After Rejecting Promoter's Plans, City To Stage Its Own Concert

After Rejecting Promoter's Plans, City To Stage Its Own ConcertStage and crowd at the summer music festival (Summer of Love, 1967). | Photo: San Francisco Public Library
Alisa Scerrato
Published on June 09, 2017

After a promoter's plans for a free Summer of Love concert in Golden Gate Park were twice rejected by San Francisco Recreation and Parks, the city has unveiled its own plans for a free concert to mark the era's 50th anniversary.

According to a press release from former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, the concert, dubbed the "Grand Lighting and Surrealistic Summer Solstice Concert," will be held in Golden Gate Park on June 21 at the Conservatory of Flowers

The free concert will feature members of Jefferson Airplane, The Chambers Brothers, Moonalice, and others who will perform hits of the late 1960s. It will also include a previously-planned Summer of Love light installation that will illuminate the Conservatory of Flowers.

Rendering of lightshow at Conservatory of Flowers. | Photo: SF Rec and Parks

"The Summer of Love symbolizes the free spirit of San Francisco and a generation of civic rebellion," said Brown in a statement. "This is exactly why the City of San Francisco should take the lead in organizing this event to once again demonstrate the same fortitude our City has today, just as we did in the 1960s.”

However, as Hoodline has previously reported, promoter Boots Hughston had previously made two attempts to hold a concert marking the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. His first application for a June 4 concert was denied in light of what Rec and Park called numerous "misrepresentations of material fact."

His second application for an August 27 concert was also rejected because Rec and Park considered the application to be incomplete and "appear[ed] to contain further misrepresentations about the size of the crowds."

Last night, during a meeting with the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council, several neighbors expressed concern about the city's rejection of Hughston's permits, since he has successfully promoted several free events throughout the city for decades, including the 40th Summer or Love anniversary event.

Boots Hughston at the March for Science on Earth Day. | PHOTO: BOOTS HUGHSTON/FACEBOOK

Hughston told Hoodline that the city is trying to use his previously-planned event for a Summer of Love concert—combined with the conservatory’s previously planned Grand Lighting Surrealist event—as a “go-around.”

He also claimed that Phil Ginsberg, general manager for Rec and Park, was trying to steal his idea for a Summer of Love concert.

“They can have their make-pretend wannnabe event, who knows—they may even stumble into enlightenment along the way—but their event will never be ours,” he said. 

“It shows what snakes these people really are," he continued. "The musicians play our event for free to make a statement, the production crews work for free, including myself. We all come together to show there are more important things in life than money.”

Hughston said he's appealing Rec and Park’s decision to reject his application for Aug 27. A hearing on the matter will take place on June 15, at City Hall in Room 416 at 10am.

In the meantime, the city's free Summer of Love concert is already sold out.