Acid Test

The Acid Tests were a series of parties thrown in and around the San Francisco area by a group of artists, misfits and musicians called the Merry Pranksters, who were "led" by author Ken Kesey. Money from Kesey's bestselling book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was used to pay for these parties and the free LSD given out at them. The Grateful Dead, famed 60's counterculture musical group, was born at these Acid Tests. Author Tom Wolfe chronicled the adventures of Kesey and his Merry Pranksters in his seminal work of poetic, Day-Glo neojournalism, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. The Acid Test parties and Wolfe's book were catalysts for the Love Generation migration to San Francisco for the Summer of Love.