Acid Tests

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.{{cite web|url=http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/sixties/kesey.html|title=Psychedelic 60s: Ken Kesey & the Merry Pranksters|website=2.lib.virginia.edu|date=2009-12-16|access-date=2011-11-06|archive-date=2011-11-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111104011022/http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/sixties/kesey.html|url-status=dead}} 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 also involved.

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.

File:Signboard, Pass the Acid Test.jpg

1965

• 27 November; Soquel, California: The first Acid Test was a party at Ken Babbs' house on 27 November 1965; however, Babbs recalls it as being on Halloween night. A flyer{{Cite web|url=http://postimg.org/image/tjrgk093x/|title=View image: 5572|date=22 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222102127/http://postimg.org/image/tjrgk093x/|access-date=9 November 2021|archive-date=2015-12-22}} 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. Several witnesses confirm that the Warlocks did not play a set at Soquel; they only casually played some of the Merry Prankster instruments.{{Cite web|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/acid-tests-turn-50-wavy-gravy-merry-prankster-ken-babbs-look-back-57641/|title=Acid Tests Turn 50: Wavy Gravy, Merry Prankster Reminisce|first=Jesse|last=Jarnow|website=Rollingstone.com|date=30 November 2015|access-date=9 November 2021}} 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 [...]."{{Cite web |title=Signboard, Pass the Acid Test |url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1275835 |access-date=2023-08-30 |website=National Museum of American History |language=en}} 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."Lesh, Phil, Searching for the Sound, Back Bay Books, San Francisco, 2005 pp 63, 64 Most likely Lesh was joined by Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia at the party.{{Cite web|url=http://www.postertrip.com/public/5572.cfm|title=The Acid Test Chronicles - Page 11 - The Warlocks - The Very First Acid Test - The Spread (Ken Babbs House), Soquel, outside of Santa Cruz|website=Postertrip.com|access-date=9 November 2021}}
• 4 December; San Jose, California: This time, the newly renamed Grateful Dead did play, the first performance of their long career.
• 11 December; Muir Beach, California
• 18 December, Palo Alto, California{{cite web|url=http://rockprosopography101.blogspot.com/2009/08/december-18-1965-big-beat-palo-alto.html|title=December 18, 1965: The Big Beat, Palo Alto--Lost and Found|date=2013-04-11}}

