Bill Kreutzmann, the drummer and founding member of the Grateful Dead, would be absent from Dead and Company’s upcoming Playing in the Sand concerts in Mexico due to personal health problems, he revealed on Monday.
Jay Lane stood in for Kreutzmann when he had to skip several Dead and Company gigs this fall. Lane will also be filling in for Kreutzmann in Mexico.
The news by Kreutzmann is the latest twist in a challenging few weeks for Dead and Company’s two weekends of concerts at Cancún’s Moon Palace resort. Concerned Deadheads had pushed concert promoter CID Events to amend its policy and issue refunds for several weeks, but the promoter had been unable to do so until last week when the promoter announced a revised refund policy.
Several ticket holders who talked with Rolling Stone stated they wouldn’t be attending because of health concerns or a fear of being quarantined in Mexico if they contracted Covid while visiting the resort. Before the new policy was implemented, almost 2,000 people signed a Change.org petition requesting refunds.
Despite the fact that Kreutzmann will not be performing, the show will continue as scheduled. However, the event’s perception has already shifted as a result of the case surge. With the number of illnesses on the rise, concert organizers advised concertgoers last week not to leave the resort for the remainder of their stay, and all off-resort events CID had planned for the concerts have been canceled.
