- Wharf Rats
The Wharf Rats are a group of
concert -goers who have chosen to live drug and alcohol free.Their primary purpose at shows is to make themselves available to anyone who feels the Wharf Rats may have something they want. They announce their presence with yellow balloons, signs, and the Wharf Rats information table. Their goal is to offer support, strength, fellowship, and hope. At set break during
Grateful Dead (and related) concerts they would hold 12-step style meetings.The Wharf Rats began during the 1980s as a group of
Deadheads under the name "The Wharf Rat Group of Alcoholics Anonymous". The Wharf Rats originally came from a small group ofNarcotics Anonymous members who went to a Grateful Dead concert in Philadelphia and located each other by their Yellow balloons with the NA symbol drawn on in Magic Marker. [http://www.wharfrat.org/discus/messages/5/17.html?1019586216] However due to operational differences they soon split off fromAlcoholics Anonymous , and are not affiliated with them, NA, or any othertwelve-step program , though many of members of the Wharf Rats are members of AA, NA or other 12 step programs. The Wharf Rats see themselves as "a group of friends sharing a common bond, providing support, information and some traction in an otherwise slippery environment."While the Wharf Rats originated in the Grateful Dead world, they now have a presence at Dead offshoot and other
jam band concerts as well. A similar groups namedThe Phellowship forPhish ,The Gateway forWidespread Panic ,The Jellyfish forString Cheese Incident ,Happy Hour Heroes formoe. , and theDigital Buddhas forThe Disco Biscuits are all based on the Wharf Rats.The unusual name of this group comes from the Dead song "Wharf Rat", which contains the self-told story of
August West , a down-and-out dockside wino.References
* Epstein, John and Robert Sardiello. 1990. "The Wharf Rats: A Preliminary Examination of Alcoholics Anonymous and the Grateful Dead Head Phenomena." Deviant Behavior, 11: pp. 245-257.
External links
* [http://www.wharfrat.org/ Wharf Rats website]
* [http://soberfans.com/ Gateway website]
* [http://scijellyfish.org/ Jellyfish website]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
