Vermont Top Hippie Town: Bernieton

By Ted Cohen

The website Thrillist.com clearly has a sense of self, judging by its latest culture survey of U.S. towns with the greatest hippie attributes.

The Vermont town meeting the definition is Bernieton, once known as Burlington, according to the widely followed media and entertainment website.

Thrillist put together its list of ‘The Most Hippie Towns in All 50 States’ by looking for places with strong countercultural vibes, from college towns full of free spirits to quiet communes and artsy enclaves.

Its writers leaned into the fun stereotypes and selected each town as the one that best represents that state’s hippie spirit.

“Once upon a time, hippies were members of a flower-power counterculture that dropped acid, drove inexplicably operative VW buses, and protested the bejeezus out of the Greatest Generation,” reports Thrillist.com. “You may recognize them from those pictures you found of your parents that you really wish you could unsee.

“But you still know a hippie when you see one (or smell patchouli). Now, they range from free spirits on college campuses to mountain-dwelling stoners, boomers still living in the '60s, and boomers-turned-yuppies who buy expensive art.”

The Thrillist's Matt Meltzer wrote this about Burlington:

√ One word: Phish.

√ Two words: Bernie Sanders.

√ Three words: Ben and Jerry's.

“Twenty-four words: ‘Burlington Earth Clock, based on the philosophy that inner peace and inner strength can be restored by witnessing the rhythms and cycles of nature.”

The hippiest place in neighboring New Hampshire is Keene, which “for a city its size, boasts a surprisingly large number of vegan and vegetarian restaurants” Thrillist says.

Unity took the top hip prize in Maine for its Common Ground Fair, Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association and Unity Environmental University, “the most liberal of liberal arts schools” nationally.

Northampton took the hippie prize in Massachusetts.

“Massachusetts is already a liberal place, but most of it isn't exactly what you'd call bohemian, especially when a rabid Sox fan is yelling obscenities in your face for going to Starbucks instead of Dunkin',” says Thrillist’s Adam Lapetina. “But you won't find that kind of noise in Northampton.”