This is the first history of the hippie trail. It records the joys and pains of budget travel to Kathmandu, India, Afghanistan and other 'points east' in the 1960s and 1970s. It's written in a clear, simple style, yet provides detailed analysis of the motivations and the experiences of those hundreds of thousands of who travelled eastwards.

The work is structured around four key debates: were the travellers simply motivated by a search for drugs? Did they encounter love or sexual freedom on the road? Were they basically just tourists? Did they resemble pilgrims? Finally a fifth chapter...

Published to tie in with the 50th anniversary of these festivals, Brian Ireland revisits the events, taking stock of their historical importance, and to note their influence not just on popular culture and society, but as part of a new musical culture that developed in the late 1960s and which saw young, similarly-minded people engage about multiple rights issues such as military draft, free speech, civil rights, gender equality, drug use, spirituality, capitalism - even revolution. It explores the festivals' organisation, promotion, and unfolding, as well as their immediate and enduring...