Dead Body Found at Gathering of the Vibes Festival Site
- Posted on Jul 28th 2009 10:00AM by Benjy Eisen
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This past Sunday was a sad day for the Gathering of the Vibes, a popular and well-established classic rock festival now in its 14th year, when news of a death spread through the campgrounds. According to the Connecticut Post, the body of 29-year-old Jay Caliro of East Meadow, New York, was found in the camping area early on the festival's fourth and final morning. Rumors spread in the campground that the body was dumped there from a getaway car, fueling speculation of foul play, but that's likely a fabricated story that exists only in the imagination of the music fans who were partying in the campground over the weekend. Police are investigating but have told several local news outlets that the cause of the concertgoer's death appears to be medically related. As such, it is not being treated as a homicide at this time.
The Gathering of the Vibes itself was born out of a death -- specifically, Jerry Garcia's. When the guitarist passed away in 1995, he left behind a family, a band, and a nation of Deadheads. Festival promoter Ken Hays founded the Vibes as a way for old tour friends to reunite and dance to live music, even though the Grateful Dead had closed up shop. The festival has since grown to become a staple of the summer festival circuit and a benchmark to which many other festivals are now compared. This year's headliners included Crosby, Stills and Nash, moe. and Bob Weir (an original member of the Grateful Dead). It's had several homes over the years but is most closely associated with Seaside Park in Bridgeport, CT, where it was located this past weekend.
While few years went off without a hitch (a lightning storm here, a cancellation there), this is the first casualty the festival has ever suffered. Hays told local news Channel 8, WTNH that the tragedy "saddens me and I know it saddens the Chief and the Mayor, but we continue forward."
Moving forward isn't alway something Deadheads are the best at, but by now, they're used to it. The Gathering of the Vibes, meanwhile, is determined, as always, to celebrate the past by looking ahead and to just keep truckin' on.




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