Peace, love and music! These psychedelic, serene, flower-power youth known as hippies have made a comeback in Gen-Z culture.

This group was truly the heart of the 1960s, most notably during the Vietnam War. Hippies held the reins of culture at the time, steering away from the “proper, pleasant, puritan” societal expectations, creating a movement full of flowy flower children. Hippies embrace non-conformity, nature, and non-violence.

While all of this sounds totally groovy, not many consider the negatives that came with this demographic- hippie culture is typically characterized by white, middle-upper class individuals committing to the lifestyle of a janky hippie simply because it’s a trend. Meanwhile, those who actually come from this background are bombarded with people who once ridiculed them for being less fortunate. “It’s a flaw in the system,” a hippie might say.

Nowadays with the power of social media platforms, hippie values, interests, practices, and dress are blooming once again in youth culture. A great chunk of this includes the number of people who are starting to live a nomadic lifestyle- repurposing cars or even school buses to live in and travel the country with free spirits.

Faith Graham, a junior at GLHS says that “hippies have kind of changed over the years because I know some people define themselves as hippies for just like their style and stuff, but I feel like hippies are more than that.”

Many of these free spirits were present at 2022’s annual hippie fest- two days to embrace all things groovy. Michigan’s hippie fest was held in Trufant, and was composed of describe describe describe.

When Graham was asked how she would describe hippie fest, she remarked “Everybody was very kind. I don’t know how to describe it… I enjoyed it… just loving the planet and like accepting people for who they are.”