This festival is widely credited with being the start of the hippie counterculture that would emerge within the next year.
The Trips Festival was the brainchild of author Ken Kesey, who was conducting “acid tests” — wild parties in the Bay Area that featured music, dancing, theater, strobe lights, Day-Glo paint and free access to LSD, which was legal at the time. He and writer Stewart Brand decided to take it to the next level and hold a three-day festival.
The festival’s innovative mix of music, theater and light enjoyed by thousands of stoned hippies forecast what was to come as Trips Festivals were staged in other cities like Vancouver. It was promoted as an immersive and participatory multi-media experience.
The Trips Festival was the brainchild of author Ken Kesey, who was conducting “acid tests” — wild parties in the Bay Area that featured music, dancing, theater, strobe lights, Day-Glo paint and free access to LSD, which was legal at the time. He and writer Stewart Brand decided to take it to the next level and hold a three-day festival.
The festival’s innovative mix of music, theater and light enjoyed by thousands of stoned hippies forecast what was to come as Trips Festivals were staged in other cities like Vancouver. It was promoted as an immersive and participatory multi-media experience.