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Acid Tests

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(Redirected from Trips Festival)
For other uses, see Acid test (disambiguation).
Acid Tests
Part of the Hippie movement
An Acid Test handbill
Date1965-1966
LocationCalifornia, Texas
Part of a series on
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The Acid Tests were a series of parties held by author Ken Kesey primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area during the mid-1960s, centered on the use of and advocacy for the psychedelic drug LSD, commonly known as "acid". LSD was not made illegal in California until October 6, 1966.

History

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The name "Acid Test" was coined by Kesey, after the term "acid test" used by gold miners in the 1850s. He began throwing parties at his farm at La Honda, California.[1] The Merry Pranksters were central to organizing the Acid Tests, including Pranksters such as Lee Quarnstrom and Neal Cassady. Other people, such as LSD chemists Owsley Stanley and Tim Scully, were involved as well.

Kesey took the parties to public places, and advertised with posters that read, "Can you pass the acid test?", and the name was later popularized in Tom Wolfe's 1968 book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Musical performances by the Grateful Dead were commonplace, along with black lights, strobe lights, and fluorescent paint. The Acid Tests are notable for their influence on the LSD-based counterculture of the San Francisco area and subsequent transition from the beat generation to the hippie movement. The Jefferson Airplane song "A Song for All Seasons" (from Volunteers) mentions the Acid Tests.

Timeline

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Fluorescent painted sign with bits of newsprint and drawings advertising the Acid Test party and participants.
Sign for the Acid Test on November 27, 1965 by Ken Kesey, from the National Museum of American History, collection item #1992.0413.01.

1965

  • 27 November; Soquel, California: The first Acid Test was a party at Ken Babbs' house on 27 November 1965, although Babbs recalls it as being on Halloween night. A flyer[2] allegedly shows that the Warlocks (one week before the band became known as the Grateful Dead) played at Soquel as the Warlocks on November 27. However, the authenticity of this flyer has been questioned, and several witnesses confirm that the Warlocks did not play a set at Soquel; they only casually played some of the Merry Prankster instruments.[3] An original fluorescent paint and newsprint-collage Acid Test sign donated to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History by event co-organizer Ken Kesey in 1992 lists 'The Grateful Dead' as a musical performer, as well as The Fugs, alongside hand-drawn text on the sign reads: "Your essaying of it will be shared almost certainly (?) by some permutation or combination of the following [...]."[4] In his book, Phil Lesh confirms that he did attend: "We were at the first Test not to play, but just to feel it out, and we hadn't brought any instruments or gear."[5] Most likely Lesh was joined by Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia at the party.[6]
  • 4 December; San Jose, California: This time, the newly-renamed Grateful Dead did play, the first performance of their long career.[3]
  • 11 December; Muir Beach, California
  • 18 December, Palo Alto, California[7]

1966

1967

  • 16 March; Houston, Texas (Brown College, Rice University) (despite the "graduation" concept of the final West Coast Acid Test, the actual final Acid Test of The Merry Pranksters was organized in Texas by Kesey's friend Larry McMurtry)[25]

1968

  • 24 October; Congress passes the Staggers–Dodd Bill, criminalizing the recreational use of LSD-25[26]

Trips Festival

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Trips Festival
Genrepsychedelic
DatesJanuary 21, 22 and 23
Location(s)Longshoreman's Hall in San Francisco
Years active1966
FoundersRamon Sender, Ken Kesey, Stewart Brand

Ramon Sender co-produced the Trips Festival with Ken Kesey and Stewart Brand. It was a three-day event that,[27] in conjunction with The Merry Pranksters, brought together the nascent hippie movement.[28] The Trips Festival was held at the Longshoreman's Hall in San Francisco in January 1966.[29] Counterculture sound engineer Ken Babbs is mostly credited for the sound systems he created for the Trips Festival. Prior to Babbs' creation, it was discovered that particular music usually sounded distorted when cranked to high levels because of the cement floor on the San Francisco Longshoreman's Union Hall (where the Trips Festival was taking place). Babbs being a sound engineer resolved the problem. He made sound amplifiers that would not create distorted sounds when turned up to high sound levels.[citation needed]

Organized by Stewart Brand, Ken Kesey, Owsley Stanley, Zach Stewart and others,[30][31][32][33] ten thousand people attended this sold-out event, with a thousand more turned away each night.[34] On Saturday January 22, the Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company came on stage, and 6,000 people arrived to drink punch spiked with LSD and to witness one of the first fully developed light shows of the era.[35]

