About Us

Welcome to Shakedown Street, an online tribute to the magical, soulful heart of the real Shakedown Street. Born from the spirit of a nomadic life on the road at and between Grateful Dead shows, this site is more than a marketplace. It is a living, breathing community rooted in art, music, freedom, and love.

In the early '80s, many Deadheads began referring to the vending area outside concert venues as Shakedown Street, after the Grateful Dead's album and song. The spirit continued in the parking lots of artists like Dead and Company, Billy Strings, Widespread Panic, and Phish. Countless other jam-band parking lots, festivals, and events also refer to their vending area as Shakedown Street.

Being on Shakedown Street is like being in another world. Each of us brings light, color, and beautiful energy to the scene. The vibe and love that live there are truly magical. The smell of patchouli, Nag Champa, veggie burritos, and falafel fills the air. Drum circles, people dancing freely, pure joy everywhere. Vibrant colors, unique costumes, bubbles, hula-hoopers, laughter. A sea of tie-dye and fingers held high in hopes of a miracle. It feels so good you never want to leave.

We are a family and a community who care deeply for one another and Mother Earth. We share a bond held together by our love for music, art, communal spirit, and kindness. We showered in waterfalls, danced barefoot in the dirt, and shared grilled cheese with strangers who became family. We rolled across the country in VW's and painted school buses. We believed in kindness, traded handmade goods and tapes, and lived by the rhythm of a drum circle and the sparkle of a kind smile.

Shakedown is still happening city after city, tour after tour, and our circle of family remains a subculture where love is our way of life. So often, we find something on Shakedown Street that we want to buy, and then we can never find that vendor again.

This is the digital birth of the online Shakedown Street, where you can finally get that big wooden sign you were too far from your car to carry, or that shirt your girlfriend or wife wanted and you said, "Yeah yeah, we will come back," and she is still talking about it years later. You can probably find it here.

"Love is real, not fade away." Be kind.

A portion of all proceeds goes to the Rex Foundation (REX), the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF/T1D), and Ripple, a future nonprofit inspired by the Grateful Dead song "Ripple." Rooted in compassion, our mission is to provide a safe haven and build stepping stones toward healing. We offer resources, tools, and support for a new beginning filled with freedom and hope.