The Acid Tests were a series of parties held by author
Ken Kesey primarily in the
San Francisco Bay Area during the mid-1960s, centered on the use of and advocacy for the
psychedelic drugLSD, commonly known as "acid". LSD was not made illegal in California until October 6, 1966.
History
The name "Acid Test" was coined by Kesey, after the term "
acid test" used by gold miners in the 1850s. He began throwing parties at his farm at
La Honda, California.[1]The Merry Pranksters were central to organizing the Acid Tests, including Pranksters such as
Lee Quarnstrom and
Neal Cassady. Other people, such as LSD chemists
Owsley Stanley and
Tim Scully, were involved as well.
27 November;
Soquel, California: The first Acid Test was a party at Ken Babbs' house on 27 November 1965, although Babbs recalls it as being on
Halloween night. A flyer[2] allegedly shows that the Warlocks (one week before the band became known as the
Grateful Dead) played at Soquel as the Warlocks on November 27. However, the authenticity of this flyer has been questioned, and several witnesses confirm that the Warlocks did not play a set at Soquel; they only casually played some of the Merry Prankster instruments.[3] An original fluorescent paint and newsprint-collage Acid Test sign donated to the
Smithsonian's
National Museum of American History by event co-organizer
Ken Kesey in 1992 lists '
The Grateful Dead' as a musical performer, as well as
The Fugs, alongside hand-drawn text on the sign reads: "Your essaying of it will be shared almost certainly (?) by some permutation or combination of the following [...]."[4] In his book,
Phil Lesh confirms that he did attend: "We were at the first Test not to play, but just to feel it out, and we hadn't brought any instruments or gear."[5] Most likely Lesh was joined by
Bob Weir and
Jerry Garcia at the party.[6]
4 December;
San Jose, California: This time, the newly-renamed Grateful Dead did play, the first performance of their long career.[3]
16 March; Houston, Texas (Brown College, Rice University) (despite the "graduation" concept of the final West Coast Acid Test, the actual final Acid Test of The Merry Pranksters was organized in Texas by Kesey's friend
Larry McMurtry)[25]
1968
24 October; Congress passes the Staggers–Dodd Bill, criminalizing the recreational use of LSD-25[26]
Ramon Sender co-produced the Trips Festival with
Ken Kesey and
Stewart Brand. It was a three-day event that,[27] in conjunction with The Merry Pranksters, brought together the nascent hippie movement.[28] The Trips Festival was held at the Longshoreman's Hall in
San Francisco in January 1966.[29] Counterculture sound engineer
Ken Babbs is mostly credited for the sound systems he created for the Trips Festival. Prior to Babbs' creation, it was discovered that particular music usually sounded distorted when cranked to high levels because of the cement floor on the San Francisco Longshoreman's Union Hall (where the Trips Festival was taking place). Babbs being a sound engineer resolved the problem. He made sound amplifiers that would not create distorted sounds when turned up to high sound levels.[citation needed]
^Wolfe, Tom (1968). "Ch. 20: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test". The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (paperback ed.). New York: Picador/Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p.
273.;
Severn Darden attended
^Slide, Anthony (12 March 2012).
The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville. Univ. Press of Mississippi.
ISBN978-1-4968-0108-1. For many years, the small Troupers Theatre was a familiar site on La Brea Avenue in Hollywood...