Tonight's Wednesday night movie at the Page Branch library is The Trips Festival, a documentary by local filmmaker Eric Christensen that documents the historic 1966 event. The screening will be presented by Christensen himself and followed by a Q&A session.
The Trips Festival, for the unfamiliar, was one of the major events that launched (or gelled) what we now know as the Sixties.
Before there were raves, before the Acid Test, before Woodstock, before Burning Man, the Trips Festival was a three-day bliss out held on January 21-23, 1966 at the Longshoremen's Hall in San Francisco.
Tickets were $2 a day or $5 for a full three-day pass. Those of you sitting on tickets to Burning Man this year, take note: accounting for inflation, that equates to $14.67 a day, and according to one Hoodline commenter, even $2 was considered by some to be too commercial for that kind of event.
In additional to musical performers like the Grateful Dead, the festival boasted Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and was organized by the likes of Stewart Brand (founder of the seminal Whole Earth Catalog) and Bill Graham.
And everyone was on acid.
The following is a clip of footage from the event (warning: not for those suffering from vertigo or seizures). Note the loopy visuals, proto-raver toys and experimental sound effects. Groovy, eh?
Christensen told us that the footage for the film, which was produced in 2007, came primarily from three sources: still photos from both Jim Marshall and Gene Anthony, and movie clips from Ben Van Meter, a light show artist and documentary filmmaker who also attended the festival.
Christensen was also able to record interviews over the years with people like Bill Graham and a few others who are no longer alive, and incorporate them when it came time to make the film.
The release of the documentary is exciting, said Christensen, because enough time has passed since the event for people to have a better perspective on it, as well as to be more willing to appreciate its role as a formative moment in both San Francisco and cultural history.
The film screens at 7pm tonight at the Page Branch library (1855 Haight Street). And next week, stay tuned for Freebie and Bean, the 1974 action-comedy film about two San Francisco police detectives.
