Summer Of Love San Francisco 50th Anniversary Celebration & Events 2017

San Francisco Hosting A Concert, Jerry Garcia 75th Day & Other Activities

The Summer of Love was a movement that began in San Francisco in 1967, an expression of freedom and independence, and in many ways it never left the city.

In fact, all you have to do is go through the centerpiece of it all, Haight/Ashbury, where it seems time has stood still for the past 50 years.

And in 2017, the entire city is embracing this hippie time with a series of events marking the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. There will be a 50th anniversary concert in June, the Haight Ashbury Festival (June), a “Jerry Day” Concert on what would have been Garcia’s 75th year (Aug. 6), and “love-themed” San Francisco Giants games.

The 50th anniversary will be a celebration with major exhibitions at some of the region’s top museums, special events and concerts looking back at the Summer of 1967 and exploring what that period meant then and also today.  The celebration will also include a range of service and volunteerism events inspired by the original Summer of Love.

Summer Of Love 2017 Highlight Events

Organized by San Francisco Travel and the California Historical Society, the highlights include the following:

• “All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50” at the Oakland Museum of California, Oct. 8, 2016-Feb. 12, 2017

• “Death of Money: Diggers 50 Years Later” at the Eric Quezada Center for Culture & Politics, Oct. 26, 2016

• “Bruce Connor: It’s all True” at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Oct. 29, 2016-Jan. 22, 2017

• “Jim Marshall: Summer of Love” at the San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries at City Hall, Jan. 26-June,

• “Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia” at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), Feb. 8-May 21, 2017    

“Summer of Love” at the de Young Museum, April 15-Aug. 20, 2017

“Intersection of Revolutions: The Road to the Haight-Ashbury, 1967” at the California Historical Society, May 11-Sept. 8, 2017

• “Summer of Love” by Smuin Contemporary Ballet at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, May 2017

• A Summer of Love exhibition at the Mexican Museum, June 1-Aug. 20, 2017

• “Flower Power” at the Asian Art Museum, June 16-Oct. 1, 2017

• Summer of Love 50th Anniversary Concert, June 2017

• 15th Annual “Jerry Day” concert in celebration of what would have been Jerry Garcia’s 75th year, Aug. 6, 2017

• San Francisco Public Library’s Summer of Love Exhibition

• Sunday Streets events throughout 2017 in partnership with It’s Your District

• San Francisco Giants Summer of Love-themed home games and additional activities to be announced in Nov. 2016.

Additional events showcasing this special moment in time include “The Summer of Weird” at the annual How Weird Street Festival (May 7, 2017), the 40th Annual Haight Ashbury Street Festival (June, 2017), the Monterey Pop Festival 2017 (June 16-18, 2017) and “Let the FUN Shine In!” at the Marin County Fair (June 30-July 4, 2017).

Plans are currently underway for additional lectures, service and volunteerism events, personal appearances and other “happenings.”

A special website has been set up devoted to everything about the Summer of Love and it’s 50th anniversary: summeroflove2017.com.

 “In the summer of 1967, San Francisco was fertile ground for an emerging counterculture movement that blossomed into a season that changed the world, giving rise to art, technologies, revolutionary politics, the international hippie lifestyle, and fostering emerging rock musicians—all of which continue to resonate today,” notes Dr. Anthea Hartig, executive director/CEO of the CHS. “Fifty years later, we’re honored to work with San Francisco Travel and dozens of cultural and civic partners to celebrate and remember this seminal moment.”

“The Summer of Love made the concepts of peace, love, hope and sharing part of the landscape of San Francisco.  It’s no wonder that the city continues to attract millions of visitors from around the world who come to revel in the spirit of openness and innovation,” said Joe D’Alessandro, president and CEO of San Francisco Travel.  “In 2017, we invite the world to come and discover the magic that was born here 50 years ago.  We think they’ll find the city as welcoming now as it was in 1967.”