'They're our tribe': Deadhead party grooves on in Ventura despite canceled Skull & Roses
The jam was sweet and tart all at once.
A little more than a week after learning the plug had been pulled on the Skull & Roses festival expected to fill the Ventura County Fairgrounds with tie-dye, dancing and Grateful Dead songs with no end, Deadheads still gathered in Ventura. Some journeyed from Indiana and even farther.
They grooved to tribute bands in last-minute shows set up in pizza joints, hotels and concert halls. At Ventura's Crowne Plaza, where Dead music was on tap for parts of three days, a small crowd sat outside around a fire pit on a foggy Friday. A familiar herbal scent wafted in the air. Some danced. One woman carried a hula hoop. Another held a dog wearing head phones.
At the hotel and other venues, vendors sold T-shirts, posters, flowered crowns and jewelry in courtyard and alleys nicknamed Shakedown Street. Ventura artist Sarah Jenks Flesher, who saw her first Grateful Dead show in 1968, camped with friends at Emma Wood State Beach. Others who couldn't or chose not to cancel travel plans stayed at hotels.
“Everyone is making lemonade out of lemons,” Flesher said on the phone Thursday, using a phrase that served as a motto.
Chris Mitrovich, founder of Skull & Roses, announced the festival's cancellation on April 9, citing “financial devastation” from the 2023 festival. In a message sent to ticket buyers, he said there was not enough money to provide refunds. That initially sparked anger and threats of legal action.
Eventbrite, the ticket-selling platform, started refunding tickets and also issued a statement of its intent to recover funds from Skull & Roses. A message on the festival's website on Friday said 90% of the refunds had been processed. Much of the anger morphed into planning for shows and good times in the Ventura area.
“I haven’t run into anyone who is (ticked) off,” Flesher said. “It’s sort of a motto of the whole Deadhead community: Be kind.”
If the gatherings and loyalty to the music mystifies outsiders, it makes perfect sense to the Deadheads. Randy Nickson and Lil Rosen met in Santa Barbara in 1987 when she left a note on his station wagon, covered with Grateful Dead stickers. She asked if he wanted to trade cassette tapes. He did. They fell in love and got married.
"The music has been a background to our lives," she said Friday outside the Crowne Plaza. He tried to explain why people still show up even when the main show was canceled.
"We're resilient," he said, gesturing to the people around him. "They're our tribe."
Tom Kisken covers health care and other news for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tom.kisken@vcstar.com.
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This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Grateful Dead music fills Ventura despite Skull & Roses cancellation
