San Francisco Plans Civic Center ‘Homecoming’ for Late Grateful Dead Legend Bob Weir

San Francisco will honor the life of Bob Weir with a public “Homecoming” celebration at Civic Center Plaza on Saturday, Jan. 17, following news of the Grateful Dead guitarist’s death last weekend.

Organizers say the event, formally titled “Homecoming: Celebrating the Life of Bobby Weir,” will begin at 12:45 p.m. Pacific time at Civic Center Plaza, next to San Francisco City Hall. The gathering is described as a free public event and will feature multiple speakers, including San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie.

According to organizers and city statements, the celebration will be preceded by a short procession along Market Street. That procession is scheduled to travel three blocks between 7th and 9th streets at approximately 12:30 p.m. before participants converge at Civic Center Plaza.

Lurie, speaking from the Bill Graham Auditorium, announced the city’s plans to honor Weir in a video posted on social media. In that announcement, the mayor called Weir a “legend and icon [who] meant so much to so many of us in San Francisco and well beyond.” The article states that Lurie also visited the Grateful Dead’s former house in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood on Monday to pay his respects.

Weir’s death was made public last weekend when his family said he had “succumbed to underlying lung issues” after being diagnosed with cancer in July 2025. The article reports that the family’s statement did not provide additional medical detail beyond that description of his cause of death.

The San Francisco event is framed as a continuation of the city’s long and visible connection to the Grateful Dead, which took shape in the Haight-Ashbury scene and has persisted through public memorials and concerts. The article notes that Jerry Garcia’s memorial was held in nearby Golden Gate Park in August 1995, where Weir publicly thanked the late frontman for “showing me how to live with joy, with mischief.”

Weir remained a central figure in that extended musical community for three decades after Garcia’s death. According to the article, he spent the next 30 years carrying the Grateful Dead torch in several bands and offshoot projects, most recently Dead & Company. Those groups included collaborations with bassist Phil Lesh and drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, all core members of the original Grateful Dead.

The story describes Weir’s life as “cosmic and legendary” and says the impact of his work has been felt across generations of fans and musicians. In a 2025 interview with Rolling Stone cited in the article, Weir reflected on how he hoped to be remembered. “One of the things that I hope that I’m remembered for is bringing our culture and other cultures together — by virtue or by example of,” he said. He added that he hoped “people of varying persuasions will find something they can agree on in the music that I’ve offered, and find each other through it.”

The piece also notes that tributes have continued to arrive from across the music world and beyond. According to the article, Weir’s bandmates in Dead & Company have shared public remembrances, as have high-profile artists including Bob Dylan, Heart’s Nancy Wilson, and the Eagles’ Don Felder. Additional coverage referenced by the article points to comments from drummer Bill Kreutzmann and bassist Oteil Burbridge, who have both spoken about Weir’s influence and presence.

A post shared from Weir’s official account on X, formerly Twitter, promoted the Civic Center event and invited fans to attend. The message described the gathering as “a free public gathering honoring Bobby, whose music, spirit, and humanity shaped generations” and linked to an online RSVP page. The article does not specify any capacity limits or security restrictions for the civic event beyond its public and free nature.

Weir’s long relationship with San Francisco and the Bay Area is highlighted throughout the article. It recalls his performance at Golden Gate Park during the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival on Oct. 8, 2017, as part of the Lampedusa: Concert for Refugees. A photo from that show, taken in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, is used to underline the local connection between Weir’s musical life and the city that helped shape the Grateful Dead’s identity.

The Homecoming event at Civic Center Plaza is positioned as a citywide opportunity for fans, friends, and residents to gather in the heart of San Francisco’s civic district to remember Weir’s work and his ties to the city’s cultural history. Beyond the reference to scheduled speakers and the brief Market Street procession, the article does not detail any additional programming, musical performances, or specific tributes planned for the day.

The piece also does not provide information about any future memorials or celebrations that might follow the Jan. 17 gathering, either in the Bay Area or elsewhere. At the time of the article, the Civic Center Plaza event is the primary public memorial described for San Francisco.

With Weir’s death still fresh and tributes continuing online and in person, the city’s planned Homecoming at Civic Center Plaza marks the first major local public commemoration since the news broke. Organizers and city officials are using the event to give San Franciscans and visiting fans a central place to acknowledge the guitarist’s influence and to connect his decades of work, from Haight-Ashbury to the present, with the civic life of the city where his music first took root.