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. The name "Acid Test" was coined by Kesey, after the term "acid test" used by gold miners in the …

One of the band's earliest major performances in 1967 was the Mantra-Rock Dance—a musical event held on January 29, 1967, at the Avalon Ballroom by the San Francisco Hare Krishna temple. Big Brother and Janis Joplin performed there along with Hare Krishna founder Bhaktivedanta Swami, Allen Ginsberg, Moby Grape, and Grateful Dead, donating proceeds to …

Moby Grape is an American rock band founded in 1966, known for having all five members contribute to singing and songwriting, and who collectively merged elements of folk music, blues, country, and jazz with rock and psychedelic music.They were one of the few groups of which all members were lead vocalists. The group's first incarnation ended in 1969, but they have …

Texxas Jam was the informal nickname of an annual summer rock concert called the Texxas World Music Festival (1978–1988). It was held in Dallas at the Cotton Bowl, and in Houston, at either the Astrodome or the Rice Stadium on the campus of Rice University.. The original Texxas Jam was a three-day festival held over the Fourth of July weekend in 1978 and encompassed …

The Stones in the Park was a free outdoor festival held in Hyde Park on 5 July 1969, headlined by the Rolling Stones and featuring Third Ear Band, King Crimson, Screw, Alexis Korner's New Church, Family and the Battered Ornaments, in front of an estimated audience between 250,000–500,000 spectators.. It was the Stones' first public concert in over two years, and was …

Mantra-Rock Dance. One frequently encountered theme was Asian spirituality, and Zen, dharma, "nirvana", karma and yoga were "buzzwords" of the counterculture. For most this infatuation with Asia was somewhat superficial, limited to their wearing colourful and inexpensive clothing from India and burning Indian made incense.

Origins and practices. The Rainbow Family was created out of the Vortex I gathering at Milo McIver State Park in Estacada, Oregon (30 miles south of Portland, Oregon), from August 28 to September 3, 1970. Inspired in large part by the first Woodstock Festival, two attendees at Vortex, Barry "Plunker" Adams and Garrick Beck, are both considered among the founders of the …

The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival (Italian: Festival della canzone italiana) and commonly known as just Festival di Sanremo (Italian: [sanˈrɛːmo]), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annual TV music competition in the world on a national level (making it …

Irwin Allen Ginsberg (/ ˈ ɡ ɪ n z b ɜːr ɡ /; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer.As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Generation.He vigorously opposed militarism, economic materialism, and sexual repression, and he embodied various aspects of …

The Toronto Rock and Roll Revival was a one-day, twelve-hour music festival held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on September 13, 1969. It featured a number of popular musical acts from the 1950s and 1960s. The festival is particularly notable as featuring an appearance by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, as the Plastic Ono Band, which resulted in the release of their Live Peace in …