{"id":20931,"date":"2026-09-06T11:25:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T11:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/?p=20931"},"modified":"2026-09-06T11:25:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T11:25:11","slug":"in-1964-ken-kesey-drove-the-psychedelic-furthur-bus-across-america-and-helped-ignite-the-counterculture-60-years-later-the-dilapidated-icon-is-back-in-san-francisco-for-a-restoration-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/?p=20931","title":{"rendered":"In 1964, Ken Kesey drove the psychedelic Furthur bus across America and helped ignite the counterculture; 60 years later, the dilapidated icon is back in San Francisco for a restoration campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-133833519,imgsize-1062440,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/kesey-bought-the-school-bus-using-money-he-earned-from-his-novel-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest.jpg\" alt=\"In 1964, Ken Kesey drove the psychedelic Furthur bus across America and helped ignite the counterculture; 60 years later, the dilapidated icon is back in San Francisco for a restoration campaign\" title=\"Kesey bought the school bus using money he earned from his novel \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest\u201d.\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Ta7d_ img_cptn\"><span title=\"Kesey bought the school bus using money he earned from his novel \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest\u201d.\">Kesey bought the school bus using money he earned from his novel \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest\u201d.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Ken Kesey\u2019s psychedelic bus \u201cFurthur\u201d, once used for a cross-country journey that became part of America\u2019s 1960s counterculture, has returned to San Francisco after decades away.<!-- --> The bus is now the centrepiece of a new exhibition celebrating the legacy of the Grateful Dead and the city\u2019s connection with the hippie movement.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"3\"\/>The exhibition, \u201cForever Grateful\/Golden Gate Park\u201d, opened Saturday at the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park. According to news agency Associated Press, along with Kesey\u2019s bus, it features the BMW owned by Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia. The car remains in mint condition and has never been displayed publicly.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"7\"\/>The exhibition brings together historic memorabilia, interactive installations, performances, photographs and artwork connected to the Grateful Dead and the counterculture that developed in San Francisco during the 1960s. It also gives visitors a chance to experience some of the art and activities associated with that period.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"9\"\/>For the Haight Street Art Center, which organised the exhibition, the return of the bus is about more than displaying an old vehicle. Kelly Harris, the centre\u2019s executive director, said the exhibition is meant to encourage people to connect through art, music and activism.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"13\"\/>\u201cThis invites people to communicate and connect around art, music, and activism,\u201d Harris said. \u201cIn this day and age, when we need something to bridge community, we know that this space allows for that to happen and Furthur is the portal.\u201d<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"15\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>How Furthur became part of counterculture<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"17\"\/>Kesey bought the school bus using money he earned from his novel \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest\u201d. <!-- -->In 1964, he and his friends, known as the Merry Band of Pranksters, drove the bus across the United States.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"21\"\/>The journey was fuelled by marijuana and LSD and was intended to explore human consciousness through art, music and mind-altering drugs. The bus was painted in bright, swirling colours and became a defining part of the group\u2019s activities.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"23\"\/>The trip later became widely known through Tom Wolfe\u2019s 1968 book \u201cThe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test\u201d, which documented Kesey and the Pranksters\u2019 experiences.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"26\"\/>Kesey had earlier been a student involved in government tests of mind-altering drugs. After returning to California, he began sharing his experiences at parties held at his home in the hills above Stanford University.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"28\"\/>Those gatherings became known as the \u201cacid tests\u201d. They combined music, art and psychedelic experiences and soon became closely linked to the emerging San Francisco counterculture.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"30\"\/>A local bar band called The Warlocks performed at the parties. <!-- -->The group later became the Grateful Dead, which was formed in 1965 and went on to become closely associated with San Francisco\u2019s hippie movement.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"34\"\/>The band\u2019s members lived in a cheap Victorian house in the city\u2019s Haight neighbourhood. They later became an important part of the 1967 Summer of Love.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"36\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"38\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Recreating the 1960s experience<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"41\"\/>The new exhibition is designed to give visitors more than a traditional display of historical objects. It will use performances and interactive installations to recreate parts of the counterculture experience.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"44\"\/>Visitors will be invited to share their first encounter with the counterculture. They can talk about becoming a Deadhead, the name given to Grateful Dead fans, during Garcia\u2019s lifetime, discovering the band after his death or experiencing the group for the first time through the exhibition.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"46\"\/>Actors from Third Rail Projects, a New York-based experiential performance company, will guide visitors through part of the exhibition. <!