The
Second Summer of Love is a name given to the period in 1988–89 in
Britain, during the rise of
acid house music and the euphoric explosion of unlicensed
MDMA-fuelled
rave parties. The term generally refers to the summers of both 1988 and 1989 when
electronic dance music and the prevalence of the drug
MDMA fuelled an explosion in
youth culture culminating in mass
free parties and the era of the
rave.
LSD was also widely available and popular again. The music of this era fused dance beats with a psychedelic, 1960s flavour, and the dance culture drew parallels with the
hedonism and
freedom of the
Summer of Love in San Francisco two decades earlier. Similarities with the Sixties included fashions such as
Tie-dye. The
smiley logo is synonymous with this period in the UK.