Furthur is back.<\/p>\n
The psychedelic-painted<\/a> school bus that carried Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters across America in 1964 has returned to San Francisco nearly six decades after becoming part of the city\u2019s counterculture mythology.<\/p>\n The roof and windshield of Ken Kesey\u2019s psychedelic bus \u201cFurthur\u201d are displayed at the Forever Grateful exhibit presented by the Haight Street Art Center at the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, in San Francisco. AP Photo\/Jeff Chiu<\/p>\n The interior of Ken Kesey\u2019s psychedelic bus \u201cFurthur\u201d is shown while displayed at the Forever Grateful exhibit presented by the Haight Street Art Center at the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, in San Francisco. AP Photo\/Jeff Chiu<\/p>\n The bus is now the centerpiece of \u201cForever Grateful\/Golden Gate Park,\u201d a new exhibition celebrating the Grateful Dead and the psychedelic culture<\/a> that surrounded the band.<\/p>\n For San Francisco, Furthur is more than an old vehicle. <\/p>\n It is a physical piece of a time when music, art, experimentation and new ideas about consciousness were colliding across the city.<\/p>\n Artwork showing The Grateful Dead is displayed at a shop at the Forever Grateful exhibit presented by the Haight Street Art Center at the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, in San Francisco. AP Photo\/Jeff Chiu<\/p>\n The bus helped carry that spirit from place to place, turning a cross-country road trip into one of the defining stories of the psychedelic era<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kesey bought the school bus with money he earned from \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest\u201d and set out with the Merry Pranksters in 1964.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for the California Morning Report newsletter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCalifornia’s top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Their journey became famous through Tom Wolfe\u2019s \u201cThe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,\u201d which chronicled the group\u2019s mix of music, costumes, performance and psychedelic experimentation.<\/p>\n Cannabis and LSD were part of the culture surrounding the Pranksters and the Acid Tests, where Kesey and his friends pushed the idea that changing perception could open people to different ways of experiencing the world.<\/p>\n The Grateful Dead emerged from that same San Francisco scene.<\/p>\n Performers walk toward a psychedelic immersion room at the Forever Grateful exhibit presented by the Haight Street Art Center at the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, in San Francisco. AP Photo\/Jeff Chiu<\/p>\n The band, originally known as the Warlocks, became closely tied to Kesey\u2019s Acid Tests, where music and psychedelic visual effects transformed ordinary gatherings into immersive experiences.<\/p>\n Over time, the Dead\u2019s concerts became known for something beyond the music itself: a sense of community among the people who showed up.<\/p>\n That psychedelic curiosity has continued to evolve.<\/p>\n Ken Kesey\u2019s psychedelic bus \u201cFurthur\u201d is displayed at the Forever Grateful exhibit presented by the Haight Street Art Center at the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, in San Francisco. AP Photo\/Jeff Chiu<\/p>\n Ayahuasca, a DMT-containing brew with deep Indigenous ceremonial traditions<\/a> in the Amazon, is associated with intense visions and shifts in perception.<\/p>\n 5-MeO-DMT, sometimes called \u201ctoad\u201d or \u201cbufo,\u201d<\/a> is another powerful psychedelic associated with experiences that can dramatically alter a person\u2019s sense of self.<\/p>\n Neither belongs to the specific history of Furthur, but both are part of the broader modern conversation around altered consciousness and the desire to experience reality differently.<\/p>\n A map of San Francisco is displayed at the Forever Grateful exhibit presented by the Haight Street Art Center at the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, in San Francisco. AP Photo\/Jeff Chiu<\/p>\n The exhibition brings some of that sensory world back to life.<\/p>\n Visitors will move through mirrors and darkness before entering a liquid-light show, where colored patterns shift across the room.<\/p>\n An abstract psychedelic colorful background features a decorative alien-like flower in the center and flower ornamental petals surrounding it. Shutterstock \/ WhiteHaven<\/p>\n Photographs from Grateful Dead performances in Golden Gate Park will be displayed alongside psychedelic artwork, and visitors can create their own screen prints.<\/p>\n Jerry Garcia\u2019s BMW will also be shown publicly for the first time.<\/p>\n But Furthur is the main attraction, and its return marks the beginning of another chapter. <\/p>\n The bus has spent years deteriorating on the Kesey family farm in Oregon and will now help launch an effort to restore it.<\/p>\n Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters <\/p>\n California Post News: Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, TikTok<\/a>, X<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, WhatsApp<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> \t\t\t\t\t\t
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