An estate in Upstate NY where the psychedelic 60s took off
timeline.com
timeline.com
Maybe Billy had enough money and servants that it just didn't matter though.
Try hitting up some music festivals for counterexamples.
Now, granted, lots of great music and good times, but the whole "lot of people doing drugs for long periods makes a mess" feels... very accurate.
Unfortunately, I'm going to have to disqualify any weird hippy forest raves though.
It's not, it's a consequence of the politization of the event. The conservative press is directly hostile because of the openly liberal stance the festival takes. The coverage in e.g. The Guardian [1] is substantially different.
I've been there this year, the event is incredible - it's very impressive to see how well everything works and how well people from very different backgrounds, with different tastes, different ages etc. just get along and have fun. The quality of the acts and organization is very very high.
While the garbage photos are true, there are more than 200K people there for 5 days, then they all leave at once! It has nothing to do with drugs, imagine a city emptying out all at once.
The writings of many of the personages mentioned in this article are also well worth reading: Richard Alpert (aka Ram Das), Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner. Also, not mentioned but on the same wavelength: Robert Anton Wilson, John Lilly, and Terrence McKenna.
[1] - https://www.amazon.com/Acid-Dreams-Complete-History-Sixties/...
> when the newly-appointed assistant district attorney G. Gordon Liddy — yes, that G. Gordon Liddy — led a nighttime raid on the Millbrook estate,
There's a video of them debating here: [2] starting at the 15 minute mark, with Leary giving his version of Liddy's raid on Millbrook.
[1] - http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=199...
Irony I think would be that Liddy ended up at the same correctional facility as Leary. [1]
It's worth noting that both were convicted felons which severely limits your work prospects in the US, so speaking engagements made good sense for both.
https://www.nypl.org/blog/2012/08/15/transmissions-timothy-l...
Kesey also had heavy police surveillance at his property and his method of dealing with it was pretty epic. They still got him in the end though.
It's so common in fact that I'd be willing to bet the author lives or lived in NYC and you have some relationship with "up state". :)