Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
9 questions No timer
48 free Hippie trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
For a movement that was less than a fifth of one percent of Americans in 1968, the hippies left an outsized mark: the festivals, the fashion, the language, and a peace symbol borrowed from British nuclear protesters. This quiz traces the story from the beatniks of North Beach to the Haight, the Acid Tests, the Human Be-In and the Summer of Love, then out along the Hippie trail to Kathmandu and forward to Burning Man. It suits a 60s-themed party, a history class, or anyone who has ever wondered where the word hippie actually came from. The early questions are ones most people can guess; the later ones cover Chet Helms, Owsley Stanley, Der Wandervogel and the man some call the first hippie of all. Every answer was checked against the Wikipedia article on hippies, and each question links to the sentence that supports it.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01From which older slang word did the term "hippie" derive?
Hipster
Hippie derived from hipster, 1940s jive slang for someone hip and in the know; by 1965 San Francisco journalists were applying the diminutive to the city's young bohemians.
Q 02Which San Francisco district became the centre of hippie culture?
Haight-Ashbury
Haight-Ashbury, with its cheap Victorian flats near Golden Gate Park, housed around 15,000 hippies by June 1966.
Q 03Whose September 1965 San Francisco Examiner article was the first West Coast use of "hippie" in print?
Michael Fallon
Michael Fallon, writing in the San Francisco Examiner in September 1965, used 'hippie' for the young bohemians around the Blue Unicorn coffeehouse.
Q 04Which earlier movement did the hippies inherit their tradition of cultural dissent from?
The Beat Generation
The Beat Generation of Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs supplied the hippies' tradition of dissent; Ginsberg himself crossed over to become a fixture of hippie and anti-war gatherings.
Q 05Which gathering in Golden Gate Park on January 14, 1967, drew 20,000 to 30,000 hippies?
The Human Be-In
The Human Be-In on January 14, 1967 filled the Polo Fields in Golden Gate Park with 20,000 to 30,000 people, with Allen Ginsberg chanting mantras and Jefferson Airplane among the bands.
Q 06What name was given to the 1967 season when 100,000 young people descended on San Francisco?
The Summer of Love
The Summer of Love brought as many as 100,000 young people to San Francisco in 1967; local groups formed the Council for the Summer of Love to feed and house them.
Q 07Whose hit song urged listeners heading to San Francisco to wear flowers in their hair?
Scott McKenzie
Scott McKenzie's 'San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)', written by John Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas, reached No. 4 in the US and No. 1 in the UK in 1967.
Q 08Which June 1967 festival introduced the rock festival format to a wide audience?
Monterey International Pop
Monterey International Pop, held June 16-18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds, showcased Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and the Who to tens of thousands and set the template for rock festivals.
Q 09Which novelist led the Merry Pranksters on their bus trips?
Ken Kesey
Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, led the Merry Pranksters from his La Honda, California base and staged the Acid Tests of 1965-66.
Q 10What was the name of the Merry Pranksters' famous school bus?
Furthur
Furthur, a 1939 International Harvester school bus painted in Day-Glo colours, carried the Pranksters from California to New York in 1964 with Neal Cassady driving.
Q 11Which Tom Wolfe book chronicled Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters?
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
It remains one of the enduring literary artefacts of the era.
Q 12Which band, first billed as the Warlocks, played the Acid Tests as high as the audience?
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead, who had gigged as the Warlocks in 1965, served as the Acid Tests' house band and released their debut album in 1967.
Q 13Which Nevada mining-town venue hosted the 1965 'Red Dog Experience' with the Charlatans and Big Brother?
The Red Dog Saloon, Virginia City
Q 21Which political offshoot, led by Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, nominated a pig for president in 1968?
The Yippies
The Yippies (Youth International Party), founded by Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Paul Krassner, ran a pig named Pigasus for president outside the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago.
Q 22Which Berkeley plot, planted by hippies in 1969, was ordered destroyed by Governor Reagan?
People's Park
People's Park, built by activists on a vacant university-owned lot in April 1969, was fenced off on Reagan's orders; after 'Bloody Thursday' the National Guard occupied Berkeley for two weeks.
Q 23Which commune, led by Wavy Gravy, provided security at Woodstock?
