Grateful Dead exhibit in San Francisco to feature trailblazing psychedelic "Furthur" bus

On Saturday, a special exhibition honoring the legacy of the Grateful Dead opens in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

Centerstage will be a legendary psychedelic bus that has not been seen in public for nearly 60 years. Our crew was there to document its arrival just before midnight at the park's County Fair Building but no one seemed to be there. A man walked up and told us to find our way across the street to the historic neighborhood bar known as Little Shamrock for further instructions. 

There, we ran into the crew of the Haight Street Art Center and the legendary Love on Haight boutique, and some technicians and Dead Heads. All of a sudden, there was a whoop and a cry, and people jumped up and pointed at the window of the bar. A blur of colors flashed by. It was the bus. 

We flew out the doors and onto Lincoln Boulevard sprinted across the street.

"The first thing that I wanted to do was run, run towards this moment because we didn't want to miss it enter the building," said Kelly Harris, the executive director of the Haight Street Art Center, which is sponsoring the Forever Grateful exhibits both at its art center and at Golden Gate Park.

Under the moonlight, we saw an old school bus. It looks like a heap of junk, but don't be fooled. This is a cultural treasure.

"You just got goosebumps and chills seeing this bus that, you know, holds so many stories," said Sunshine Powers, the proprietor of Love on Haight

The bus, a 1939 International Harvester school bus, is the legendary "Furthur."

"This bus is a time portal," said Harris.

For enthusiasts, Furthur serves as a gateway to San Francisco's psychedelic past, the counterculture revolution, the emergence of the Grateful Dead, and a shared vision about life. 

"There's a phrase about being on the bus or off the bus. I think the Dead were on the bus without a doubt," said Ben Marks, archivist at the Haight Street Art Center.

In 1964, Ken Kesey, the celebrated author of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," bought an old school bus. Along with some of his free-spirited friends known as "The Merry Pranksters," they painted the yellow school bus Day-Glo colors, added a "Furthur" typo which stuck as its name, and set off from La Honda to embark on a cross-country journey. 

Their destination: the World's Fair in New York. Kesey bought film and audio equipment with the money he made off "Cuckoo's Nest". The idea was to film the trip as an artistic experiment with the explicit mission to expand human consciousness.

That involved mind-altering drugs, primarily psychedelics which included LSD and IT-290. Marijuana and stimulants were also on board.

In 1964, the bus route took the Pranksters from the Bay Area to Los Angeles, Arizona, New Orleans, New York, Timothy Leary's commune in Millbrook, as well as Calgary, Canada. 

The main driver on the eastern route was the writer Neal Cassady, who was a major figure in the Beat Generation.

When the Pranksters returned home, their extensive film footage served as a backdrop to Kesey's private house parties. Those parties turned into public events known as Acid Tests where participants ingested LSD.

The house band was the Grateful Dead. 

The bus was last seen in public in 1969 at Woodstock. Now, nearly 60 years later, it arrived safely from the late Ken Kesey's farm in Oregon. Ken's son Zane and his wife Stephanie agreed to allow Furthur to take one more trip to San Francisco. 

Furthur will remain in the Bay Area for about a year as plans to renovate the bus are beginning to take shape. A foundation known as Furthur Down the Road has been set up to raise the funds. A special evening with some of the Merry Pranksters will also raise money to support the Haight Street Art Center and its work in preserving the art and history of San Francisco's counterculture.

The Forever Grateful exhibition with Furthur runs through October 25, and tickets are in high demand. Dead Heads and art lovers can also visit the Haight Street Art Center and see the largest known Grateful Dead exhibit of artwork, including a scaled replica of the band's iconic Wall of Sound, musical instruments, and memorabilia such as intricately decorated envelopes sent by Dead Heads to the band vying for concert tickets. The exhibit lasts through September 20.

The Haight Street Art Center hopes these exhibits will blow some minds, bring together communities, especially through art and music, and touch a whole new generation. 

"The bus represented a type of freedom that was unique for the time, and I would still argue is still unique today," said Marks.

"It's a piece of history that really speaks to how we move forward," noted Harris.

"The tribe of Furthur? It goes further than we could ever imagine," added Powers with a smile.