The Festival ​

  • Free Music festival 
  • Saturday December 6, 1969
  • Altamont Speedway, Northern California 
  • 300,000 attended
  • “West Woodstock” ​

The Lineup

  •  Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Rolling Stones
  • Grateful Dead were scheduled to play but cancelled due to violence

Flawed Start

  • The Rolling Stones and Grateful Dead had trouble finding a venue 
  • Altamont Speedway was the fourth place they tried behind San Jose State University, Golden Gate Park, and Sears Point Raceway 
  • These changes created problems such as lack of bathrooms and medical tents 
  • The stage was designed to be at the to of a hill, but after location changes it was at the bottom of a slope

Deaths 

  • Meredith Hunter was stabbed and killed by a Hell’s Angel after he approached the stage with a gun 
  • Two died in a hit and run car wreck 
  • One drowned in an irrigation canal while high on LSD ​