The Altamont Free Concert A Deadly End To The Hippie Era In America

It was supposed to be the West Coast version of Woodstock. Instead, it turned deadly as a total of four died, one of whom the Hells Angels stabbed to death during the middle of the Rolling Stones’ set.

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1 of 35Eager rock fans storm the gate at Altamont Speedway well in advance of the scheduled opening. A colossal traffic jam developed as rock fans converged on the site 50 miles southeast of San Francisco.Getty Images 2 of 35Meredith Hunter at the Altamont Free Concert.Rolling Stone/Dixie-Ward 3 of 35A thin cord separates the crowd from the three foot high stage and drunken Hells Angels security.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 4 of 35The Hells Angels, acting as security and sometimes hoodlums.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 5 of 35David Brown and Michael Shrieve of the musical group Santana perform on stage.Photo by Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 6 of 35People in the crowd cheer as musical acts perform.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 7 of 35Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones warily eye the Hells Angels onstage.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 8 of 35The racetrack’s bleachers could not accommodate the rumored 300,000 people that the concert attracted.William L. Rukeyser/Getty Images 9 of 35The increasingly packed crowd at the Altamont Speedway.William L. Rukeyser/Getty Images 10 of 35A lucky few were able to drive to the hillside at the Speedway prior to the free concert.William L. Rukeyser/Getty Images 11 of 35The audience covering the hillside.William L. Rukeyser/Getty Images 12 of 35A woman carries a child through the massive audience.William L. Rukeyser/Getty Images 13 of 35Hippies in the crowd at the Altamont Speedway. Some attendees were stereotypical hippies — although many were not.William L. Rukeyser/Getty Images 14 of 35Attendees enjoying the early part of the day.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 15 of 35Celebrants enjoy the music. Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 16 of 35A fan is absorbed with Jefferson Airplane.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 17 of 35A girl lies in front of the stage as The Rolling Stones Tour Manager Sam Cutler tries to placate the crowd. Next to him is Michael Lang, one of the promoters of Woodstock earlier that year.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 18 of 35Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane performs onstage.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 19 of 35Carlos Santana performs onstage.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 20 of 35Two Hells Angels, one holding a beer and the other a pool cue guard the stage.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 21 of 35Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane (on the ground in the white hat) is surrounded Hells Angels, acting as both security and hoodlums. For a while he was knocked unconscious by the Angels.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 22 of 35Santana performs onstage.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 23 of 35Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane performs.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 24 of 35Miss Mercy (Mercy Fontentot) of The GTO’s enjoying the festival.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 25 of 35Festival-goers lounge and enjoy the outdoor festival.Michelle VIGNES/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images 26 of 35Aerial view of cars parked at random near Altamont Speedway. Many of the cars were abandoned by their owners when they ran out of gas during the height of the influx to the concert.Michelle VIGNES/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images 27 of 35One solitary car headed northwest on Highway 50, as a monumental traffic jam — even by California standards — backed up cars for nearly 20 miles.Getty Images 28 of 35Hells Angels before the Rolling Stones appeared.William L. Rukeyser/Getty Images 29 of 35A young man drinks from his jug as he enjoys the music — nude.Getty Images 30 of 35Gram Parsons of The Flying Burrito Brothers performs onstage.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 31 of 35Hippies in typical “flower child” garb enjoy the music.Eamonn McCabe/Redferns via Getty Images 32 of 35Graham Nash, David Crosby and Neil Young of Cosby, Stills, Nash & Young perform.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 33 of 35Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones perform.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 34 of 35Except for a few die-hard fans lingering and tons of empty wine bottles and other litter, the hills around Altamont Speedway were serene afterwards. The owner of the speedway said it took at least a week to clear the area of debris.Getty Images 35 of 35Like this gallery?Share it:

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The Altamont Speedway Free Concert: The Deadly End To The Hippie Era View Gallery

“The violence just in front of the stage was incredible,” Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones recalls of The Altamont Speedway free concert on Dec. 6, 1969 in Livermore, Calif. The festival was intended to be an epic event — and it certainly was, but for all the wrong reasons.

