In an aerial view, an SF Muni N Judah train is seen wrapped in tie-dye colors on July 28, 2025, in San Francisco. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

In May, after Mayor Daniel Lurie announced three summer nights of Dead & Company in Golden Gate Park, it didn't take long for the Grateful Dead offshoot band to begin reinvigorating San Francisco's tourism industry for the second summer in three years.

"As soon as they announced the shows, we sold out over the next couple of hours," Sam Rebby, manager of the Motel 6 on the Great Highway, told SFGATE. Throughout the city, anticipation reverberated for the shows - running Aug. 1-3 in the Polo Field - as fans outside the Bay Area reserved rooms for the band's official 60th anniversary.

"The demand for bookings is there," said Jason de Vries, general manager for the Four Seasons Embarcadero. "People are flying from everywhere to participate. It's not just a homecoming for the band but also the [counter-culture] movement. I think it's really cool that there are people looking to reconnect with San Francisco and celebrate peace, community and creativity. It's a beautiful resurgence."

A man uses a cellphone to record musicians performing during Haight Street Daydream, a community event celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Grateful Dead, in San Francisco, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP)

A sandwich board outside the San Francisco Mercantile on Haight Street on July 22, 2025, promoting upcoming Dead & Company shows. (Silas Valentino/SFGATE)

San Francisco hotels are continuing to rebound from a downturn brought on by the pandemic and perpetuated by a negative perception of the city, but one of the proven boons for the tourism economy are big events. Lurie repeatedly says that arts and culture will drive San Francisco's comeback, and few bands embody San Francisco's undying legacy like the Grateful Dead.

In July 2023, when Dead & Co. last played San Francisco, a spokesperson for the hospitality analytics firm STR said the city had its highest hotel occupancy of the entire year that weekend. The San Francisco Business Times reported that hotel room occupancy reached 90% for one night as people poured into San Francisco. Of the roughly 120,000 fans who attended those shows, over half of the tickets were purchased by buyers living outside the region, and the overall economic impact generated an estimated $31 million for the city.

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Two years later, using an idea hatched by former Mayor London Breed, San Francisco calls upon the Dead once again for tourism revitalization. So far, the city appears on track for another blockbuster weekend.

A spokesperson for Airbnb told SFGATE that searches for San Francisco short-term rentals "more than doubled during the week of the Grateful Dead concert compared to two weeks prior." And according to Hotels.com data, there's a 135% year-over-year spike in hotel demand in San Francisco for the Aug. 1 weekend. The average daily rates for a room are up 40% to about $280.

FILE: Dead & Company fan Skye Flowers, of Arcata, Calif., poses outside Oracle Park in San Francisco on July 16, 2023. (Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images)

Each night, about 60,000 attendees are expected to attend the Dead shows, and then a week later, the same infrastructure is scheduled to host Outside Lands. "For the next three weeks, San Francisco is going to be the music capital of the world," Lurie said in a news conference.

The demographic makeup for the Dead & Co. concerts might lean older than Outside Lands, but it's better for business. In 2023, an analyst for CoStar cross-referenced the impact from Taylor Swift shows in Santa Clara with that of the Dead and found that "Deadheads drive higher hotel demand than Swifties" in the Bay Area.

An SF Muni 5 Fulton bus is seen wrapped in tie-dye colors on July 29, 2025, in San Francisco. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The Four Seasons Embarcadero is one of the tallest hotels in San Francisco. (Courtesy of Four Seasons Embarcadero)

De Vries at the Four Seasons Embarcadero said that while a big percentage of the hotel's guests are baby boomers, it's seeing another large subsection of millennial concertgoers. And like the custom psychedelic designs wrapped around some Muni trains and buses, the hotel is also matching the city's enthusiasm for the Grateful Dead.

"You'll see some renditions of the Bears pop up in the decor. We're painting the windows with some Dead icons. And guests are welcomed with a munchie box, some things to snack on while here," De Vries said. "We're really leaning into the Dead."

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