A review of our party that appeared in the Boulder Weekly:

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test at 40 ˜ The bus came by and I got on. That's when it all began...

When I heard there was going to be a 40th Anniversary Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test scheduled for liftoff on Halloween night in Las Vegas, I didn't know what to expect, but I knew I had to get to Vegas. My fiancée and I packed up the car and headed for the desert with our costumes˜I, of course, as the devil, and my better half as an angel.

The event was thrown by Zane Kesey (Ken Kesey's son), the Merry Pranksters, and a few promoters with the ability to manifest the vision. The experience built slowly, with New Riders of the Purple Sage, a jamband from the '60s, serving as the launch pad. As I meandered through the costumed crowd I ran into my buddy Uncle Eddie from Dead Tour, and soon fell into a puddle. Next thing I know I'm munchin' on some fungilicious chocolates. By the time New Riders were winding down their set, I was winding up to the cosmos.

The Acid Test was a dynamic all-nighter, incorporating performance art; a video/laser/light show by Smoke and Mirrors, VJ Awiaz and Optical Deslusion; and music by various DJs and bands, the highlights being Mutaytor and Spun. The interplay of light, performance art and music was so visceral, fluid and erotic that it wrapped me in its folds and held me there enchanted, till the wee hours. The Merry Pranksters even got on stage at one point and did a really strange "Turn on Your Love Light" with George [Walker on the axe-a-phone].

After attending hundreds of raves, 100-plus Dead shows, and every other kind of psychedelic event you can imagine, I honestly have to say this was the best party I've ever experienced. The Test was part jamband, rave, Burning Man, Cirque du Soliel, costume party and a host of other ineffables all rolled into one very groovy and colorful onion of experience. They took the
essence of everything I understood the original Acid Tests to be, and boldly brought it into the future.

There are whispers that the Pranksters really enjoyed being back on the bus. Could this be a new beginning? Well, only one thing is for certain: after 40 years, an Acid Test just happened, authentic and self-defining. And I of course passed it with flying colors.

-Fredstrong