Evan Slotterbach

Dr. Nicole McClure

CMP 100

November 4th, 2021

Gimme Shelter

During December of 1969, just months after the famous Woodstock peace and love

music festival, another, smaller, festival occurred. This festival, was free to the public. Over

300,000 came to see top bands like The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane and others play

alongside and open for The Rolling Stones. The Stones were on the final stretches of their U.S.

tour and this festival was set to be the grand finale. It went horribly wrong. Concerts and

festivals are good for the community and unite people as one, but only if they are managed

properly.

The infamous Altamont Speedway free festival was a festival that was anticipateds to be

the “Woodstock of the west.” The location of the festival, the Altamont Raceway Park in

northern California was chosen only 2 days prior to December 6th, 1969, the date the festival was

set to occur. Once the festival planners picked a location, they had 2 big problems that needed to

be addresses, parking and security. With only 2 days until the festival, the planners would have

to think of something ingenious. Addressing the parking was as simple as calling the person who

owned the land around the park and asking if they could use it for parking, They said yes. After

that, they only had to deal with finding security for the festival. They ended up with the hell's

angels motorcycle gang. They were the official/unofficial security. They kept the crowd

rowdiness down for the most part, but some incidences did occur, including death of 4 people.
One of these deaths, a murder, of an 18-year-old named Meredith Hunter just 20 feet from the

stage. He did have a gun and was pointing it at the stage, so a member of the Hell’s angels

stabbed him to death. The other deaths were an accidental drowning in a fast-moving irrigation

canal while under the influence of LSD; and the other 2 were a hit and run car accident after the

festival ended. On a positive note, 4 babies were also born during the festival. With 300,000

people packed into a speedway, it was very chaotic and ended in disaster. If it were planned

better, like Woodstock which was planned for months and months before the actual festival, it

would have been a lot less chaotic and those deaths would not have occurred.

Despite it being a tragedy, it brought 300,000 people together at one of the biggest

festivals to end out the 60’s. To add on, the spectators didn’t have to pay a cent to attend, it was

free. The people there were kind and thoughtful to each other, besides the ones who angered

“security”. But, non the less, people were sharing food with each other, talking and laughing

with one another, and all around having a good time. To end, the peace and love aspect of the

festival was achieved through the drugged-up kindness of others.

The festival took place in 1969, a time where a lot of people did drugs that are illegal

(somewhat) today. 2 of the most prominent ones were marijuana and LSD. Everyone, even the

hells angels, were under the influence that night. Reports say that the air smelled heavily of

marijuana and that the vast majority of them were on LSD or some type of psychedelics. Now, as

well as the crowd being on drugs, the Hells angels were also on drugs. They ended up murdering

someone in a drug-filled rage unbeknownst to the Stones who were performing at the time.

In the end, the Altamont speedway free concert was a music festival gone wrong. But,

with proper planning and more time, the concert could have been bigger than Woodstock. The

festival will go down in history as a disaster. But, this wasn’t the last time people died at a
concert. Just a week ago, 9 people were trampled to death at Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival.

Just like the Stones did not know that people died, Travis Scott also was unaware of the deaths.

Even though fans were screaming to stop the concert and that people were dead. 51 years have

passed since the Altamont free concert and still, concerts become disasters.