The Panhandle is an eight-block-long strip of green that extends east from the main body of Golden Gate Park, the “handle” to the park’s “pan.” From 1966 to 1968, the Panhandle was the daily site of free concerts and free meals. The Diggers brought their pot of stew. The bands brought guitars and amplifiers.
The flatbed truck that Jimi Hendrix played on June 25, 1967 was parked on Fell Street at Ashbury, three blocks from where you’re standing if you walk east along the south edge. Joplin, the Dead, Quicksilver, the Airplane, and Country Joe all played free shows in this strip during the same window.
The Panhandle is where most of the daily life of the Summer of Love actually happened. The big events (the Be-In, the Death of Hippie) get the press, but the routine of free food and live music in the Panhandle every afternoon is what built the social fabric.