On the 6th of December, 1969, 300,000 people gathered at the Altamont Raceway in California
for a once-in-a-lifetime free concert that had been promoted as the Woodstock of the
West Coast.
Unfortunately, many of them would end up remembering the event for all the wrong reasons.
Instead of the festival of peace and love that the organisers had envisaged, the Altamont
Free Concert ended in a rash of chaos and violence that left four people dead.
In the winter of 1969, the Rolling Stones were on a tour of America – their largest
and longest US tour since their formation in 1962.
Throughout, critics and fans had been complaining that ticket prices were too high.
Wanting to answer these protests, the band teamed up with several other artists to create
a free concert, one that displayed the best that counterculture rock had to offer.
Whilst the organisers hoped that this free concert might emulate Woodstock, which had
taken place earlier that year and become a global phenomenon, there was one key difference.
Woodstock had been planned seven months in advance.
The Altamont Free Concert was put together over the course of just a few short weeks.
The concert was originally set to take place at San Jose State University.
However, the university decided not to go ahead after another concert on their grounds
caused significant disruption.
The organisers next started planning to hold the event in San Francisco’s Golden Gate
Park, and – once that venue fell through – at the Sears Point Raceway near Sonoma.
It was hoped that Sears Point would be the last venue change.
With the concert only days away work began on the infrastructure needed to host such
a huge event.
However, just as with the previous venues, a problem soon emerged.
Sears Point wanted a hefty cash deposit from the Rolling Stones, as well as fifty percent
of all revenue arising from filming of the event.
The band simply couldn’t agree to this price tag; just two days before the concert was
due to begin, the location was changed for a third and final time.
Despite complaints from neighbouring landowners, and concerns from California Highway Patrol
about the road leading to the venue, the Altamont Raceway in Livermore was chosen.
It truly was a last-minute arrangement.
Looking back at the massive effort that was made to move the half-built concert from one
site to another the stage manager of the Rolling Stones would later say: "We should’ve realized
there wasn’t enough time to do it correctly.
That snowball had already gotten too big to control.”
Overnight, around 300 crew members worked to dismantle the stage, speakers, and lighting
at Sears Point Raceway and transport it to Altamont.
Unfortunately the last-minute nature of this change meant that many essential facilities
such as toilets and a medical tent were never moved to the new site.
This change of location also meant that the stage, which had been at the top of a hill
at Sears Point, was now at the base of one at Altamont.
As a result, the bands would be performing on a stage just barely above the heads of
the crowd.
This was far from ideal, but on such short notice redesigning the stage was not an option.
Hundreds of thousands of young people were expected to make their way across America
for the concert.
With their arrival imminent, the organisers began thinking about security.
The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane had both championed the idea of the concert, and
they recommend the Hells Angels motorcycle club.
As an outlaw motorcycle club, the Hells Angels had a reputation as tough, no-nonsense, and
not afraid of violence.
Importantly, though, the Hells Angels were also available, and cheap.
Many sources allege that they were paid with $500 worth of beer and the promise of a good
show.
The decision to hire the Angels as security is widely regarded one of the biggest mistakes
made while planning the concert.
By sunrise on the 6th of December, eager concertgoers had started arriving at Altamont, excited
to see some of the biggest voices of counterculture rock perform.
Even as they reached the site, however, preparations for the concert were still not complete.
Sam Cutler, the tour manager of the Rolling Stones described the scene: “Dawn broke
at Altamont on December 6th, 1969, and from the stage, it looked like I was observing
the camp of some dreadful invading army.”
The arrival of crowds meant that there was no time to set up the stage lights properly.
Instead, they were propped on boxes.
Some scaffolding had been erected to provide additional spotlighting, but the excitable
crowd quickly began to climb these structures in order to secure a better view.
As the day went on, drugs and alcohol were consumed by the crowd, and the mood at the
concert became increasingly tense.
When people pushed forwards to get a better view of the unusually low stage, the Hell's
Angels used pool cues and other improvised implements to push them back, often violently.
Fights began to break out between the concertgoers and the Angels.
Many people remarked that the “take no prisoners” approach of the Angels was unwelcome, particularly
at a concert that claimed to exemplify the peace and love of the hippie movement.
The tension and chaos continued to escalate as musicians took to the stage.
Santana opened the concert, but were forced to stop playing when audience members jumped
on stage and a fight broke out.
Things only got worse when the next act, Jefferson Airplane, began to perform.
The increasingly chaotic crowd knocked over a motorcycle belonging to a Hells Angel, prompting
a flurry of violent scuffles.
Jefferson Airplane singer, Marty Balin, tried to intervene in the violence, but was knocked
unconscious by a Hells Angel.
By the time the next act, the folk-rock group Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young took to the stage
to perform, tensions were incredibly high.
Things only became yet more fraught when the band’s singer, Stephen Stills, was stabbed
in the leg with a bicycle spoke by an Angel during the set.
Word of these incidents quickly reached the Grateful Dead, who made the decision to leave
Altamont immediately without performing.
Their drummer, Micky Hart, later said, “Grateful Dead music cannot happen in a situation like
that…
We couldn't have brought our spirits to bear to be able to do Grateful Dead music justice,
and we just said, ‘This isn't a place for us.’”
This decision left the stage empty for two hours – a void in the schedule while caused
the crowd to become restless and the Hells Angels to become even more unpredictable.
By the time the Rolling Stones arrived, they were met with hostility.
As lead singer Mick Jagger disembarked from a helicopter he was punched by an audience
member who shouted, “I hate you.”
By the third song, Jagger called for the band to stop playing and began to plead with the
crowd and the Hells Angels to stay calm.
At one point he refused to restart the concert until the audience all took a seat in an effort
to stop people from jumping on the stage or agitating the Angels.
Unfortunately, his efforts to keep the peace were unsuccessful.
It was during this set that a young member of the audience, Meredith Hunter, was killed.
Eighteen-year-old Meredith Hunter, and his seventeen-year-old girlfriend, Patti Bredehoft,
were excited to attend the free concert.
By the time the Rolling Stones took to the stage, however, the violence during the day
meant that Patti was eager to go home.
Meredith, however, persuaded her to stay, as he wanted to see the Rolling Stones perform.
During their song, “Under My Thumb”, he climbed onto a speaker box next to the stage
to get a better view.
In response, the Hells Angels pulled him to the ground and began to beat him.
As he was attacked, Meredith pulled a gun out of his jacket.
The sight of this weapon prompted a 21-year-old Hells Angel named Alan Passaro to stab him
repeatedly in the back.
Meredith Hunter would be pronounced dead at the scene just minutes after being pulled
down from the speaker.
Unfortunately, Meredith was not the only concertgoer to lose their life that day.
Two individuals were also killed in a hit a run after the show, and another drowned
in an irrigation ditch after taking LSD.
In total, four people who attended the Altamont Free Concert lost their lives in the course
of a single night.
The fallout from the one-night concert ultimately lasted many years.
In addition to the four deaths, numerous cars were stolen and abandoned, there was extensive
property damage, and hundreds of attendees were injured, some seriously.
Altamont Raceway was banned from hosting any more concerts, but racing-related events were
still allowed to take place at the site.
Alan Passaro, the Hells Angel that killed Meredith Hunter, was arrested and charged
with murder.
However, he would go on to be acquitted in a 1971 trial on the grounds of self-defence.
The violence and deaths at the Altamont free concert marked the end of the 1960s and the
hippie era in a dark and chaotic fashion.
Even now the concert is remembered as a cautionary tale, an example of how – simply through
poor planning – an attempt to create something unique and amazing can end in a disaster.