Summer of Love

For the concurrent period of the 1967 race riots, see Long hot summer of 1967. For other uses, see Summer of Love (disambiguation).

Summer of Love
Part of the Counterculture of the 1960s and the hippie movement
Spencer Dryden, Marty Balin, and Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane performing at the Fantasy Fair, early June 1967
Date1967
LocationHaight-Ashbury, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Participants~100,000 (estimated)
Outcome
  • A surge in 1960s counterculture in the United States
  • Inspiration for the Second Summer of Love in the United Kingdom in 1988

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.[1][2] 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.[3][4] 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".[5]

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.[4] Many hippies took interest in ancient Indian religion, such as Hinduism and Buddhism.

  1. ^ E. Vulliamy, "Love and Haight", Observer Music Monthly May 20, 2007
  2. ^ P. Braunstein, and M.Doyle (eds), Imagine Nation: The American Counterculture of the 1960s and '70s, (New York, 2002), p. 7.
  3. ^
    • Selvin, Joel (1999). Summer of Love The Inside Story of LSD, Rock & Roll, Free Love, and High Times in the Wild West. Cooper Square Press. ISBN 9780815410195.
    • Selvin, Joel; Young, Malcolm C. (June 11, 2017). "The Summer of Love". The Forum at Grace Cathedral. Grace Cathedral, San Francisco – via vimeo.
    • Selvin, Joel; Young, Malcolm C. (June 11, 2017). "The Summer of Love". The Forum at Grace Cathedral. Grace Cathedral, San Francisco – via YouTube. With the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love sparking celebrations and events throughout San Francisco, we invite the New York Times best-selling author of Summer of Love: The Inside Story of LSD, Rock & Roll, Free Love and High Times in the Wild West and former San Francisco Chronicle senior pop music critic Joel Selvin to offer his insights into the lasting impact of the 1967 cultural revolution that was born in the Haight-Ashbury.
    • Gene Anthony (1980). The Summer of Love: Haight-Ashbury at Its Highest (PDF). John Libbey Eurotext. ISBN 0867194219. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 6, 2007.
  4. ^ a b Hinckley, David (October 15, 1998). "Groovy The Summer Of Love, 1967". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on February 2, 2014. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  5. ^ Chapter 1 | Summer of Love | American Experience | PBS. Retrieved April 15, 2024 – via www.youtube.com.