Altamont Free Concert

The Altamont Speedway Free Festival was a counterculture rock concert in the United States, held on Saturday, December 6, 1969, at the Altamont Speedway outside of Tracy, California. Approximately 300,000 attended the concert, and some anticipated that it would be a "Woodstock West". The Woodstock festival had been held in Bethel, New York, in mid-August, almost four months earlier. The event is remembered for its use of Hells Angels as security and its considerable violence, including the stabbing death of Meredith Hunter and three accidental deaths: two by a hit-and-run car accident, and one by an LSD-induced drowning in an irrigation canal. Scores were injured, numerous cars were stolen (and subsequently abandoned) and there was extensive property damage. The concert featured (in order of appearance): Santana, Jefferson Airplane, the Flying Burrito Brothers and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY), with the Rolling Stones taking the stage as the final act. The Grateful Dead were also scheduled to perform following CSNY, but shortly before their scheduled appearance chose not to because of the increasing violence at the venue. "That's the way things went at Altamont—so badly that the Grateful Dead, the prime organizers and movers of the festival, didn't even get to play," staff at Rolling Stone magazine wrote in a detailed narrative on the event, terming it in an additional follow-up piece "rock and roll's all-time worst day, December 6th, a day when everything went perfectly wrong." Filmmakers Albert and David Maysles shot footage of the event and incorporated it into the 1970 documentary film titled Gimme Shelter.