The summer of 1967 was the ‘Summer of Love' and Amsterdam was the flower-power capital of Europe. That year, the Amsterdam Vondel Park, near the city center, was the meeting place for hippies from all over the world. In addition to this freely accessible location, however, the hippies also wanted a club in Amsterdam they could call their own. After the failure of endless consultations with the town council on opening a youth center, a group of hippies decided to take matters into their own hands: they squatted a building owned by the Open Community Church on the nearby Weteringschans that had fallen into disuse: a ‘love-in' that had started in the Vondel Park was set forth in Paradiso. The police immediately put an end to the event, but the town council had meanwhile come under such heavy pressure that the ‘cosmic recreation center' Paradiso was officially authorized to open its doors in March 1968.