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Thanks to Josh Bempechat for providing valuable info on several items below. I am NOT a poster expert, and any additions and corrections are always welcome.

Above is the classic Acid Test poster design, created by Norman Hartweg.

This particular copy was recently offered as advertising the early Big Nig/Stones Night Acid Test in San José, although it bears no such details. The poster itself is believed to be authentic, but since it isn't colored in and the location box (lower right) is blank, it appears to be a leftover poster that was never used. These are not as valuable as posters that were used for promoting an actual Acid Test, and the connection to Big Nig/San José is here a later invention -- even though the poster may have been created for that event. Similarly, an unmarked poster with the same design has been offered as being from the Palo Alto Test, but again this is unlikely and unverified.

I've received the following details from Josh Bempechat: "The only ones known that have anything written in the box and are known, absolutely, to be originals, all have 'Fillmore' written in the box [i e: for the Fillmore 1966-Jan-8 Test]. There are a couple known that are blue, about three or four maybe that are white, an olive one, and that's all I know of. Those were actually used, put up to announce the event, and then taken down. They also were colored in, by hand, to a lesser or greater degree. There are also between 15 and 30 that are 'goldenrod'. These were never used and were all leftovers. Much more common to find if your a collector, and worth much less. The one in the Art Of Rock book is a goldenrod."

Furthermore, there are 11" x 17" size reprints of the poster above, apparently made by Kesey around 1987. These reprints have repeatedly been sold as "original handbills", supposedly from 1965-66 Tests, which they're not. Blue, yellow/golden, and orange variants of these reprints are known to exist. The orange one actually has a small "1987" copyright, the others don't. Dishonest sellers have gone through substantial trouble to make these seem "real", since the value for a real one is thousands of dollars.

The most recent info I have suggests that a real handbill from the Hartweg design was created for the Muir Beach Test, but only one copy has been found so far (coming out of Bill Kreutzmann's collection). This original handbill was made by shrinking-xeroxing a copy of the poster, into which the "Muir Beach" location had been handwritten. The event was hastily re-scheduled (from Stinson Beach; detailed in Tom Wolfe's book), which means that new handbills had to be created quickly. So this smaller (11" x 8½") handbill is xeroxed and has a printed "Muir Beach" location, and is believed to be authentic.

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Detail from Acid Test poster showing various Prankster autographs, probably written long after the actual Test.

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Handbill with Wes Wilson design, probably done for the Stinson Beach/Muir Beach test 1965-Dec-11. It was also used for the Unicorn Theatre although it's not confirmed that a show ever occured there. There are a couple that exist with "Unicorn Theatre" printed in the box. The one shown in the Art Of Rock book says "wes wilson" signed in the box. No copies have yet been found with "Stinson Beach".

Handbill (front) for the Trips Festival.

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Handbill (back) with program for the Trips Festival.

Detailed program for Trips Festival, Acid Test part.

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This poster with Allen Ginsberg, supposedly promoting day 2 (the Acid Test) of the Trips Festival, is fake and recently manufactured.

TripsFestivalVancouver1966.jpg (69874 bytes)

Poster for a "Trips Festival" held in Vancouver, Canada, Summer 1966. While claims that Kesey and the Pranksters appeared there have been made, this is impossible as most of them were hiding in Mexico at the time. Some remaining S F Pranksters and a psychedelic bus (but not "Further") were part of the entourage, which included Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service among others.