There are fans, and then there are Dave Matthews Band fans. Also known as the DMB family, this tight-knit community is united not just by their love for the band, but their deep commitment to each other’s wellbeing. The most recent example of this unwavering camaraderie? A rally—led by two fans, Ryan Downey and Carrie Corby—to help fellow fan Cameron Cox, a 25-year-old with cerebral palsy living in Washington state, travel independently across the country for the first time to see DMB at one of the most iconic venues to catch the band live: SPAC, where they’re performing this weekend.

Cox discovered DMB by happenstance, when his uncle played some of their music on his boat. His uncle insisted he take Cox to a concert, and Cox agreed. Cox went to his first DMB concert in September 2022, in Los Angeles.

“I didn’t realize the community of people I had fallen into,” he says. “This was just a band at a concert I was at with my uncle.”

He fell in love with DMB’s sound and the concert experience, and he kept going back for more. He’s now been to shows in California, Seattle, Portland, and Grant County, WA, at The Gorge—which is where he met Downey, a software engineer and DMB super fan.

When a scheduling conflict arose with Cox’s caregiver, he posted in the DMB Gorge Crew Facebook group about needing a driver for his van. Downey responded and offered to help spread the word. (To an outsider, this may sound strange, but Dave fans have created online communities surrounding certain venues; the Gorge Crew one has more than 150,000 followers.) While Cox ultimately found a driver himself, the two ended up meeting in person that weekend—by chance—as Downey ran past Cox’s tent with the DMB Fit Crew, a group that organizes workouts around DMB concerts. They decided to meet up later that day, and visited a local winery, where their friendship began to form.

When tour dates were released in early 2025, the new friends touched base and Cox shared his desire to see DMB at their most famous venues—like SPAC. Downey’s response? “Why not do it this year?” With Cox starting a graduate education policy program at the University of Washington this fall, the timing seemed right: “This is the summer to make memories,” Cox says.

So, they banded together to make it happen. Cox posted in the DMB SPAC Crew Facebook group to see if anyone had any insight or recommendations to share to help make his journey successful.

Carrie Corby, a licensed social worker based in Central NY—and a more recent member of the DMB family—saw the post and knew she had to be involved. She’s worked with people with developmental disabilities for nearly 30 years, and every day she helps them advocate for themselves and connects them with vetted resources and organizations. Translation? She had the exact skillset to help Cox achieve his goal of traveling across the country independently.

And just like that, a three-person dream team was born. The soon-to-be graduate student, software engineer, and social worker developed checklists and planning documents; started having regular Zoom calls; and, of course, thought about the money this trip would require.

Cox insisted on covering the cost of his flight and caregiver, but additional funds were still needed for the hotel, rental van, and inside ticket for each night. While to many, the financial aspect might seem like it would be the biggest hurdle, it was actually the easiest part—and Downey wasn’t surprised.

“The social capital in this group is pretty impressive,” he says. “Going into this, I knew that financially we’d be able to do it because of the strong DMB community. So really all we had to do was the planning.”

The GoFundMe they created and distributed via personal networks—including to their closest DMB family members—to acquire the necessary funds reached its goal of $2,500 in just two weeks.

Beyond finances, a few core questions still needed answers: Where is Cox going to sleep at night, what is he going to do during the day, who is in the area to help out, and where will he get his needed equipment?

To answer these questions, Cox started with a call to the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce. They connected him with Southern Adirondack Independent Living (SAIL), which ended up being his biggest asset in securing the equipment he needs for daily living, such as a Hoyer lift—which he uses to transfer himself in and out of bed every day.

While SAIL helped secure the lift, a different, related challenge was present: finding a hotel room and bed that would be able to accommodate the equipment (most hotel beds have solid, floor-to-mattress frames that wouldn’t allow the lift to do what it needs to do). To find a room that would fit the bill, Downey and Corby arranged a thorough walkthrough of the area—including local hotels—with Cox on the phone for several hours.

The group settled on the Best Western in Clifton Park, as the general manager, Thomas Fassett, went so far as to order a new ADA-compliant bed frame that would accommodate Cox’s lift.

As for what to do around town, Corby and Downey were a bit skeptical about how accessible an old, historic (and, yes, charming) town would be for someone in a wheelchair. They were, however, pleasantly surprised.

“It was refreshing,” Corby says. “We got there and saw limitations, but people found solutions right away.”

Now, Cox’s itinerary consists of visits to Harvey’s, Treehouse Brewery, Saratoga Battlefield, Saratoga State Park, and more. And, of course, the DMB shows on Friday and Saturday night, which mark the band’s 50th and 51st SPAC shows, respectively.

Perhaps the biggest issue to navigate, however, was finding a caregiver. Though his chair allows him to be as independent as possible, Cox needs day-to-day assistance from caregivers to dress himself, cook, use the bathroom, and do other daily tasks.

“Without a caregiver, I would be unable to get out of bed in the morning, let alone follow my passions and be independent,” Cox says.

On the trip, he will require care at odd hours—two, two-hour shifts at 7-9am and 11pm-1am each day—and was initially worried that he wouldn’t be able to find local caregivers willing to take the short time slots on.

However, Felicia’s Homecare Consulting & Staffing Assistance, based in Saratoga Springs, gracefully facilitated the capstone of this trip by coordinating caregivers for each required shift.

The trio knows that without organizations like Felicia’s and SAIL, this adventure might not have been possible. “If I didn’t have any of the equipment and people to help me run it, this whole trip would’ve been shot down before it began,” Cox says.

To show their thanks, all excess funds from the GoFundMe have been donated to SAIL.

While this experience will be monumental for Cox himself, he ultimately hopes it will inspire others with perceived limitations to realize what they are capable of, too.

“I don’t travel a whole lot, but I travel more than someone in my position might,” he says. “So part of the goal here is to de-stigmatize it.”

The research the team did, and the documents and checklists they compiled, inspired them to create a video and slideshow—now available online—that can help others with disabilities create their own fully accessible, ADA-compliant SPAC itinerary. The information is designed to be transferable to other venues, too.

Downey hopes that the materials will help turn other people’s daydreams, like the one Cox had about traveling to SPAC, into a reality. “If we’re able to do that,” he says, “it’ll be a cherry-on-top scenario.”