The Altamont Festival

In December 1969, the Altamont festival in Livermore, California, resulted in tragedy. Organizers made the fateful decision to hire the Hells Angels, a motorcycle gang, to provide security, and one of its members fatally stabbed a Black teenager who had drawn a gun as the Rolling Stones were performing.…

…focused especially on the disastrous Altamont concert near Livermore, California, at which a spectator was killed by a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang who had been hired to provide security. Both films were made with Charlotte Zwerin. Perhaps Albert and David’s best-known documentary was Grey Gardens (1975), an…

…Rolling Stones’ unfortunate show at Altamont Speedway in Livermore, California, in 1969 (at which several people were beaten and one man stabbed to death) did nothing to improve their reputation. Another inhibiting factor was expense: because so many bands went unpaid by promoters, most who would be major attractions at…

…disastrous free concert at the Altamont Speedway in Livermore, California, during their 1969 American tour, it seemed to many observers that the Stones’ own aura of decadence and danger was somehow to blame for the tragedy.

As the final show of their American tour, the Rolling Stones held a one-day rock festival at Altamont Speedway in Livermore, California, on December 6, 1969. The free event was intended as a thank-you gesture by the band to their fans and was to feature…