The Summer of Love was a major social phenomenon that occurred in San Francisco during the summer of 1967. As many as 100,000 people, mostly young people, hippies, beatniks, and 1960s counterculture figures, converged in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district and Golden Gate Park.E. Vulliamy, "Love and Haight", Observer Music Monthly May 20, 2007P. Braunstein, and M.Doyle (eds), Imagine Nation: The American Counterculture of the 1960s and '70s, (New York, 2002), p. 7.
More broadly, the Summer of Love encompassed hippie culture, spiritual awakening, hallucinogenic drugs, anti-war sentiment, and free love throughout the West Coast of the United States, and as far away as New York City. An episode of the PBS documentary series American Experience referred to the Summer of Love as "the largest migration of young people in the history of America".
Hippies, sometimes called flower children, were an eclectic group. Many opposed the Vietnam War, were suspicious of government, and rejected consumerist values. In the United States, counterculture groups rejected suburbia and the American way and instead opted for a communal lifestyle. Some hippies were active in political organization, whereas others were passive and more concerned with art (music, painting, poetry in particular) or spiritual and meditative practices. Many hippies took interest in Indian religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism.
Background Culture of San Francisco
Inspired by Jack Kerouacs On the Road (1957) and the Beat Generation of authors of the 1950s, who had flourished in the North Beach area of San Francisco, those who gathered in Haight-Ashbury during 1967 allegedly rejected the conformist and materialist values of modern life and adhered to the psychedelic movement; there was an emphasis on sharing and community. The Diggers established a Free Store, and Haight Ashbury Free Clinics was founded on June 7, 1967, where medical treatment was provided.M. Isserman, and M. Kazin (eds), America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s, (Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 151–172.
Human Be-In and inspiration
The prelude to the Summer of Love was a celebration known as the Human Be-In at Golden Gate Park on January 14, 1967, which was produced and organized by artist Michael Bowen.T.H. Anderson, The Movement and the Sixties: Protest in America from Greensboro to Wounded Knee, (Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 172.
It was at this event that Timothy Leary voiced his phrase, "turn on, tune in, drop out". This phrase helped shape the entire hippie counterculture, as it voiced the key ideas of 1960s rebellion. These ideas included experimenting with psychedelics, communal living, political decentralization, and dropping out of society. The term "dropping out" became popular among many high school and college students, many of whom would abandon their conventional education for a summer or more of hippie culture.
The event was announced by the Haight-Ashbury's hippie newspaper, the San Francisco Oracle:
A new concept of celebration beneath the human underground must emerge, become conscious, and be shared, so a revolution can be formed with a renaissance of compassion, awareness, and love, and the revelation of unity for all mankind.San Francisco Oracle, vol. 1, issue 5, p. 2.
The gathering of approximately 30,000 at the Human Be-In helped publicize hippie fashions.T. Gitlin, The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage, (New York, 1993), p. 215.
Planning The term "Summer of Love" originated with the formation of the Council for the Summer of Love during the spring of 1967 as a response to the convergence of young people on the Haight-Ashbury district. The council was composed of the Family Dog hippie commune, The Straight Theatre, The Diggers, The San Francisco Oracle, and approximately 25 other people, who sought to alleviate some of the problems anticipated from the influx of young people expected during the summer. The council also assisted the Free Clinic and organized housing, food, sanitation, music and arts, along with maintaining coordination with local churches and other social groups. Psychedelic poster artist Bob Schnepf was commissioned by Chet Helms to create the official Summer of Love poster, which became a lasting icon of the era.
Beginning
Youth arrivals College students, high school students, and runaways began streaming into the Haight during the spring break of 1967. John F. Shelley, the then-Mayor of San Francisco and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, determined to stop the influx of young people once schools ended for the summer, unwittingly brought additional attention to the scene, and a series of articles in the San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle alerted the national media to the hippies' growing numbers. By spring, some Haight-Ashbury organizations including Diggers theater and about 25 residents responded by forming the Council of the Summer of Love, giving the event a name.
"You only had to walk out your door to join the fun"—Mike Lafavore
Popularization The media's coverage of hippie afflux in the Haight-Ashbury drew the attention of youth from all over America. Hunter S. Thompson termed the district "Hashbury" in The New York Times Magazine. On February 6, 1967, Newsweek printed a four-page four-color article titled "Dropouts on a Mission". On March 17, 1967, Time magazine printed an article "Love on Haight". On June 12, 1967, Newsweek printed "The Hippies are Coming". The activities in the area were reported almost daily.T. Anderson, The Movement and the Sixties: Protest in America from Greensboro to Wounded Knee, (Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 174.