-- -->One section includes a dark tunnel filled with mirrors that leads to booths where visitors can begin conversations.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"50\"\/>Visitors will also experience a liquid light show, an art form associated with the 1960s. It uses liquids of different densities in watch glasses and projects changing, colourful patterns around a room.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"52\"\/>Edward Rice, associate managing director at Third Rail Projects, said visitors may experience the exhibition with people they already know or with strangers.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"55\"\/>\u201cYou might go with the people that you came with, or you might get packaged with a couple other folks that you didn\u2019t know, and you\u2019ll then unpack the experience with each other and have a conversation with a stranger that you wouldn\u2019t have had otherwise,\u201d Rice said.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"57\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Furthur to be restored<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"59\"\/>The exhibition also marks the beginning of an effort to restore the now-dilapidated Furthur bus. The bus was kept at the Kesey family farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, after its years on the road. <!-- -->It was last seen in public at Woodstock in 1969.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"63\"\/>The bus got its name after a typo appeared on its destination sign. Now, more than six decades after its famous journey, it is being brought back into the public eye as part of the exhibition.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"65\"\/>The \u201cForever Grateful\u201d exhibition will run through October 25. It will also feature photographs from the Grateful Dead\u2019s concerts in Golden Gate Park and a screen-printing station where visitors can create their own artwork.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"69\"\/>Renee de Cossio, director of exhibitions at the Haight Street Art Center, said the exhibition looks at the Grateful Dead\u2019s influence and the communities built around its music.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"71\"\/>\u201cThis entire exhibit, it\u2019s a very layered story of the Grateful Dead and their influence, their phenomenon, and their impact on communities, on society, on people, and how their legacy still lives on,\u201d she said.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"73\"\/>For Harris, the Furthur bus remains central to that story. \u201cThe focal point is the Furthur bus. And Furthur is a call to action. Never stop creating, never stop exploring, keep going further,\u201d Harris said.<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/world\/us\/in-1964-ken-kesey-drove-the-psychedelic-furthur-bus-across-america-and-helped-ignite-the-counterculture-60-years-later-the-dilapidated-icon-is-back-in-san-francisco-for-a-restoration-campaign\/articleshow\/133833038.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kesey bought the school bus using money he earned from his novel \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest\u201d. Ken Kesey\u2019s psychedelic bus \u201cFurthur\u201d, once used for a cross-country journey that became part of America\u2019s 1960s counterculture, has returned to San Francisco after decades away. The bus is now the centrepiece of a new exhibition celebrating [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-31"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/kesey-bought-the-school-bus-using-money-he-earned-from-his-novel-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/kesey-bought-the-school-bus-using-money-he-earned-from-his-novel-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/kesey-bought-the-school-bus-using-money-he-earned-from-his-novel-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest.jpg","large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/kesey-bought-the-school-bus-using-money-he-earned-from-his-novel-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/kesey-bought-the-school-bus-using-money-he-earned-from-his-novel-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/kesey-bought-the-school-bus-using-money-he-earned-from-his-novel-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest.jpg","blogsy-small":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/kesey-bought-the-school-bus-using-money-he-earned-from-his-novel-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest.jpg","blogsy-small-tall":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/kesey-bought-the-school-bus-using-money-he-earned-from-his-novel-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest.jpg","blogsy-small-square":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/kesey-bought-the-school-bus-using-money-he-earned-from-his-novel-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest.jpg","blogsy-small-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/kesey-bought-the-school-bus-using-money-he-earned-from-his-novel-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest.jpg","blogsy-medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/kesey-bought-the-school-bus-using-money-he-earned-from-his-novel-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest.jpg","blogsy-medium-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/kesey-bought-the-school-bus-using-money-he-earned-from-his-novel-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest.jpg","blogsy-large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/kesey-bought-the-school-bus-using-money-he-earned-from-his-novel-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest.jpg","blogsy-wide":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/kesey-bought-the-school-bus-using-money-he-earned-from-his-novel-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"admin","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8709732a479614e7a8aa24d3eb1b239f30dc6d90c61464ed495001e7a469d856?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"Kesey bought the school bus using money he earned from his novel \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest\u201d. Ken Kesey\u2019s psychedelic bus \u201cFurthur\u201d, once used for a cross-country journey that became part of America\u2019s 1960s counterculture, has returned to San Francisco after decades away. 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