The Polo Field sits in the western half of Golden Gate Park, between Stow Lake and the bison paddock on the cross-park walk.
On January 14, 1967, an event called “A Gathering of the Tribes for the Human Be-In” took place here. The organizer, artist Michael Bowen, had advertised it in the San Francisco Oracle. The stated goal was to bring together the political activists of Berkeley and the psychedelic hippies of San Francisco, two groups that had been more or less suspicious of each other. The estimated attendance was twenty to thirty thousand people.
Timothy Leary spoke. It was the public debut of his slogan “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” Allen Ginsberg chanted. Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Quicksilver Messenger Service played. Owsley Stanley distributed free LSD. The Hells Angels guarded the stage. The event was peaceful, photogenic, and broadly covered in the national press, including a Time magazine feature.
The Human Be-In is the single moment that turned the Haight from a local scene into a national phenomenon. It triggered the migration of an estimated 100,000 young people to San Francisco for the Summer of Love six months later. The field and its bleachers are still here. On most days it’s empty. Bay to Breakers ends nearby.
