09/03/2026
Here are some vintage concert flyers /postcards from the psychedelic era.
The Family Dog was a pioneering San Francisco hippie commune, collective, and concert-promotion company that helped give rise to the psychedelic rock counterculture of the 1960s. Led by Chet Helms, the Family Dog played a central role in the development of the San Francisco Sound and the cultural explosion that culminated in the 1967 Summer of Love.
Although the Family Dog briefly shared the Fillmore Auditorium, its true spiritual home became the Avalon Ballroom, located at Sutter and Van Ness, beginning in 1966.
Mother Earth • Kaleidoscope • A.B. Skhy — 1968
Designed by graphic artists San Andreas Fault and Jerry Wainwright
Halloween at the Fillmore
Featuring British blues-rock legend John Mayall, blues-rock staples Canned Heat, and the Texas psychedelic-rock outfit Sir Douglas Quintet.
The poster was designed by San Francisco artist Randy Tuten. His intricate, mechanical illustration creates a surreal cityscape behind a giant clock face frozen just before midnight. The design also includes distinctly San Francisco references, including a Steiner & Post street sign—the intersection where the Winterland Ballroom once stood.
Quicksilver Messenger Service • Black Pearl • Ace of Cups
Artist: Wes Wilson
Wes Wilson was a pioneer of the 1960s psychedelic poster movement and is widely credited with creating the iconic “psychedelic font,” in which letters distort and flow into one another to fill the negative space.
Photographer: Dean Cail
Cail captured the high-contrast, grainy central photograph featured on the front of the poster.
Big Brother & the Holding Company — featuring Janis Joplin
Mt. Rushmore
Artist: Joe Gomez
A small slice of San Francisco’s psychedelic history.