Big Brother and the Holding Company was formed at the Trips Festival. In the audience was painter and jazz drummer David Getz, who soon joined the band.[36][37][38]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Psychedelic 60s: Ken Kesey & the Merry Pranksters". 2.lib.virginia.edu. 2009-12-16. Archived from the original on 2011-11-04. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  2. ^ "View image: 5572". 22 December 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  3. ^ a b Jarnow, Jesse (30 November 2015). "Acid Tests Turn 50: Wavy Gravy, Merry Prankster Reminisce". Rollingstone.com. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  4. ^ "Signboard, Pass the Acid Test". National Museum of American History. Retrieved 2023-08-30.
  5. ^ Lesh, Phil, Searching for the Sound, Back Bay Books, San Francisco, 2005 pp 63, 64
  6. ^ "The Acid Test Chronicles - Page 11 - The Warlocks - The Very First Acid Test - The Spread (Ken Babbs House), Soquel, outside of Santa Cruz". Postertrip.com. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  7. ^ "December 18, 1965: The Big Beat, Palo Alto--Lost and Found". 2013-04-11.
  8. ^ "How pop music and icons have taken San Francisco higher". 29 March 2015.
  9. ^ "Youth Opportunities Center - Home of the Watts Acid Test". 18 December 2015.
  10. ^ Wolfe, Tom (1968). "Ch. 20: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test". The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (paperback ed.). New York: Picador/Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 273.; Severn Darden attended
  11. ^ "1966-03-12 Danish Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA". Jerrygarcia.com.
  12. ^ "University of Southern California - Breaking ground for new dancing school, 607 South Western Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 1930". Digitallibrary.usc.edu. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  13. ^ "University of Southern California - Exterior of building, 607 South Western Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 1933 [image]". Digitallibrary.usc.edu.
  14. ^ "Valley News from Van Nuys, California on October 3, 1967 · Page 3". Newspapers.com. 3 October 1967. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  15. ^ Slide, Anthony (12 March 2012). The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-4968-0108-1. For many years, the small Troupers Theatre was a familiar site on La Brea Avenue in Hollywood...
  16. ^ "B'nai B'rith Messenger, February 2, 1962". Nli.org.il. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  17. ^ "Rare Grateful Dead Troupers Club Concert Poster Designed by 1960's Counterculture Icon Owsley Stanley to be Auctioned by Psychedelic Art Exchange". Prweb.com.
  18. ^ "The Acid Test Chronicles - Page 23 - Troupers Club - (12th Acid Test [Sunset] - March 25, 1966". Postertrip.com.
  19. ^ "1966-03-25 Trouper's Club., Los Angeles, CA, USA". Jerrygarcia.com.
  20. ^ "Whatever it is Festival at SF State - Bay Area Television Archive". Diva.sfsu.edu. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  21. ^ "Grateful Dead Live at San Francisco State University on 1966-10-02". Archive.org. 2 October 1966.
  22. ^ "Acid Test – Grateful Dead – Whatever It Is/SF State Acid Test Poster Handbill". Recordmecca.com. 29 April 2012.
  23. ^ "Whatever It is – Michael J. Kramer". Michaeljkramer.net. 18 March 2016.
  24. ^ "Halloween 1966: The End of One Era, and the Beginning of Another". Summerof.love. 31 October 2016.
  25. ^ "Lysergic Pranksters in Texas". 2014-11-20. Archived from the original on 2011-06-24. Retrieved 2014-11-21.
  26. ^ United States Congress (October 24, 1968). "Staggers-Dodd Bill, Public Law 90-639" (PDF). Retrieved September 8, 2009.
  27. ^ "San Francisco sound: From Janis Joplin to Grateful Dead, music from 1960s fuels a social revolution". Sfchronicle.com. 4 July 2015.
  28. ^ "Photographic image of concert audience" (JPG). S.hdnux.com. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  29. ^ Andrew Gilbert, "Loading Zone Reloaded", East Bay Express, 13 August 2008 Archived September 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  30. ^ "Trips Festival – Acid Test – Grateful Dead – Stewart Brand Memo to Ralph J. Gleason". Recordmecca.com. 29 April 2012.
  31. ^ "Chronology of San Francisco Rock 1965-1969". Sfmuseum.org.
  32. ^ "San Francisco 1966 Beat Generation, Hippies; Trips Festival". Gettyimages.com. 14 February 2020.
  33. ^ "Trips Festival". 7 May 2006. Archived from the original on 2006-05-07. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  34. ^ Ralph J. Gleason. The Jefferson Airplane and the San Francisco Sound (1969), Ballantine Books OCLC 19838 cited in: Tamony, Peter. (Summer, 1981). Tripping out from San Francisco. American Speech. Vol. 56, No. 2. pp. 98–103. Tamony, 1981, p.98
  35. ^ "Merry Prankster History Project". Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2015-06-02.
  36. ^ Brant, Marley (2008). Join Together: Forty Years of the Rock Music Festival. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 16.
  37. ^ Sinclair, Mick (2004). San Francisco: a cultural and literary history. Interlink Books. p. 204. ISBN 9781566564892.
  38. ^ "Chronology". janisjoplin.net. 1998–2010. Retrieved 10 June 2010.

Sources

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