Visitors had to show proof of tickets before being allowed near Soldier Field Friday. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Alex Nitkin

CHICAGO — Trying to hang out with the Deadheads outside Soldier Field, but don't have a ticket for this weekend's show? Too bad, man.

Security officials for Friday's long-anticipated "Fare Thee Well" concert set up a chain-link fence around the entire "apron" of the stadium, including the parking lot and the grassy space just south of Soldier Field. To get past it, visitors need to flash a ticket, or an email proving that they bought one.

The extra-wide security perimeter wasn't always the plan, said security official John Finnigan, who is employed by "Fare Thee Well" tour organizers.

But Finnigan says the security team added extra measures after thousands of fans "stormed the fence" at last week's Grateful Dead show in Santa Clara, Calif.

"It was a pretty rowdy crowd there...it was surprising, since Deadheads are usually peaceful," said Finnigan, who added that people seemed to be "mostly cool" with the change.

But others weren't so cool with losing access to "Shakedown Street," the gathering of food and merchandise vendors that's been mainstay through decades of Grateful Dead concerts.

Alan, an artist from Arlington Heights, was left trying to sell his psychodelic prints outside the fence after he was denied entrance for not having a ticket.

"The Shakedown has always been a place where people can come mingle, hang out and do sales, but now they're hiding it away in there, so people don't really know about it," said Alan, who declined to give his last name. "I understand where [security] is coming from though, I guess. I don't approve of the gate-crashing — that's not cool."

As recently as last week, Soldier Field staff said they were planning to allow non-ticketholders to enter the lot. Reps for the stadium did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Even after being pushed away, though, Alan said he'd get by, in true Dead style.

"I mean, this stuff happens...it's kinda like when you're camping out in the forest," Alan said while making a sale on the sidewalk. "Things will come up, you've just gotta deal with it."

But even for those who'd bought tickets, like Bob Birch, the security setup presented an extra roadblock.

"I ordered my ticket over the phone, so I didn't have an email confirmation or anything like that, and I wasn't planning on going into the actual show until later," said Birch, who traveled from Boston to see Friday's show. "Now I have to go all the way back to my hotel to pick it up, which is kind of a pain."

Birch, 44, pinned last week's gate-crashing on the "riff-raff" attracted by Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio, who will be performing in place of late Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia.

"There are sorta two generations here, so you need to have the older guys there to tell the younger guys not to do stuff like that, or at least to do it in a sneakier way so they don't get caught," said Birch, who said he went to "at least 30" Grateful Dead shows before Garcia's death. "Whatever happens will happen, though. I'm just here to surrender to the flow."

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