The Hog Farm
The Red Dog Saloon in Virginia City, Nevada, hosted the summer-1965 'Red Dog Experience', where the Charlatans played in Old West dress and Bill Ham staged his first primitive light shows.
Q 14Which chemist supplied much of the LSD behind the early San Francisco scene?
Owsley Stanley
He lived in Berkeley in 1965 and helped organise the Trips Festival.
Q 15On what date did California make LSD illegal, prompting the Love Pageant Rally?
October 6, 1966
October 6, 1966 was the day California's LSD ban took effect; the Love Pageant Rally in the Panhandle that afternoon was staged to show users were neither criminals nor mentally ill.
Q 16Which street-theatre group ran free stores and declared the 'death of the hippie' in 1967?
The Diggers
They named themselves after the 17th-century English Diggers led by Gerrard Winstanley.
Q 17Which promoter turned the Family Dog into Family Dog Productions and ran the Avalon Ballroom?
Chet Helms
Chet Helms ran Family Dog Productions at the Avalon Ballroom from 1966, promoting its dances with psychedelic poster art, while Bill Graham ran the rival Fillmore.
Q 18Which 1966 Los Angeles clashes over a 10 p.m. loitering law inspired 'For What It's Worth'?
The Sunset Strip curfew riots
The Sunset Strip curfew riots of November 1966, centred on the Pandora's Box club, prompted Stephen Stills to write Buffalo Springfield's 'For What It's Worth'; Peter Fonda was among those detained.
Q 19Which magazine's July 7, 1967 cover story was titled "The Hippies: The Philosophy of a Subculture"?
Time
Time magazine's July 7, 1967 cover story ran under the headline 'The Hippies: The Philosophy of a Subculture' and quoted a hippie code beginning 'Do your own thing'.
Q 20Which Beatle visited the Haight, found it 'a haven for dropouts' and gave up LSD?
George Harrison
George Harrison walked through the district in August 1967 expecting enlightened artists but found, in his words, 'a haven for dropouts'; he gave up LSD soon after.
The Hog Farm, the commune led by Hugh 'Wavy Gravy' Romney, ran Woodstock's 'Please Force' security and a free kitchen serving granola to the crowd.
Q 24Which December 1969 festival, 'Woodstock West', ended in a fatal stabbing by Hells Angels?
Altamont Free Concert
The Altamont Free Concert at a speedway east of San Francisco on December 6, 1969 ended with Hells Angel Alan Passaro stabbing 18-year-old Meredith Hunter during the Rolling Stones' set.
Q 25Roughly what share of the US population were 'core visible hippies' in 1968?
Just under 0.2%
The subculture dwindled by the mid-1970s even as its style went mainstream.
Q 26Which Beatles song is cited as expressing the gentle hippie ideology of peace and personal freedom?
All You Need Is Love
'All You Need Is Love', premiered on the Our World global TV broadcast on June 25, 1967 and a No. 1 hit that summer, is the song most often cited for the hippie creed of peace and personal freedom.
Q 27Which German youth movement of the 1890s-1900s is regarded as a 'proto-hippie' precursor?
Der Wandervogel
Der Wandervogel ('wandering bird'), founded in Berlin's Steglitz district in 1896, rejected industrial city life for folk song, hiking and loose dress; some members emigrated to California and opened early health-food stores.
Q 28Which 1948 Nat King Cole hit was inspired by a group of California back-to-the-land bohemians?
Nature Boy
'Nature Boy', a No. 1 hit for Nat King Cole in 1948, was written by eden ahbez, himself one of the long-haired Southern California 'Nature Boys' who lived on raw food.
Q 29Which psychologist founded the League for Spiritual Discovery, declaring LSD its sacrament?
Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary, the Harvard psychologist dismissed in 1963, founded the League for Spiritual Discovery in 1966, hoping a freedom-of-religion defence would keep LSD legal for members; it failed.
Q 30Which Beatles song was inspired by the 1964 manual The Psychedelic Experience?
Tomorrow Never Knows
'Tomorrow Never Knows', which closes Revolver (1966), opens with Lennon's line 'Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream', lifted from the book's adaptation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead.