Peace and love and protests: the evolution of Ibiza’s hippies
Writer Dan Kirwan explores the lasting impact of the hippy movement on modern life in Ibiza.
Love, Peace and Freedom was the hippy mantra, fueled by social and political upheaval in Europe and America during the Vietnam War. Iconic images from the Washington Monument and San Francisco Summer of Love rallies in 1967 flashed across worldwide television screens, influencing a new generation of youth who began questioning conservative society and experimenting with alternative lifestyles.
Ibiza resident Ana Fields was a bright, well-educated student whose political career had been carefully mapped out by her wealthy American family. She vividly remembers those halcyon days: ‘I ran away to the Summer of Love with the cream of the world youth, where nobody had any plans except for the present’. Ana was typical of the hundreds of thousands who joined her calling for peace, gender equality and free love. ‘When we buried the hippy in October 1967, [a mock funeral staged by hippies on October 6, 1967, meant to signal the end of the Summer of Love and to convince the media to stop covering San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury district] it was a symbolic protest against the rotten borough of American politics. The Flower Power generation that I was part of then left America in search of beauty. We followed the Hippy Trail to Tangier, Nepal and Goa, with Ibiza at the crossroads of that pilgrimage’. When Ana and her fellow spiritual travellers arrived in Ibiza in 1969, the island was suspended in time. ‘It was like the seventeenth century. It was a magical, sweet island with delicious yoghurts and where the Ibicencos welcomed us with warm hospitality’.
So, what has happened to the Flower Power children who came to Ibiza in the ‘60s? Ana is a testament to the fact that some still live happily on the island. ‘Ibiza was different from India because it was a clean and safe island for raising children. Hippy children died in India as it was a third-world country, so Ibiza offered better prospects, and the more discerning hippy stayed here, especially after the establishment of the Morna Valley school where my kids were educated’. When Ana’s children returned to America, they received scholarships to university; such was the high standard and quality of their learning at the Blakstad school. ‘The hippy movement of the ‘70s in Ibiza was the happiest time of my life. I was barefoot and pregnant for most of it, but it was a special time full of wonderful memories. I am so grateful to the Ibicencos for their understanding and permitting us to live here in harmony’.
While Ana may possess an optimistic viewpoint on the health of the Hippy movement in Ibiza, others do not share that sentiment. For them, the hippy dream is long dead and buried deep in the red soil of its stony earth. Claudia, an Italian who arrived in Ibiza in the early ‘80s, feels the original hippy movement died out in the early ‘90s. ‘There was a real feeling of freedom back then as the island was tranquil, especially in the winter when we had time to visit each other's houses and party for two or three days. We shared a simple, communal life surrounded by nature, beauty and love. We would bring firewood, smoke marijuana and take LSD,’. I asked Claudia when it started to change. ‘Cocaine arrived in the mid-80s and with it the money. Foreigners started buying the fincas, which we had rented for less than 10,000 pesetas (€50) a month, so the hippies had nowhere to live. The more transient crowd without families left Ibiza for Alpujarras in Granada.’
While many will say the hippy spirit in Ibiza is dead, others would disagree. Indeed, it is less evident than before due to all the wall-to-wall coverage of the entertainment industry and the corporate commercialisation of the island, which is kryptonite to the hippy spirit. It has evolved within a group of people who believe in something different. A way of life that is non-conformist and rooted in universal beliefs. They now understand that to exist and live in the modern world, business and earning an income to survive are vital requirements. Like life, it is all about balance; what you gain on one hand, you lose on another. I admire those people for standing up for their beliefs and showing us that there are alternatives to mainstream science and thinking. They fight to survive, walking a lonely path, believing that travelling alone in the right direction is much better than following the herd in the wrong direction.
