Sunshine Daydream – China Cat Sunflower prt. 1

Sunshine Daydream is an unreleased movie shot at the Grateful Dead’s 1972 Veneta, Oregon concert to benefit the Springfield Creamery in nearby Springfield, Oregon. The film is sometimes shown at small film festivals, and bootleg recordings of it have circulated on VHS and DVD and as digital downloads. The concert, recorded on August 27, 1972, was filmed using four 16 mm cameras, in the woods of the Oregon Coast Range foothills, on the grounds of the Oregon Country Fair. Originally even more cameras had been planned, under an ambitious scheme: “The plot was to develop a signature visual style of representing the band: a camera for each of the 16 channels (at least!) emphasizing the visual kinetics of the music making itself as well as the enormous open communication within the band.” Ken Kesey and old cohort Ken Babbs emceed the concert. The Dead played all afternoon and into the dark after an opening set by the New Riders of the Purple Sage. The title of the film is taken from the coda section of the Dead song “Sugar Magnolia”.