Grateful Dead New Years 1988-1989

The 1988-1989 New Year’s Shows were played at the huge Oakland Coliseum. It was unusually cold in the Bay Area for this period and even got below freezing, with ice greeting Deadheads as they filed out of the December 28 show.

On New Year’s Eve, at the strike of twelve, all eyes were focused on the back of the arena. Bill Graham, dressed as usual as Father Time, rode in on a giant mirrored ball up to the stage as the crowd counted down the last few seconds of 1988. The house lights went up as thousands of balloons dropped from the rafters. The Dead, joined by Clarence Clemons broke into “Sugar Magnolia” as the crowd went wild.

The poster features Graham dressed as Father Time and the costume has been making the rounds of the United States as part of the traveling "Bill Graham and the Rock and Roll Revolution" Exhibition.