The Altamont Speedway Free Festival of 1969 | The Rolling Stones

It was meant to be a day of peace and love—a "Woodstock West," patterned after the hugely successful Bethel, New York festival held four months earlier in August 1969. The Altamont Speedway Free Festival was a one-day event held in northern California, on the pass between Tracy and my home town, Livermore. The concert featured Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and culminated in a performance by The Rolling Stones, who were largely responsible for organizing the event. Footage and photographs taken that day capture fear and tension in the air, and the concert is remembered more for its violence than the music. Three people died accidentally, a six-months pregnant woman suffered a skull fracture when an empty beer bottle flew out of nowhere and hit her in the head, and 18-year-old Meredith Hunter was fatally stabbed by one of the Hells Angels (members of the motorcycle club provided "security" around the 4-foot-high stage in exchange for $500 worth of beer). The concert was immortalized in Gimme Shelter, a 1970 "rockumentary" directed by Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin.

December 6, 2009 marked the 40th Anniversary of the Altamont Speedway Free Festival of 1969.



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