Photo Cred: Dave Vann[/caption]
LOCKN' performers Robert Plant, Carlos Santana, and every member of the Grateful Dead signed a pair of guitars to help raise money for and promote 22 charities that have booths at the festival's "Participation Row". The Grateful Dead's Bob Weir then played the D'Angelico Excel guitar on stage during a performance of the song "Peggy O."
The guitar is being auctioned to the highest bidder on the final day of the festival, with proceeds split evenly among the 22 charities. Most of the beneficiaries are based in Virginia, including the Nelson County Pantry. The Park School, The Thomas Jefferson Center, The Rockfish Valley Association and the Lynchburg Humane Society. HeadCount, a New York-based non-profit group that promotes civic engagement through music, organized the guitar signings and the Participation Row area at the festival.
A second acoustic guitar, also signed by the LOCKN' headlining performers, will be given away on Sunday to the winner of a free raffle. To enter, LOCKN' attendees visit the non-profit organizations' booths on Participation Row and take part in various activities. Once an attendee has completed 4 activities they are entered into the drawing for the guitar and also receive a 30-day trial subscription to the on-demand concert streaming service Qello Concerts.
The silent auction will end and the prize drawing will occur at 7 pm on Sunday in the Qello Concerts Lounge on Participation Row, which is in the main concert field. Other artists who signed the guitars include John Bell and Jimmy Herring of Widespread Panic, Leon Russell, Rita Coolidge, Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Dave Mason, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady of The Jefferson Airplane, Keller Williams, and every member of both the String Cheese Incident and Umphrey's McGee, and Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann of the Grateful Dead.
In the first two years of LOCKN', over 10,000 socially-conscious actions were taken at Participation Row and over $100,000 was raised for the charities involved.