1966

• 8 January; San Francisco, California (Fillmore)
• 15 January; Portland, Oregon
• 21–23 January; San Francisco (Trips Festival at Longshoreman's Hall){{Cite web|url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/oursf/article/Our-SF-Why-pop-talent-takes-our-city-higher-6159715.php|title = How pop music and icons have taken San Francisco higher|date = 29 March 2015}}
• 29 January; San Francisco, California (Sound City Studios)
• 5 February; Los Angeles, California - Sepulveda Unitarian Universalist Society
• 12 February; Watts, Los Angeles – Youth Opportunities Center{{Cite web|url=https://rockandrollroadmap.com/places/miscellaneous/los-angeles-area-miscellaneous/youth-opportunities-center-home-of-the-watts-acid-test/|title=Youth Opportunities Center - Home of the Watts Acid Test|date=18 December 2015}}{{cite book |last1=Wolfe |first1=Tom |title=The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test |date=1968 |publisher=Picador/Farrar, Straus and Giroux |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/electrickoolaida0000wolf_z7i0/page/273/mode/2up 273] |edition=paperback |chapter=Ch. 20: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test}}; Severn Darden attended
• 25 February; Los Angeles, California (Hollywood) – Cinema Theatre
• 12 March; Los Angeles, California (Danish Center){{Cite web|url=https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1966-03-12-danish-center-los-angeles-ca-usa/|title = 1966-03-12 Danish Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA|website=Jerrygarcia.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-management/2A3BF1OA9638O|title=University of Southern California - Breaking ground for new dancing school, 607 South Western Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 1930|website=Digitallibrary.usc.edu|access-date=9 November 2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-management/2A3BF1OMPMIV1|title = University of Southern California - Exterior of building, 607 South Western Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 1933 [image]|website=Digitallibrary.usc.edu}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/30351196/|title=Valley News from Van Nuys, California on October 3, 1967 · Page 3|website=Newspapers.com|date=3 October 1967 |access-date=9 November 2021}}
• 19 March; Los Angeles, California (Pico) Carthay Studios
• 25 March; Los Angeles, California (Sunset Strip) – Troupers Club{{cite book |last1=Slide |first1=Anthony |title=The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville |date=12 March 2012 |publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1-4968-0108-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rzX7DwAAQBAJ&q=%22Troupers+Club%22+%22La+Brea%22&pg=PT868 |language=en |quote=For many years, the small Troupers Theatre was a familiar site on La Brea Avenue in Hollywood...}}{{cite web|url=https://www.nli.org.il/ar/newspapers/bbh/1962/02/02/01/article/127?|title=B'nai B'rith Messenger, February 2, 1962|website=Nli.org.il|access-date=9 November 2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.prweb.com/releases/rare_grateful_dead_troupers_club_concert_poster_designed_by_1960_s_counterculture_icon_owsley_stanley_to_be_auctioned_by_psychedelic_art_exchange/prweb14255557.htm|title = Rare Grateful Dead Troupers Club Concert Poster Designed by 1960's Counterculture Icon Owsley Stanley to be Auctioned by Psychedelic Art Exchange|website=Prweb.com}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.postertrip.com/public/5582.cfm|title = The Acid Test Chronicles - Page 23 - Troupers Club - (12th Acid Test [Sunset] - March 25, 1966|website=Postertrip.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1966-03-25-troupers-club-los-angeles-ca-usa/|title = 1966-03-25 Trouper's Club., Los Angeles, CA, USA|website=Jerrygarcia.com}}
• 30 September – 2 October; San Francisco State College – Whatever It Is Festival – three days{{Cite web|url=https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/209388|title=Whatever it is Festival at SF State - Bay Area Television Archive|website=Diva.sfsu.edu|access-date=9 November 2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/gd1966-10-02.sbd.bershaw.5413.shnf|title = Grateful Dead Live at San Francisco State University on 1966-10-02|website=Archive.org|date = 2 October 1966}}{{Cite web|url=https://recordmecca.com/item-archives/acid-test-grateful-dead-whatever-it-issf-state-acid-test-poster-handbill/|title=Acid Test – Grateful Dead – Whatever It Is/SF State Acid Test Poster Handbill|website=Recordmecca.com|date=29 April 2012}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.michaeljkramer.net/whatever-it-is/|title = Whatever It is – Michael J. Kramer|website=Michaeljkramer.net| date=18 March 2016 }}
• 31 October; San Francisco, California — Acid Test Graduation (Bill Graham cancelled Winterland Ballroom event, Grateful Dead played at the California Hall (San Francisco, California) that night, and the event was held at a SoMa warehouse.){{Cite web|url=https://summerof.love/halloween-1966-end-one-era-beginning-another/|title = Halloween 1966: The End of One Era, and the Beginning of Another|website=Summerof.love|date = 31 October 2016}}

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){{cite web|url=http://www.lysergia.com/MerryPranksters/lamaMerryPranksters.htm|title=Lysergic Pranksters in Texas|date=2014-11-20|access-date=2014-11-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110624041006/http://lysergia.com/MerryPranksters/lamaMerryPranksters.htm|archive-date=2011-06-24|url-status=dead}}

1968

• 24 October; Congress passes the Staggers–Dodd Bill, criminalizing the recreational use of LSD-25{{cite web |url=http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/law/law_fed_staggers-dodd.pdf| author=United States Congress | title=Staggers-Dodd Bill, Public Law 90-639 | date=October 24, 1968 | access-date=September 8, 2009}}

