Dead & Company took the stage for a three-day run of concerts at Golden Gate Park Aug. 1-3, 2025, as the centerpiece celebration of the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary. A new economic impact report released by Another Planet Entertainment says Dead & Company, Outside Lands and Zach Bryan generated $245.1 million across the Bay Area.
Alive Coverage/Courtesy of Scoop Marketing
Three weekends of major concerts in Golden Gate Park generated $245.1 million in economic activity across the Bay Area, according to a new report.
The report, prepared by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, found that Dead & Company, Outside Lands, and a one-night Zach Bryan concert drew an estimated 437,000 people to San Francisco last August. Together, the events generated $193.1 million in economic activity in San Francisco alone.
The findings, released Tuesday, June 9, by promoter Another Planet Entertainment, offer a new measure of how large outdoor concerts are reshaping the economics of urban parks as cities look for ways to boost tourism, support downtown recovery and bring visitors back after the pandemic.
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They also come as San Francisco officials consider whether to extend the Golden Gate Park Concerts series for several more years, a proposal that has drawn support from tourism and parks advocates and concern from some nearby residents.
Allen Scott, president of concerts and festivals for Another Planet, said the new report was intended to provide a fuller accounting than the $150 million estimate released by the mayor’s office shortly after the concerts.
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“I think we all wanted a conservative number,” Scott said of the earlier estimate.
Another Planet sought out Bay Area Council Economic Institute, a local research group, after earlier Outside Lands economic impact reports were done by a San Francisco State University professor.
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“We wanted to be as accurate as possible, and that’s what we delivered here,” Scott said.
The three concert weekends supported 1,272 full-time equivalent jobs across the nine-county Bay Area, including 994 in San Francisco. The report also estimated $110.4 million in wages and income regionally and $32.5 million in state and local tax revenue.
In San Francisco, the study estimated $90 million in wages and income and $24.1 million in tax revenue.
The analysis went on to note that concertgoers spent $128.7 million across the region, including $120.5 million in San Francisco. Lodging accounted for the largest share, followed by food, drinks and merchandise purchased at the events and food and drinks bought elsewhere.
The concerts also generated 112,800 hotel-room nights across the Bay Area, including 104,000 in San Francisco, according to the report.
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Dead & Company took the stage for a three-day run of concerts at Golden Gate Park Aug. 1-3, 2025, as the centerpiece celebration of the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary. A new economic impact report released by Another Planet Entertainment says Dead & Company, Outside Lands and Zach Bryan generated $245.1 million across the Bay Area.
Alive Coverage/Courtesy of Scoop Marketing
The three-week run began with Dead & Company shows Aug. 1-3, followed by the annual Outside Lands music festival from Aug. 8-10 and Bryan’s single-night concert Aug. 15.
Dead & Company produced the largest economic impact, at $109.8 million across the Bay Area, according to the report. The shows drew an estimated 175,000 people, and 57% of survey respondents said they traveled from outside California.
Another Planet expected the Dead & Company concerts to be especially strong because of the band’s national draw and the spending power of some of its fans.
“We knew how many people were coming in,” Scott said. “They weren’t just staying at the Kabuki or whatnot. They were staying at the Ritz, Four Seasons, in the 1 Hotel.”
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Outside Lands drew the largest crowd, with an estimated 214,000 attendees, and generated $97.5 million in regional economic activity. The festival had a more local audience, with about 69% of respondents coming from San Francisco or elsewhere in the Bay Area.
Bryan’s concert drew 48,000 people and generated $37.8 million in regional economic activity, the report said.
The Bay Area Council Economic Institute said its analysis was based on 6,992 survey responses collected through in-person outreach at the events and digital surveys sent to ticket buyers. The institute modeled the results using IMPLAN, an economic analysis system commonly used to estimate the ripple effects of spending.
Economic impact reports are estimates and typically measure more than direct spending. In this case, the San Francisco report included direct spending by visitors as well as business-to-business activity linked to that spending and household spending by workers who earned money from the events.
Another Planet also reported it contributed $7.26 million to the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department for the 2025 events.
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But the concerts have brought complaints from residents in the Richmond and Sunset districts, the neighborhoods bordering Golden Gate Park. Some residents have raised concerns about noise, traffic, parking, blocked driveways, trash and crowds.
But Scott said last year’s three-weekend run “was an anomaly.” Bryan had already been booked when Dead & Company later committed to three shows, he said.
He added that the company would be interested in bringing a wider range of events to the park in future years — “My perfect world, we do a K-pop concert out there or a Latin concert,” Scott said — but understands the limits of producing large events in a public park.
“There’s just so many different variables being in a city park that we want to respect,” Scott said.
He noted that the company is not currently pushing to turn Golden Gate Park into a regular concert site throughout the summer.
City officials have said they are working to reduce neighborhood impacts through traffic management, rideshare zones, shuttles, a community hotline, free Muni rides for some concertgoers and coordination with neighborhood groups.
Last month, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission advanced a proposal that would allow the Golden Gate Park Concerts series to continue through 2029, with options to extend it through 2035. The proposal still needs approval from the Board of Supervisors.
Under the plan, the concerts would remain separate from Outside Lands but continue to use some of the festival’s infrastructure, reducing the need for separate construction in the park.
Sarah Madland, general manager of the Recreation and Park Department, said the concerts “drive economic activity throughout the region while helping support and maintain a world class park system that benefits every San Franciscan.”
For Scott, the events are also part of a larger effort to change how visitors see San Francisco.
“It just felt like that Golden Gate Park in August was the place to be in the country,” Scott said of 2025.