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2 of 35Meredith Hunter at the Altamont Free Concert.Rolling Stone/Dixie-Ward

3 of 35A thin cord separates the crowd from the three foot high stage and drunken Hells Angels security.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

4 of 35The Hells Angels, acting as security and sometimes hoodlums.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

5 of 35David Brown and Michael Shrieve of the musical group Santana perform on stage.Photo by Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

6 of 35People in the crowd cheer as musical acts perform.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

7 of 35Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones warily eye the Hells Angels onstage.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

8 of 35The racetrack’s bleachers could not accommodate the rumored 300,000 people that the concert attracted.William L. Rukeyser/Getty Images

9 of 35The increasingly packed crowd at the Altamont Speedway.William L. Rukeyser/Getty Images

10 of 35A lucky few were able to drive to the hillside at the Speedway prior to the free concert.William L. Rukeyser/Getty Images

11 of 35The audience covering the hillside.William L. Rukeyser/Getty Images

12 of 35A woman carries a child through the massive audience.William L. Rukeyser/Getty Images

13 of 35Hippies in the crowd at the Altamont Speedway. Some attendees were stereotypical hippies — although many were not.William L. Rukeyser/Getty Images

14 of 35Attendees enjoying the early part of the day.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

15 of 35Celebrants enjoy the music. Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

16 of 35A fan is absorbed with Jefferson Airplane.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

17 of 35A girl lies in front of the stage as The Rolling Stones Tour Manager Sam Cutler tries to placate the crowd. Next to him is Michael Lang, one of the promoters of Woodstock earlier that year.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

18 of 35Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane performs onstage.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

19 of 35Carlos Santana performs onstage.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

20 of 35Two Hells Angels, one holding a beer and the other a pool cue guard the stage.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

21 of 35Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane (on the ground in the white hat) is surrounded Hells Angels, acting as both security and hoodlums. For a while he was knocked unconscious by the Angels.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

22 of 35Santana performs onstage.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

23 of 35Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane performs.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

24 of 35Miss Mercy (Mercy Fontentot) of The GTO’s enjoying the festival.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

25 of 35Festival-goers lounge and enjoy the outdoor festival.Michelle VIGNES/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

26 of 35Aerial view of cars parked at random near Altamont Speedway. Many of the cars were abandoned by their owners when they ran out of gas during the height of the influx to the concert.Michelle VIGNES/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

27 of 35One solitary car headed northwest on Highway 50, as a monumental traffic jam — even by California standards — backed up cars for nearly 20 miles.Getty Images

28 of 35Hells Angels before the Rolling Stones appeared.William L. Rukeyser/Getty Images

29 of 35A young man drinks from his jug as he enjoys the music — nude.Getty Images

30 of 35Gram Parsons of The Flying Burrito Brothers performs onstage.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

31 of 35Hippies in typical “flower child” garb enjoy the music.Eamonn McCabe/Redferns via Getty Images

32 of 35Graham Nash, David Crosby and Neil Young of Cosby, Stills, Nash & Young perform.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

33 of 35Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones perform.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

34 of 35Except for a few die-hard fans lingering and tons of empty wine bottles and other litter, the hills around Altamont Speedway were serene afterwards. The owner of the speedway said it took at least a week to clear the area of debris.Getty Images

35 of 35Like this gallery?Share it:

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The Altamont Speedway Free Concert: The Deadly End To The Hippie Era View Gallery

The Altamont Speedway Free Concert: The Deadly End To The Hippie Era

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The festival was meant to bring the radically counter-cultural 1960s to a glorious end. Instead, the festival that meant to encapsulate the Summer of Love ended in tragedy when four people died, including 18-year-old Meredith Hunter who was stabbed by a Hells Angel.

What led to this disastrous show? Most believe it was a lethal combination of grave disorganization and poor decision making by the festival’s orchestrators, which included none other than legendary rock band The Rolling Stones.

Of all their mistakes regarding the show, perhaps the greatest of all was the Stones’ decision to hire the Hells Angels as their security for the Altamont concert.

The Altamont Speedway Free Concert

The band wanted to bring the magic of Woodstock — the iconic 1969 New York music festival — to the country’s West Coast. In autumn of that same year, the Stones felt inspired to organize just that.

What they didn’t do — that Woodstock’s organizers did — was plan ahead.

The idea for Woodstock was conceived in January 1969. This meant that the team responsible for assembling what’s been called the single greatest live music event in history had nearly seven months to plan and prepare for it.

Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesMick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones perform at the festival.

On the other hand, the Rolling Stones tried to whip up the Altamont Free Concert in a matter of weeks. The venue wasn’t even sorted out until just a couple of days before the festival was slated to occur.

Local business owner Dick Carter offered up his Altamont Speedway as a venue at the last minute. Because the production team was pressed for time, they were unable to set up the stage properly, making the venue unsafe for both performers and attendees.

The free concert did promise the performances of such iconic artists as Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, though at the expense of safety and preparedness.

The arc lights weren’t set up above the stage; instead, they were propped up on boxes. In addition, there wasn’t enough time to set up a barricade between the crowd and the stage. All the Altamont Concert used was a thin piece of rope to keep the concertgoers away from the stage.

Keith Richards said that they “had them [the Hells Angels] at the suggestion of The Grateful Dead”. They arranged for the bikers to work for all the free beer they wanted, an offer they happily accepted.

