The Summer of Love
There were actually two "Summers of Love". The first being summer of 1966 and the second, the one that the media focused upon the summer of 1967. There is an excellent photo documentary by Gene Anthony entitled "The Summer of Love", San Francisco 1966-67: Haight Ashbury at its highest. Published by Celestial Arts but now out of print. A second version is now available. I highly recommend that you find and get this beautiful book.

Sowing of the Seeds
Towards the end of 1965 several interesting things were starting to happen around the Bay area. Ken Kesey started expanding his acid parties to larger more public settings with gatherings known as Acid Tests (for a more complete record of this read Tom Wolfe's "The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test") featuring the Merry Pranksters and the newly formed Greatful Dead. In San Francisco, Bill Graham put on several benefits for the Mime Troupe. Appeal 1; November 6 1965 featuring the Jefferson Airplane and Appeal II; December 10, 1965 featuring the Jefferson Airplane and the Great Society.

Also at this time Owsley's "Orange Sunshine" LSD started to appear in large quantities in San Francisco especially around the bohemian Haight Ashbury neighborhood. Forces were starting to converge and this little neighborhood located west of Divisidero Street and bordering on the east side of Golden Gate Park became the eye of the storm.

Haight Ashbury
I still love to visit Haight Ashbury and walk around and revisit the sites where a culture was born. Haight Ashbury today is a tourist mecca with shops and boutiques that appeal to those who make the cultural pilgrimage.

In 1966 it was an area where many artists, especially musicians congregated and lived. With a housing stock of large Victorian homes, cheap rents, it's central location within San Francisco and of course, Golden Gate Park extending all the way to the ocean, it provided an ideal location to one starting to experiment with LSD. One could trip for long undisturbed hours in the park and then come down to the nightly music at the Fillmore or soon to open Avalon Ballroom.

In 1966 at the corner of Haight and Masonic (the real center of the universe) stood the Drug Store Cafe, the gathering place for the local hipsters. On the opposite corner there was one of Haight Ashbury's first head shops. The artist, Michael Bowen (a key figure in the community) had an studio above the shops and this also served as a meeting place in the neighborhood. The San Francisco Oracle (Haight Ashbury's underground newpaper) was started there.

Famous Addresses of the Haight
The most famous address is of course the corner of Haight and Ashbury. Now there is a Ben and Jerry's on one corner and a Gap clothing store on another. And of course tourists everywhere.

The second most famous address is 710 Ashbury, up the hill from Haight Street. 710 was the home of the Grateful Dead. For close to two years the Dead were located here and after the 1967 summer of love and a drug bust moved to a more quiet Marin County location.

1090 Page Street was the address where Big Brother and the Holding Company was formed. Also the home of one of the Family Dog communes.

558 Haight Street was Haight Ashbury Free Clinic. Founded by Dr. David Smith and served the community as an alternitive to straight medicine. Very cool to the hippies.

The Psychedelic Shop was located at 1535 Haight Street. In 1966 the Psych Shop was a center for neighborhood communications with community bulleton boards and friendly helpful stoned owners.

The Trips Festival
The Trips festival came out of Ken Kesey's original December Acid tests and the other creative things going on in San Francisco in January 1966. There was a need to pull some of these energies togeather and clelebrate the "good trips". What better way to do this but with a trips festival. Conceived by Stewart Brand, Ken Kesey and others, Bill Graham was brought in to coordinate tickets and managemant. Everyone donated their time. It was held at the unlikely location of the Longshoreman's Hall near Fisherman's Wharf. It was to be an LSD experience without LSD. Given the availability of Owsley's Sunshine and it being totally legal at the time, the three day event turned out to be the first public acid festival with thousands of people attending and freaking freely. Music and entertainment provided by Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, the Greatful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company.

The Music
Four major psychedelic bands lived in the Haight Asbury during the summers of love. The Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company (with Janis Joplin), Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Jefferson Airplane. These bands along with County Joe and the Fish from Berkeley were the house bands at Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium and at the Avalon Ballroom.

The Ballrooms
The Fillmore. The original Fillmore was located on Geary Street. Run by Bill Graham and it featured regular weekend concerts starting in March of1966 and running through the summers of love. Artists for 1966 including the above bands were: Family Tree, Butterfield Blues Band, Grass Roots, Lightin' Hopkins, The Charlatans, The Mother's of Invention, Great Society, Wailers, Them, Lenny Bruce, Love, Turtles, Sopwith Camel, Association, Young Rascals, Martha and the Vandellas, The Byrds, Muddy Waters, Yardbirds, James Cotton Blues Band, Buffalo Springfield. Moby Grape, Big Mama Thornton, Junior Wells and Otis Redding. On New Year's Eve 1966-1967 Bill Graham presented the Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service at Winterland 9:00pm to 9:00am with breakfast.

The Avalon. Chet Helm and The Family Dog's Avalon Ballroom was located at Sutter Street and Van Ness Avenue. Bill Ham did the light shows at the Avalon ballroom. Again the Avalon featured San Francisco's psychedelic bands: The Airplane, Dead, Big Brother and Quicksilver. The Avalon Ballroom started weekend concerts April 22, 23 1966 with The Blues Project, and the Great Society. Other acts for 1966 included The Love, Sir Douglas Quintet, Bo Diddley, Sons of Champlin, Buffalo Springfield and the Young Bloods.

Golden Gate Park
I love golden Gate Park. It's huge! Plenty of room to hike, picnic, trip around and extends from the Haight Ashbury all the way west to the ocean.

The Panhandle
The Panhandle of Golden Gate Park just down the hill north of Haight Street has historical importance for the summer of love. Starting in early 1967 the Diggers would give away free food every day at 4:00.

Also it was the location of one of the first Human Be-Ins entittled the Love Pageant Rally. Occuring Thursday, October 6, 1966, the day that California made LSD illegal. The Be-In happened between the streets of Masonic and Ashbury at Oak in the Panhandle. The Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company provided the music. Owlsley provided the electricity. Rather than protesting the outlawing of what many people in the community had come to believe was a sacrament, it's organizers Michael Bowen and Allen Cohen stated "instead of protesting the law that was going into effect, our idea was to make a demostration which would show the law's falsity. Without confrontation. We wanted to create a celebration of innocence. We were not guilty of using illegal substances. We were celebrationg transcendental consciousness. The beauty of the universe. The beauty of being". 3,000 people attended. Thus was born a celebration that latter blossomed across the globe.

Hippy Hill
Just into Golden Gate Park from Haight or Page streets and across the busy parkway is a beautiful large meadow. On the north of this meadow sits a large hill. This hill is known as "hippy hill". It became a gathering place for wandering hippies, bongo and conga players, a social place with lots of space where you could just lie in the sun and mellow out. It was a great people watching and meeting people location. Just a short walk from the noise, commotion and madness of Haight Street. One could spend hours just hanging out there and not be bothered by the occasional park police who wandered by. On a weekday this meadow would be a quiet, slow-moving, mellow place. On the weekends it filled up with lots of people. On the south of the meadow is a playground and an old carrousel dating back to the turn of the century, with a way cool pipe organ.