The Scene
The Beginnings
Starting in 1965, a critical mass of young people congregated in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, lured by a burgeoning music scene, psychedelic drugs, and the promise of like-minded idealists.
The San Francisco Sound
The Charlatans are thought to be the first band to experiment with the fusion of rock ‘n’ roll, blues, folk, and jug band music that became known as the San Francisco Sound. Other bands on the scene included Blue Cheer, Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane.
Dance Concerts
Early dance concerts had their roots in Ken Kesey’s Acid Tests—a series of multisensory gatherings that celebrated LSD with music, costumes, dancing, strobes, and light shows—the three-day Trips Festival of January 1966, and benefits for the San Francisco Mime Troupe organized by the troupe’s manager, Bill Graham.
The success of the Mime Troupe Benefits convinced Graham to organize dance concerts for the hippie community featuring up-and-coming San Francisco bands. Between 1966 and 1971, he and fellow promoter Chet Helms commissioned some 500 posters announcing weekly dance concerts at their rock emporiums: the Fillmore Auditorium and the Avalon Ballroom.
Take a Trip
Transport yourself back to the sights and sounds of the era in our Psychedelic Side Trip. Hear the music, create a groovy light show, design a poster, or share your secrets from the ‘60s in our Wayback Machine.
Creedence Clearwater Revival concert image courtesy of the photographer, © Baron Wolman.
