Love Pageant Rally

The Love Pageant Rally took place on October 6, 1966

San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. The 'Haight' was a neighborhood of run-down turn-of-the-20th-century housing that was the center of San Francisco's counterculture in the 1960s

.

The major instigators of the rally were

communes

and the local police were getting more intense and led to street protests and rioting, followed by neighborhood curfews. A better form of protest, more suited to hippie culture was needed.

"Without confrontation," said Allen Cohen, "we wanted to create a celebration of innocence. We were not guilty of using illegal substances. We were celebrating transcendental consciousness. The beauty of the universe. The beauty of being."[2]

Posters advertising the event invited participants to "Bring the color gold... Bring photos of personal saints and gurus and heroes of the underground... Bring children... Flowers... Flutes... Drums... Feathers... Bands... Beads... Banners, flags, incense, chimes, gongs, cymbals, symbols, costumes, joy."^[2]

Thousands showed up for the event, read a "prophecy of a declaration of independence" written by Cohen, after which many placed a tab of acid on their tongues and swallowed in unison. Music was provided by the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin,^[3] both invited to play by Michael Bowen for free. Ken Kesey was on hand with the Merry Pranksters in the legendary bus.

The Love Pageant Rally drew several thousand people. It was a warm-up for the

The Summer of Love

.

References

Perry, Charles, The Haight-Ashbury: A history.

Notes

^ Reg E. Williams. "Love Pageant Rally". The Straight on The Haight. Retrieved 2008-08-05.
^ ^a ^b Gene Anthony, The Summer of Love, Haight-Ashbury at Its Highest Archived 2007-06-06 at the Wayback Machine (Last Gasp, 1980). Entire text and photos online at erowid.org, website found 2010-03-15.
^ "The Beat Generation - Beat Pics Gallery pic 27".
^ http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=4344&catid=4&volume_id=254&issue_id=311&volume_num=41&issue_num=47 ^{[dead link]}

External links

[1] Reg E. Williams. "Love Pageant Rally". The Straight on The Haight. Retrieved 2008-08-05.

[:0-2] Gene Anthony, The Summer of Love, Haight-Ashbury at Its Highest Archived 2007-06-06 at the Wayback Machine (Last Gasp, 1980). Entire text and photos online at erowid.org, website found 2010-03-15.

[3] "The Beat Generation - Beat Pics Gallery pic 27".

[4] ttp://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=4344&catid=4&volume_id=254&issue_id=311&volume_num=41&issue_num=47 ^{[dead link]}

[2]

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