{{Infobox music festival

| name =Trips Festival

| image =File:Trips_Festival_poster.png

| caption =

| location =Longshoreman's Hall in San Francisco

| years_active =1966

| founders =Ramon Sender, Ken Kesey, Stewart Brand

| dates =January 21, 22 and 23

| genre = psychedelic

| attendance =

| capacity =

| website =

}}

Ramon Sender co-produced the Trips Festival with Ken Kesey and Stewart Brand. It was a three-day event that,{{Cite web|url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/oursf/article/Our-SF-Music-from-the-1960s-fuels-a-social-6364395.php|title=San Francisco sound: From Janis Joplin to Grateful Dead, music from 1960s fuels a social revolution|website=Sfchronicle.com|date=4 July 2015}} in conjunction with The Merry Pranksters, brought together the nascent hippie movement.{{cite web|url=https://s.hdnux.com/photos/57/43/16/12428093/3/1000x0.jpg|format=JPG|title=Photographic image of concert audience|website=S.hdnux.com|access-date=9 November 2021}} The Trips Festival was held at the Longshoreman's Hall in San Francisco in January 1966.[http://www.eastbayexpress.com/music/loading_zone_reloaded/Content?oid=807429 Andrew Gilbert, "Loading Zone Reloaded"], East Bay Express, 13 August 2008 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090926162438/http://www.eastbayexpress.com/music/loading_zone_reloaded/Content?oid=807429 |date=September 26, 2009 }} 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|date=June 2015}}

Organized by Stewart Brand, Ken Kesey, Owsley Stanley, Zach Stewart and others,{{Cite web|url=https://recordmecca.com/item-archives/trips-festival-acid-test-grateful-dead-stewart-brand-memo-to-ralph-j-gleason/|title = Trips Festival – Acid Test – Grateful Dead – Stewart Brand Memo to Ralph J. Gleason|website=Recordmecca.com|date = 29 April 2012}}{{Cite web|url=http://sfmuseum.org/hist1/rock.html|title = Chronology of San Francisco Rock 1965-1969|website=Sfmuseum.org}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/san-francisco-1966-beat-generation-hippies-trips-festival-news-photo/1206296499|title = San Francisco 1966 Beat Generation, Hippies; Trips Festival|website=Gettyimages.com| date=14 February 2020 }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.skypilotclub.com/tripsfest.html|title=Trips Festival|date=7 May 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060507123512/https://www.skypilotclub.com/tripsfest.html|access-date=9 November 2021|archive-date=2006-05-07}} ten thousand people attended this sold-out event, with a thousand more turned away each night.Ralph J. Gleason. The Jefferson Airplane and the San Francisco Sound (1969), Ballantine Books {{oclc|19838}} cited in: Tamony, Peter. (Summer, 1981). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/455009 Tripping out from San Francisco]. American Speech. Vol. 56, No. 2. pp. 98–103. Tamony, 1981, p.98 On Saturday January 22, the Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company came on stage. Further, 6,000 people arrived to drink punch spiked with LSD and to witness one of the first fully developed light shows of the era.{{Cite web |url=http://www.pranksterweb.org/trips.htm |title=Merry Prankster History Project |access-date=2015-06-02 |archive-date=2007-10-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011133826/http://pranksterweb.org/trips.htm |url-status=dead }}

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.{{cite book|last=Brant|first=Marley |title=Join Together: Forty Years of the Rock Music Festival|year=2008|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|page=16}}{{cite book|last=Sinclair|first=Mick |title=San Francisco: a cultural and literary history|url=https://archive.org/details/sanfranciscocult00sinc|url-access=registration|year=2004|publisher=Interlink Books|page=[https://archive.org/details/sanfranciscocult00sinc/page/204 204]|isbn=9781566564892 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.janisjoplin.net/life/chronology/|title=Chronology|date=1998–2010|publisher=janisjoplin.net|access-date=10 June 2010}}

• List of historic rock festivals

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Wolfe|first=Tom|author-link=Tom Wolfe|year=1968|title=The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test}}
• {{cite web|last=Lesh |first=Phil |title=The Acid Test Chronicles - Page 16 - Portland Oregon - 6th Acid Test - Jan. 15, 1966 |url=http://www.postertrip.com/public/5583.cfm |work=Acid Test Chronicles |access-date=2012-04-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425054002/http://www.postertrip.com/public/5583.cfm |archive-date=2012-04-25 }}

• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59hitrXh-xQ Video from the National Museum of American History] featuring the Sign for the November 27, 1965 first Acid Test

{{Ken Kesey}}

{{Hippies}}

{{Historic rock festival}}

{{Rock festival}}

Category:Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area

Category:Lysergic acid diethylamide

Category:Psychedelia

Category:Counterculture festivals

Category:Counterculture of the 1960s

Category:California culture

Category:1965 in California

Category:1966 in California

Category:1960s in San Francisco