San Francisco hosts new Grateful Dead and counterculture exhibit

A new exhibition titled ‘Forever Grateful/Golden Gate Park’ is opening at the County Fair Building in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Organized by the Haight Street Art Center, the display celebrates the legacy of the Grateful Dead and the 1960s counterculture movement.

The exhibit features two primary artifacts: Ken Kesey’s psychedelic school bus, ‘Furthur’, which has returned to San Francisco after 60 years, and Jerry Garcia’s mint-condition BMW, which has never been displayed to the public before.

Kesey originally purchased the bus in 1964 to embark on a cross-country journey with his Merry Band of Pranksters, an event later chronicled in Tom Wolfe’s ‘The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test’. The exhibition aims to use these cultural symbols to foster community connection through art, music, and activism.