Chicago, Illinois

It is said the ground is so fertile here in Illinois that when you drop a nickel it turns into a quarter before you pick it up. You’d imagine there’d be plenty of hippys and longhairs crawling all over Illinois, right? Nope, not really. You’ll find some transplants downstate at the universities but mostly you’ll find ’em up in Chicago. With plenty of health food stores, hemp shops and tons of yoga centers, there’s a nice underground network of hippie folk. The best hangout for hippies I’ve seen is a place called Healing Earth Resources up on the north side (Ashland & Belmont) that deals in your usual clothes & music as well as being a great central hub for a lot of hippie-minded communities.

0 thoughts on “Chicago, Illinois

  1. I live around Chicago. There are more hippie “looking” people out in the burbs. Yea crazy. Must be the yuppy thing. But every once in awhile you find some that rock! You might want to check out the burbs more often.
    Peace Love & Happines,
    V

  2. You got the part of the burbs right. I’ve lived outside chicago all my life and they are handfulls of kids and old heads around the area. Ranging from school teachers to parents. As an added bonus to the chill folk, the northwest burbs have grate herb.
    Nothing left to do but smile smile smile!

  3. I live in the burbs and am trying to find out more about the hippie culture, is there anyplace were i can go with out being judged and instead be fed information about the hippie culture.

  4. Chicago kicks ass along with the “burbs” . I am located out in the burbs and there is a handfull of hippies out here that love chillin…

  5. I see the hippies in chicago pop up when there is a show in town, but where do they hang out otherwise is what I would like to know.
    Peace and Light
    D

  6. While waiting on a friend to get out of a concert at Metro in Wrigleyville, I went to Uncommon Ground, a local coffeehouse. Very cool place. Highly recommended for a great random dessert or enormous cup of fantastic hot chocolate.

  7. yeah, i live in the northwest burbs, i have lived in skokie for over four years, and now i am moving to vernon hills (heard a lot of great things about that place). there certainly are not a lot of “hippie-looking” people out here, certainly not anyone older than 19 (i am 16 years of age, by the way), but there are plenty of true-to-themselves hippies, you just have to know how to start up a conversation right.

  8. I grew up in the northwest burbs of Chicago, then moved away after high school. I’ve lived quite happily in the hippiedom of Berkeley, CA for several years, but I plan to move back to the Chicago area to be closer to my family. I know the Chicago burbs have changed a lot in the 10 years since I left–more diverse and more politically liberal–but does anyone have any suggestions of a specific town within 2 hours drive of Chicago that might be a good haven to raise open-minded, non-materialistic, loving kids?

  9. I have no idea where Chicago hippies “hang out”, but you can find a lot of like-minded people at any of the million and one anti-war groups, vigils, and protests that are scheduled. Do a google for Chicago anti war consortium and you’ll find a bunch of websites and calendars.

    The Heartland Cafe in the far north Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago is heavy on the patchouli, and has a good selection of veggie fare, etc.

    Also–suburbs good for raising open-minded kids (first you need to get open-minded parents, ha ha) are Evanston or Oak Park. Evanston is on the north border of Chicago, Oak Park to the west. Both are the most diverse suburbs in the area, class and race-wise, and the city public transportation (the El line) runs out through both suburbs–easy to commute in for work if you need to. Evanston also is home to Northwestern University, if that’s important to you…

  10. I live in Lincoln Park. There are plenty of places in the city that are cool, liberal, diverse, and safe. There may be more kids with hemp necklaces in the burbs but I have to say that the people who tend to vote for Bush are in the burbs not on the northside. There are a lot of great neighborhoods in the city too. Nice hangouts also, Griffins on Halsted, Martyrs on Lincoln, etc

  11. Forgot to add…i saw a lot of people asking where to hang out other than shows. Griffins Pub, 2800 N. Halsted. Martyrs, 3800 N. Lincoln, Wise Fools Pub, 2300 N Lincoln, —- Blues bars—Kingston Mines 2600 N. Halsted, BLUES, 2500 N Halsted, etc…post if you have questions…i live right in the middle of this area.

  12. I live about twenty minutes from the city and If your looking for places to buy fatass glass then heres a solid list. Just walk around Belmont and Clark for a while and your bound to find them all: Pipesandstuff, Noveltiesandstuff, Secrets, and Adams Apple. Personally, I recommend the first two cause theyre less expensive. All of them are within a mile of Wrigley field. Go inside the shops and your bound to find some peace-lovin hippies

  13. barrington probably has the biggest hippie population in illinois. its a northwest burb of chicago. we have a number of jam bands and blue grass bands, a trillion hippie kids. everywhere you look theres a hippie. we have our own overnight festivals, its the chillest place around. barrington high school ranked 3rd in the nation for the most marijuana use. its fabulous here, you should allll check it out.

  14. Theres a pretty cool little hippie shop in the burbs called sunshine daydream. they have a website http://www.sunshinedaydream.biz and a store in mt. prospect which is by des plaines near the airport. they have all kinds of cool clothes and they have a much better selection of cd’s than best buy or fye. the only drawback is that they don’t sell pipes. they call themselves a hippie headshop but no pipes. even stranger is that they sell all kinds of rolling papers and blunts but no pipes. oh well, its still a cool store.

  15. I live in the northern burbs and the herb is absolutly fantastic but although nearly everyone smokes there’s aren’t that many cool down-to-earth people. You just have to keep looking.

  16. A Live One is a bar on Halstead and is actually across the street from Griffins. The name is taken from Phish’s first live release. They have a great jukebox with mostly live concerts.

  17. Lots of people are looking for hippies in the suburbs- can’t tell you where to go, but I recommend staying away from Northbrook, Highland Park, Deerfield area. The people there are too materialistic and the teens are rich hippie wannabes.

  18. Yo wasabi peeps! I uesed to live next to the Heartland Cafe in far north Chicago, Rogers park on Lunt. two blocks from the lake. Total hippy haven, get a crib around there and hit some coffee shops and before you know it you’ll find the Rainbow house and more groviness.

    Also check out the Bucktown/Wicker park area. A lot of young crazy people, including hippys.

    The burbs are thinner, more spread out. Generally the richer areas have more of a hippy scene. I heard string cheese has been playing a lot of shows in Illinois lately, that would be a good place to meet some like minded, kind folks.
    peace and puppy dogs.

  19. I live in a suburb of Chicago, Plainfield, there are alot of wannabe hippies around here, and the shops that are supposed to be “hippie” are way expensive which is I think, completely opposite of what hippies are all about, and many people around here are about the hippie “fashion” and not the lifestyle, and I’ve even met a few so-called hippies around here that make fun of me for being a vegetarian, and talking about how the pollution around here sickens me, but there are a few totally far-out people around here, so it isn’t completely wannabe territory!

  20. Chicago is a great place, I think. I mean, as of late, it’s been brewing with Republicans, but that’s most of America, right? I live in the south suburbs (boring as the get-go) but I hang out mostly around Belmont and Clark and go to the Heartland. Belmont and Clark is mainly for the punk-goth set, but Ragstock is great, not to mention the awesome headshop there as well. I love it!

Leave a Reply