Summer of Love

Summer of Love is a striking picture of San Francisco's Haight Ashbury district during the summer of 1967 — from the utopian beginnings, when peace and love prevailed, to the chaos, unsanitary conditions, and widespread drug use that ultimately signaled the end. In January 1967, the thousands of youth already in San Francisco descended on Golden Gate Park for a Human Be-In. The media flocked to the event, putting hippies in the national spotlight for the first time. And once the press offered a window into the world of Haight Ashbury, even more young people flooded in. "The city of San Francisco has been warned of a hippie invasion come summer in numbers almost too staggering to comprehend," declared one TV news reporter. The Summer of Love was a fleeting moment in the turbulent history of the 1960s. But its underlying message left an indelible impression on those who witnessed it.