Hippie Hill Golden Gate Park

The Story

This hill on the east side of Golden Gate Park, between the Conservatory of Flowers and Haight Street, became a physical symbol of the American counterculture movement. On January 14, 1967, the adjacent Polo Fields hosted the Human Be-In that brought together 20 to 30 thousand people and launched the Summer of Love. It was here that Timothy Leary uttered "Turn on, tune in, drop out" for the first time in public. Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and George Harrison played free concerts on this lawn. The event directly inspired the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival and, later, Woodstock. Hippie Hill still hosts spontaneous drum circles on weekends. The lawn has been officially named Robin Williams Meadow since 2018.

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