Love Pageant Rally
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The Love Pageant Rally took place in the 'panhandle' of Golden Gate Park, a narrower section that projects into San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. The 'Haight' was a seedy neighborhood of run-down turn-of-the-20th-century housing that was the center of San Francisco's counterculture in the 1960s.
The major instigator of the 'Love Pageant Rally' was Allen Cohen, one of the creators of the San Francisco Oracle, which first hit the streets in September 1966. The occasion was the banning of LSD, by the California legislature in Sacramento, as of October 6, 1966, an enactment which virtually created a neighborhood of outlaws in the Haight, where 'acid' was a staple of community culture. Since the new law was to go into effect October 6, 1966, Cohen and others related the event to the number of the Beast of Revelation. On a more serious level, busts for drugs were ramping up locally and on the national level, and confrontations between the hippy communes and the local police were getting more intense and led to street protests and rioting, followed by neighborhood curfews. A better form of protest, more suited to hippy culture was needed.
"Without confrontation," said Allen Cohen, "we wanted to create a celebration of innocence. We were not guilty of using illegal substances. We were celebrating transcendental consciousness. The beauty of the universe. The beauty of being."
Thousands showed up for the event, read a "declaration of independence" after which many placed a tab of acid on their tongues and swallowed in unison. Music was provided by the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin, with a flatbed truck for a stage. Ken Kesey was on hand with the Merry Pranksters in the legendary bus.
The 'Love Pageant Rally' drew several thousand people. It was a warm-up for the Human Be-In the following January, which brought the hippy culture to national attention.
External links and references
- Allen Cohen's website, with history from an insider. (http://net.info.nl/cohen/)
- Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s 'Rockument' commentary and sound bites. (http://www.rockument.com/haimg.html)
- Charles Perry The Haight-Ashbury: A history.