
For 47 years, The Grateful Dead held the record for the largest ticketed U.S. show by a single artist.
They set it on September 3rd, 1977 when 107,019 fans attended their show at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey.
But that was broken on Saturday when country singer George Strait performed in front of 110,905 at Kyle Field at Texas A&M in College Station, Texas.
Ironically, the Dead had played before bigger crowds than that prior to 1977.
They were on the bill at Woodstock in 1969, which was a ticketed event with 186,000 sold before another 300,000 crashed the party.
The same with Summer Jam at Watkins Glen in New York State in July 1973 featuring the Dead along with The Allman Brothers Band, and The Band. While over 600,000 attended, there were 150,000 tickets sold.
The largest ticketed event worldwide by a single artist occurred on July 1st, 2017 when 225,173 people went to see Italian singer Vasco Rossi in Modena, Italy.
The biggest by a rock star was Paul McCartney in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1990 with 184,000.
The largest free show was by Melanie C in 2019 in Sao Paulo, Brazil in front of an estimated 3.7-million. Rod Stewart is second with 3.5-million in Rio in 1994.
REUTERS PHOTO