Grateful Dead: Sunshine Daydream Deluxe Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		5.0
Overall		5.0

Grateful Dead: Sunshine Daydream Deluxe Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 10, 2026

Note: The May and June 2026 glut of releases from Rhino Music and Warner Music Group prompted several appreciated private messages from readers, and I received some requests to offer thoughts on a couple of Rhino releases in particular that had gotten passed over at the time of release. Copies of this are evidently scarce, but they are available for the intrepid Dead fan.

Mention the name Ken Kesey in the context of the Grateful Dead and you're likely to get responses about "Acid Tests" and "Merry Pranksters", but for those of us who live in Oregon, there's another very special and even kind of touching connection. The Kesey clan may be best known for Ken's "extracurricular" shenanigans, not to mention books like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and/or Sometimes a Great Notion, but here in the Beaver State, Ken's brother Chuck and his family are also much celebrated as the guiding lights behind the Springfield* Creamery which produces one of the greatest Oregonian food brands, Nancy's Probiotic Yogurts, which I am a regular consumer of myself. Chuck and his wife Sue bought a defunct dairy in 1960 and turned it into a powerhouse, but there were economic challenges along the way, including more than merely a flirtation with bankruptcy circa 1972, which led Chuck to ask for a little help from his famous brother Ken, who in turn recruited the Grateful Dead to play a fundraising concert (can you think of any other major band that would have played a fundraising concert for a friggin' dairy?).

Non-Oregonians (and maybe even some Oregonians) may enjoy some Springfield and/or The Simpsons / Matt Groening trivia in my Hoppers Blu-ray review.

While the three CDs included in this set provide the entire concert, the Blu-ray is somewhat redacted with the following set list offered:

1. Promised Land
2. China Cat Sunflower
3. I Know You Rider
4. Jack Straw
5. Bird Song
6. Dark Star
7. El Paso
8. Sing Me Back Home
9. Greatest Story Every Told

Grateful Dead: Sunshine Daydream Deluxe Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sunshine Daydream is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Rhino with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. Shot on 16mm under less than ideal weather conditions (it was hot), this presentation really looks surprisingly spry, all things considered. There are definitely ebbs and flows of clarity, some of which might be attributed to how hard it no doubt was to pull focus while peaking on acid (that's a joke, probably). Still for such an unusual location, coverage is typically excellent, and close-ups offer some nice detail levels. While some of the footage is in black and white or otherwise "arty", the color footage is surprisingly robust looking with a very healthy palette.

Grateful Dead: Sunshine Daydream Deluxe Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sunshine Daydream features Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and 2.0 (96 / 24) options. Things are a little on the "vérité" side at times with regard to background clamor and occasional ambient sounds, but once the band kicks in, things sound generally a good deal better than some may expect. The surround mix definitely splays the music around the side and rear channels, while also offering an at least marginally more spacious accounting of crowd noises and some of the interstitial spoken material, like a public address system announcement about a fire truck coming through to spray water on the heat soaked participants. There are no subtitles on this disc.

Grateful Dead: Sunshine Daydream Deluxe Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Grateful Days (HD; 32:13) is an often very funny behind the scenes piece, including info on Nancy's great yogurt. The opening here, which offers a lampoon of sorts of the opening monologue from Patton, may be enough to generalize that oft quoted "keep Portland weird" outward to "keep Oregon weird".

This is a handsomely packaged release from Rhino, though it offers some relatively unusual dimensions. A slipbox measures approximately 7" wide by 7 1/4" inches high by 1" deep. The slipbox encloses a DigiBook of sorts with thick cardstock "pages" with plastic inserts holding the CDs and Blu-ray disc. Also included is a nicely illustrated booklet with several pieces of really interesting and informative writing.

Grateful Dead: Sunshine Daydream Deluxe Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You simply cannot go into any major (and even many minor) supermarkets in Oregon without an impressive array of Nancy's products in the dairy aisle, and one of the reasons for the current ubiquity of those products was the very concert documented in this appealing set that will undoubtedly be of most interest to Dead fans. Video quality may not be "UHD" quality, but it still gives a visceral look at a "mini Woodstock" (those interested in that description might want to look into the Vortex concert in Oregon). Audio is great, and the packaging and non disc swag are also very enjoyable. Highly recommended.