The event was also reported by the counterculture's own media, particularly the San Francisco Oracle, the pass-around readership of which is thought to have exceeded a half-million people that summer, and the Berkeley Barb.
The media's reportage of the "counterculture" included other events in California, such as the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival in Marin County and the Monterey Pop Festival, both during June 1967. As many as 40,000 people may have attended the Magic Mountain festival.Shannon, Bob (2009). Turn It Up! American Radio Tales 1946–1996. austrianmonk publishing. p. 310. ISBN 978-1-61584-545-3. At Monterey, approximately 30,000 people gathered for the first day of the music festival, with the number increasing to 60,000 on the final day.T. Anderson, The Movement and the Sixties: Protest in America from Greensboro to Wounded Knee, (Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 175. Additionally, media coverage of the Monterey Pop Festival facilitated the Summer of Love as large numbers of hippies traveled to California to hear favorite bands such as the Who, Grateful Dead, the Animals, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Otis Redding, the Byrds, and Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin.T. Gitlin, The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage, (New York, 1993), pp. 215–217.
In August of 1967, George Harrison visited San Francisco to visit the group of Haight-Ashbury hippies. He walked around the area strumming his guitar and interacted with the group. Many of the hippies asked him questions and were very excited to meet him as well as feeling that they had a kinship to him. He later described this experience in not the best light, as to him this environment was horrible and filled with bums.
"San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" The musician John Phillips of the band the Mamas & the Papas wrote the song "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" for his friend Scott McKenzie. It served to promote both the Monterey Pop Festival that Phillips was helping to organize, and to popularize the flower children of San Francisco. Released on May 13, 1967, the song was an instant success. By the week ending July 1, 1967, it reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, where it remained for four consecutive weeks. Meanwhile, the song charted at number one in the United Kingdom and much of Europe. The single is purported to have sold more than seven million copies worldwide.
Diggers The radical activist group called the Diggers embedded themselves in San Francisco in 1966. The group were anarchists who wanted to help other youth find liberation in the city. In addition to their free store, the group created a free publication called The Digger Papers in which they spread their message. In The Digger Papers the group provided information on resources for food, shelter, drug use, and human rights information. Their message was to develop a free society, everything they created or endorsed was free, and to further their messages about life and how to live it.
Events
New York City In Manhattan, near the Greenwich Village neighborhood, during a concert in Tompkins Square Park on Memorial Day of 1967, some police officers asked for the music's volume to be reduced. In response, some people in the crowd threw various objects, and 38 arrests ensued. A debate about the "threat of the hippie" ensued between Mayor John Lindsay and Police Commissioner Howard R. Leary. After this event, Allan Katzman, the editor of the East Village Other, predicted that 50,000 hippies would enter the area for the summer.Mark Jacobson Long Hot Summer of Love in New York, from New York magazine
California As many as 100,000 young people from around the world flocked to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, as well as to nearby Berkeley and to other San Francisco Bay Area cities, to join in a popularized version of the hippie culture. A Free Clinic was established for free medical treatment, and a Free Store gave away basic necessities without charge to anyone who needed them.
The Summer of Love attracted a wide range of people of various ages: teenagers and college students drawn by their peers and the allure of joining an alleged cultural utopia; middle-class vacationers; and even partying military personnel from bases within driving distance. The Haight-Ashbury could not accommodate this influx of people, and the neighborhood scene quickly deteriorated, with overcrowding, homelessness, hunger, drug problems, and crime afflicting the neighborhood.
Denver Chet Helms, Barry Fey and others who were constructing The Family Dog Denver in the summer of 1967 also held a Human Be-In, in Denver's City Park, with the goal of harnessing the Summer of Love vibe to promote Helm's new Family Dog Productions venture, which opened in September, 1967. 5,000 people attended the Be-In, with performances by bands like the Grateful Dead, Odetta and Captain Beefheart. Ken Kesey and Timothy Leary were also reportedly in attendance. As Denver native Bruce Bond states in the 2021 documentary The Tale of the Dog, "It's not like the Summer of Love ended in Frisco. It just moved east, to Denver."
Use of drugs
Psychedelic drug use became common. Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir commented:
Haight Ashbury was a ghetto of bohemians who wanted to do anything—and we did but I don't think it has happened since. Yes there was LSD. But Haight Ashbury was not about drugs. It was about exploration, finding new ways of expression, being aware of one's existence.J. McDonald quoted in E. Vulliamy, "Love and Haight", Observer Music Monthly, 20 May 2007