Pigpen died and the band kept on playing, but with the death of Jerry Garcia the remaining members finally disbanded. Mickey Hart joined the band shortly after its inception, complementing Kreutzmann as a second drummer, left for a while after his father ripped off the band, and later rejoined them. The various members, especially keyboard players, who were to come and go, included Tom Constanten, Donna and Keith Godchaux, Brent Mydland, Bruce Hornsby, and Vince Welnick. Garcia and friends Bob Weir, Ron 'Pigpen' McKernan, Bill Kreutzmann, and Phil Lesh formed the band in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1965 after various incarnations as a blues and bluegrass influenced jug band (Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions) and a blues/rock ensemble (The Warlocks).

Even after Garcia's death in 1995, members of the band continued to tour, in part to satisfy the yearnings of the most dedicated group of fans ever to bind themselves to a musical group, the so-called Dead Heads. All information can be found at the festival’s website.The Grateful Dead, with its notorious founding member Jerry Garcia, was a band that epitomized the psychedelic era of American rock 'n' roll music from the 1960s to the 1990s. Tickets for the festival are now available. Okeechobee’s sophomore year will take place March 2–5 at Okeechobee, FL’s Sunshine Grove.

The new additions join a lineup that already features headliners Kings of Leon, Bassnectar and a special collaboration between Usher and the Roots, along with The Lumineers, Flume, Wiz Khalifa, Pretty Lights, Solange, GRiZ, Cold War Kids, The Revivalists, Mac DeMarco, Sleigh Bells, Moon Taxi, George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, Galactic, Allen Stone, Khruangbin, TAUK, and many more, plus the second annual PoWow! SuperJam and the Okeechobee Soul Experience featuring Stone and the Blind Boys of Alabama. Okeechobee has also added some local nonprofit partners and local restaurant program, along with HeadCount’s Participation Row social action village, which has made appearance at Lockn’ Festival and the Grateful Dead’s Fare Thee Well performances in 2015. Other acts new to the lineup are 12th Planet, Ganja White Night, Space Jesus, Brasstracks, Kasbo, The Golden Pony, Funky Dawgz Brass Band and more, plus an Allstar Jam led by Roosevelt Collier. Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival returns to Florida for its second annual event this year, and new artists have been added to the 2017 lineup, including Sturgill Simpson, Vulfpeck, The Floozies and Logic.

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