At least 36,000 people attended the two-day “Fantasy Fair” in Mill Valley, one of the first in a series of music events during the Summer of Love. Photo by Elaine Mayes. (Credit: California Historical Society “On the Road to the Summer of Love Exhibition”)
August 21, 2017
A Photographic Trip Through the Summer of Love, 50 Years Later
In the summer of 1967, a hundred thousand young people descended upon the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. These utopian-seeking artists, musicians, drifters, and hippies were there to take part in the cultural phenomenon known as the 鈥淪ummer of Love.鈥� New forms of rock 'n' roll pulsed through the airwaves, psychedelic drugs were plentiful, and free love was embraced. These counterculture dreamers were challenging society's expectations while wearing flowers in their hair.
Janis Joplin was one of the popular performers, along with her then-band, Big Brother & the Holding Company. (Getty Images)
Even celebrities, like folk singer Joan Baez, would come and visit the famous district. Here she is sitting at the street corner of Haight and Ashbury serenading the crowd. (AP/Rex/Shutterstock)
Members of the Grateful Dead pose in front of their communal house in the Haight in 1966. The group had been the house band for Ken Kesey’s “acid tests,” which ushered in the psychedelic era. Photo by Gene Anthony. (Credit: California Historical Society “On the Road to the Summer of Love Exhibition”)
The Beatles’ George Harrison toured the Haight, later borrowing a guitar to play a session in Golden Gate Park, with flower children in tow. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Crowds gather in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park to celebrate the start of summer with a large ball painted like the globe. (AP/Rex/Shutterstock)
Revelations 2, 1965 by Kelly Hart. This time was very reminiscent of the psychedelic era. (Credit: California Historical Society “On the Road to the Summer of Love Exhibition”)
Jimi Hendrix performing at the Monterey Pop festival in Monterey, California on June 18, 1967. It was the first glimpse many had gotten of the soon-to-be rock legend. (Monterey Herald via AP)
Group dancing at Trips Festival, 1966. Photo by Gene Anthony. (Credit: California Historical Society “On the Road to the Summer of Love Exhibition”)
Anti-Vietnam War protestors collect draft cards at the Federal Building in San Francisco, to turn them over to the U.S. District Attorney Cecil Poole. (AP Photo)
Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead performing at the Human Be-In, in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Held in early 1967, it was considered a prelude to the Summer of Love. Photo by Rosie McGee. (Credit: California Historical Society “On the Road to the Summer of Love Exhibition”)
A man jumps over the ashes of a burned coffin during the ceremony of the “Death of the Hippie,” ceremony, a mock funeral organized by Mary Kasper to signal the conclusion of the Summer of Love. It was held in the Haight on October 6, 1967. (Baron Wolman/Iconic Images/Getty Images)