A famous symbol of America 1960s counterculture has returned to San Francisco after nearly 60 years. The psychedelic Furthur bus, used by writer Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters during a cross country journey in 1964, is now the centre of a new exhibition celebrating the history of the Grateful Dead and San Francisco hippie culture.
Kesey bought the old school bus using money earned from his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest. In 1964, he and his friends travelled across America in the brightly painted bus. Their journey became an important part of the growing psychedelic and counterculture movement of that time. The trip was later described in Tom Wolfe famous book The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test.
The bus also became closely linked with the early history of the Grateful Dead. Kesey acid tests helped bring the band, then known as The Warlocks, into the growing psychedelic music scene. Now, the old bus is in a badly damaged condition. It was kept for years on the Kesey family farm in Oregon and was last publicly seen at Woodstock in 1969. A new restoration campaign has now been launched to bring the historic vehicle back to its former appearance. The exhibition will run until October 25 and will also showcase Grateful Dead photographs, artwork and other pieces from San Francisco’s counterculture history.
