Nothing says the late era of
the 1960s more than the hippie movement and all things psychedelic. This film
is a remarkable time capsule from 1967 when the world was caught up in what was
to be known as The Summer of Love. With the song, Are You Going to San
Francisco? (urging people to wear some flowers in their hair if they are) a
group of young people from the hippie movement made the opposite journey from
San Francisco to Belfast where they were interviewed by Leslie Dawes.
With alternate lifestyles, fashions and philosophies bursting onto the scene, Flower Power and the peace movement protested against the ongoing Vietnam War and other conflicts as young people advocated a less selfish, capitalist and militaristic world. While also sporting fashions which would have been described by themselves at the time as “Far out, man!” Just the year before most pop bands were still wearing smart matching suits so the revolution in fashion, combined with that of new musical genres and ways of thinking was revolutionary.
Dawes asked their spokesperson about their beliefs, and he responds with things which are hard to argue with, such as people standing up and just thinking of others than themselves while also saying that they need, “more brotherly love.”
Dawes does seem slightly unsure of it all and he also appears equally bewildered in a wonderful report from the same year on a “Psychedelic Experience” in Belfast in the links below.