The Bob Barsotti Interview

​How Can You Turn Us Down?

​by Bob Barsotti

​In 1985 we went to Ventura County Fairgrounds with The Dead. There were a lot of people outside the show that didn’t have tickets, and that caused a bunch of problems. A bunch of condo owners had people sneaking naked into their swimming pools. They wanted to stop it and there was a general consensus in town that there were too many drugs and they should ban the concerts there.

​The Ventura Fairgrounds bowed to the public pressure and they banned the Grateful Dead. They didn’t even tell us; they just announced it and then called me. So there had been a public statement that the GD had been banned, which was not good for business.

​We decided we had to fight this. We went down to the next board meeting in Ventura and we put out the word to the Deadheads, “Come to this meeting.” We packed the place with people that were positive. We got the Chamber of Commerce to give us a big thumbs up, because all the businesses were making a lot of money from all the people coming in from out of town.

​We went to the Board and said, “You have some disgruntled neighbors. Some Heads left some garbage at their pool and broke a chaise longue. Well, I paid them for the chaise longue and I told them we’ll have a security crew and a cleanup crew over there the next time we come in. The issues that created their problem have been dealt with, and look at all the rest of this community who are in support of us. How can you turn us down?”

​They said, “OK, we rescind our ban, and you’re welcome to come back.” That was done because we had the power of the Grateful Dead and one of the hugest audiences in the world on our side.

​But we knew our time was really done in Ventura. The problems were going to keep occurring because we had outgrown the place, but we didn’t want to have this stain on our reputation. Once we got the approval to come back, we made them announce that we had the approval, so the world would know the ban was no longer in effect. We waited about a month and then told them, “We feel we’ve outgrown your facility, and to be responsible entertainers we’re going to go to a place that can handle a larger crowd.” That’s when we split and moved over to Irvine Meadows.