Altamont Free Concert

A free rock concert held in California on December 6, 1969, and headlined by the Rolling Stones. Violence, including the fatal stabbing of audience member Meredith Hunter, made it a defining episode in the collapse of the 1960s counterculture ideal.

Meredith Hunter: A concertgoer fatally stabbed during the Rolling Stones' performance at Altamont. His death became the event's most consequential act of violence.
Woodstock: A 1969 music festival held on a dairy farm near Bethel, New York. Its scale and idealized reputation helped inspire plans for another free rock gathering.
Mick Jagger: The English singer and Rolling Stones frontman born in 1943. His attempts to address the crowd were recorded amid mounting disorder.
Gimme Shelter (film): A documentary film about the Rolling Stones' 1969 American tour and the Altamont concert. The film made the event's violence widely visible and fixed it in public memory.
Hell's Angels: An outlaw motorcycle club founded in California in 1948. The concert organizers relied on club members for security, despite their limited suitability for crowd control.
Rolling Stones: An English rock band formed in London in 1962. The band organized the concert as a free finale to its American tour.
Keith Richards: The English guitarist and songwriter born in 1943, known for the Rolling Stones. He continued performing during confrontations and was assaulted onstage.
1960s counterculture: A diverse movement that challenged social conventions in the United States and elsewhere during the 1960s. Altamont came to symbolize the limits of its hopes for peaceful communal life.
Altamont Speedway: A former motorsports venue in Tracy, California, that hosted the 1969 concert. Its remote location and physical layout complicated access, staging, and crowd management.
Grateful Dead: An American rock band formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1965. The band helped plan the event but withdrew before performing amid concerns about conditions.

Linked from 8 pages