EASTTROY, Wis. — The music never stopped Friday night when the Furthur Festival rolled into Alpine Valley Amphitheater in East Troy, Wisconsin.

Moe, the opener, started early but brought a surprising number of people inside the venue with its cohesive jamming on “Meat.”

As Bruce Hornsby took the stage, fans endearingly chanted his name. Hornsby delighted them by playing the Grateful Dead favorite “Scarlet Begonias” and his song “The Way It Is” with a “Terrapin Station” melody tucked in at the end.

The highlight of the festival was the performance of Rat Dog, a band that began as a side project of Grateful Dead rhythm guitarist Bob Weir almost 20 years ago.

Rat Dog played a soulful version of Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” and got the crowd on its feet for the Dead favorite “Loose Lucy.”

The excitement built as the crowd took to their feet once again and sang along with the rollicking Dead classic “I Need a Miracle.”

Reminiscent of his frequent lyrical memory lapses with the Dead, Weir flubbed the second verse and cracked a smile amidst audience cheers.

Band member Rob Wasserman added his heart-pounding bass solo with twinges of the quintessential Grateful Dead song “The Other One” subtly appearing, making the crowd wonder if it could be true.

The band’s hot and spacey jamming locked into themes from “The Other One” as the crowd went wild. The song brought the reason for the festival to full circle as Weir sang “The bus came by and I got on, that’s when it all began.”

The bus was Ken Kesey’s infamous Merry Prankster bus, Furthur, the namesake of the festival.

Rat Dog finished the set with a short but robust version of “Sugar Magnolia” which had everyone dancing and singing along.

Other special moments of the festival included Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter’s acoustic sampling of songs like “Box of Rain,” “Brown Eyed Women” and “Ripple.”

A furious jam session with Weir, Wasserman, Hornsby, Hunter, Arlo Guthrie, Mickey Hart and Jorma Kaukonen playing “Friend of the Devil” and Dylan’s “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” highlighted the latter part of the day.

The encore of the history-making jam session included incredible versions of “Viola Lee Blues,” which hadn’t been performed live since the ’70s, and “All Along the Watchtower.”