Christian Gutt

Monday would have also been Garcia’s 80th birthday. Garcia died of a heart attack on August 9th, 1995, at the age of 53. Jerry Bash is from 2 to 10pm on Saturday, at Pioneer Park. Tickets are 25 dollars in advance and 30 dollars at the gate.