From the very start, the gang’s presence was unwelcome by both festival goers and the musical acts. The disorderly Angels were rough and often used a “take no prisoners” approach to their security efforts.

Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesMarty Balin of the band Jefferson Airplane (on the ground in the white hat) is surrounded Hells Angels, acting as both security and hoodlums.

One gang member knocked Jefferson Airplane singer Marty Balin unconscious in a scuffle, but the concert continued. While the Rolling Stones would be the headlining set of the night, the band wound up making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

The Murder Of Meredith Hunter

Meredith Hunter was excited to attend the Altamont Speedway free concert after he had experienced the love and positive energy that the Monterey Jazz Festival offered. His sister, Dixie, warned Hunter that he shouldn’t go. Hunter went anyway, though he did bring a gun. He recruited his girlfriend Patti Bredehoft, and the pair took off to Altamont.

When the couple arrived at the Altamont Speedway, they were surprised to find themselves in a sea of utter chaos. They witnessed some Angels practically running people over with their motorcycles, beating music fans with pool cues, and generally inciting violence.

After staying the afternoon at the concert, the couple retreated to their car. Bredehoft was ready to leave, but Hunter convinced her to go back in for the headlining act.

Rolling StoneMeredith Hunter at the Altamont concert.

Little did Hunter know that a song by the Rolling Stones would be the last one he’d ever hear.

When the band finally appeared onstage, lead singer Mick Jagger acknowledged the craziness that was happening right in front of him. “There’s so many of you. Just keep cool down in front and don’t push around. Just keep still, keep together”, he pleaded to the crowd. But it was mainly his own security causing the trouble, not the fans.

Hunter climbed atop a makeshift speaker stand to get a better glimpse at the band. He was at the front of the stage now, at the feet of the band and on camera. As “Under My Thumb” played, the Hells Angels swarmed the crowd. One of them pulled at Hunter to get down from the speaker, but he fought back.

The Angel grabbed him again, and again Hunter attempted to fight him off. The gang member punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground. More Angels joined the assailant and continued to punch and kick Hunter.

Hunter got back on his feet and tried to run away through the crowd as Angels came after him. He pulled out his gun and pointed it backward at the Hells Angels — and towards the stage. Hunter’s girlfriend pleaded with him to drop the gun, but it was too late.

The Angels surrounded him. An Angel named Alan Passaro stabbed Hunter twice. Taking him away from the crowd, they stabbed Hunter at least four more times and then kicked him in the head and chest repeatedly.

When Bredehoft finally caught up to her boyfriend, he was at the mercy of the Hells Angels. Bystanders attempted to save Hunter’s life by tending to his wounds and carrying him to the medical tent. Unfortunately, their efforts were futile.

The Aftermath At Altamont

Most of the incident at the Altamont Speedway was captured on video and featured in the rock documentary Gimmie Shelter by brothers Albert and David Maysles, which is largely regarded as one of the greatest rock documentaries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmAJpgkvjNM

After news of Hunter’s death made national headlines, a radio station took calls from Altamont concert-goers to share what they’d experienced. One of the Hells Angels that attended surprisingly called in — and he described the type of “security” that the Stones paid for:

Passaro, who stabbed and killed Hunter, went on trial but was acquitted on grounds that he stabbed Hunter in self-defense.

The concert ultimately saw the accidental deaths of three other attendees: two were killed in a hit-and-run and another by drowning — allegedly while on drugs and trying to enter the concert via a shallow irrigation canal.

In the fall out of the scandal, it’s been revealed by the FBI that the Hells Angels put out a hit on Mick Jagger to avenge the chaos at Altamont that he blamed on the motorcycle gang.

It comes to question who really is at blame: the Rolling Stones for their ill-preparedness or the Hells Angels for their incitement of violence? The free concert at the Altamont Speedway certainly proved to be the end of the hippie era, however not in the manner anyone had anticipated it would be.

After this look at the Altamont Speedway free concert, check out these images that capture the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. Then, read about the Isle of Wight Festival, Britain’s answer to Woodstock.

It was supposed to be the West Coast version of Woodstock. Instead, it turned deadly as a total of four died, one of whom the Hells Angels stabbed to death during the middle of the Rolling Stones’ set.#

The Altamont Speedway Free Concert#

The Murder Of Meredith Hunter#

The Aftermath At Altamont#

It was supposed to be the West Coast version of Woodstock. Instead, it turned deadly as a total of four died, one of whom the Hells Angels stabbed to death during the middle of the Rolling Stones’ set.

The Altamont Speedway Free Concert

The Murder Of Meredith Hunter

The Aftermath At Altamont