Bed-ins for peace

Bed-ins for peace

John Lennon and Yoko Ono at the first day of their Amsterdam bed-in
Date	March 25–31, 1969 (1969-03-25 – 1969-03-31) and May 26 – June 1, 1969 (1969-05-26 – 1969-06-01)
Location	Amsterdam, Netherlands and Montreal, Canada
Type	Occupation protest
Theme	Peace movement
Cause	Vietnam War
Target	World media and political leaders
Organised by	John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Participants	Timothy Leary, Tommy Smothers, Derek Taylor, Abraham Feinberg, Dick Gregory, Murray the K, Al Capp, Allen Ginsberg, Paul Williams
Outcome	"Give Peace a Chance" recorded during the Montreal bed-in Press attention Others inspired to throw bed-ins

The bed-ins for peace were two week-long nonviolent protests against wars, intended as experimental tests of new ways to promote peace. As the Vietnam War raged in 1969, artist Yoko Ono and her husband John Lennon held one protest at the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam and one at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. The idea is derived from a "sit-in", in which a group of protesters remain seated in front of or within an establishment until they are evicted, arrested, or their requests are met.

The public proceedings were filmed, and later turned into a documentary Bed Peace, which was made available for free on YouTube in August 2011^[1] by Yoko Ono, as part of her website "Imagine Peace".^[2]