But what has happened to the Hippies, New Age Travellers and Eco Warriors of yesteryear who seemed to be associated with protest movements? The Hippie was a member of a counterculture, starting with the young in the USA and in the United Kingdom during the mid-60s and soon moving to other countries around the world. The word hippie came from hipster and was originally used to describe beatniks who had moved into New York’s Greenwich Village and San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury’s district. Visiting the area around 2000 we were painfully aware that we were a few decades too late and the Summer of Love had been and gone! Advertisement Advertisement Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Star, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more.
In 1970 there were many hippies enjoying the gigantic Isle of Wight festival with a crowd of over 400,000 people. That was about as far as British hippies ever got! Hippies were also synonymous with the images of camper vans decorated with bright psychedelic symbols although by the 1970s they were being driven by surfing dudes as seen on Beach Boys videos. The vans were also called Kombis, Love Machines and hippie vans due to the laidback and go-slow attitude which connected with the zeitgeist of the times.
. Hippie fashion had a major effect on popular culture, music, television, film, and literature with the religious and cultural dive.
