On This Day in 1967, San Francisco's Human Be-In Effectively Began the "Summer of Love"

A poster for the Human Be-In at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, January 1967

On this day in 1967, an estimated 20,000 people attended the Human Be-In at Polo Field in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. This event is often credited as the beginning of the "Summer of Love" and the brief but highly influential hippie cultural impact in the late Sixties.

The trigger that helped launch the Be-In event was the banning of the drug LSD by the California State Legislature in 1966. The Human Be-In event itself had numerous themes, implementing many of the things which have since come to be regarded as staples of the Sixties counterculture. These included (but were not necessarily limited to) pro-peace and specifically anti-Vietnam War sentiments, Eastern religious/spiritual/philosophical mantras and meditation, communal living, youth and/or student activism, a focus on a healthy and natural environment, psychedelic drug use, experimental and performative art, celebration of life, alternative ways of looking at life and society, and of course, peace, love, and rock & roll. Many other similar events with the suffix "-in" followed. It also helped to promote the idea of music festivals with many musical acts, and where the most iconic ideas of "peace" and "love" helped to permanently identify these ideas and phrases with that era of the hippies and the counterculture.

By the late 1960's, San Francisco had already earned a reputation as arguably the leading city of the counterculture, particularly with the youth culture around the Haight-Ashbury district. To that end, the underground newspaper San Francisco Oracle helped to cement this status, and it was this publication, with art advertising the Human Be-In by artist Michael Bowen, who promoted the event as "A Gathering of Tribes for the Human Be-In."

This free event featured Allen Ginsburg, Timothy Leary, Dick Gregory and Jerry Rubin, as well as music by local acts such as the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. 

A poster for the Human Be-In at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, January 1967

A peace sign which was visible along "Woodstock Way" near Monticello, New York, close to the Bethel Woods event facility, right next to where the original Woodstock Music Festival of 1969 took place. This is not directly related to the "Human Be-In," yet it was that event which helped to make Woodstock, and the popularity of the peace sign, possible.

More images linked to the "Summer of Love" of the Sixties:

Human Be-In - Full Program - 1/14/1967 - Polo Fields, Golden Gate Park (Official) by  Wolfgang's Documentaries & Interviews 

This Day in History January 14 1967 -  San Francisco’s “Human Be-In” launches the Summer of Love HISTORY.com Editors  AP/Rex/Shutterstock Published: October 26, 2023 Last Updated: November 12, 2025

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San Francisco's "Human Be-In" launches the Summer of Love | January 14, 1967 | HISTORY