Question

In at least 3 paragraphs, describe the difference between the Woodstock and Altamont music festivals. How did the Woodstock and Altamont festivals reflect the hippy dream, either positively or negatively. Pick out at least one example from each documentary that you think best indicates whether or not the hippy dream was a success or failure.

Answer 1

Ok, so now let’s see how was the Altamont concert different from the Woodstock Festival.

Well, as rightly put in this question; Yes, they were very comparable yet, distinctly different in many ways.

Woodstock was a far bigger concert with dozens of acts over 3 days whereas Altamont was restricted to The Rolling Stones and a small number of acts in support, for e.g. Jefferson Airplane.

These two music festivals occurred within less than four months of each other, but they summon wildly different images. Altamont was in December 1969 just four months after Woodstock in August 1969. Altamont was a violent end to the 60s in my humble opinion, whilst Woodstock is often remembered as a loving and peaceful festival

The major difference however is in what they came to represent. Woodstock was the high point of the Peace and Love counter-culture of the late 60's. There were arrests largely for narcotics offences and there were major logistical problems resulting in the concert becoming free. Yet, it passed largely peacefully and came to symbolise what could be achieved through a communal approach to such a major event.

Altamont was a final free concert given by the Rolling Stones in many ways trying to represent the ethos of Woodstock. However, from the onset there were major problems. It was very badly organised with hundreds of thousands having to walk to the speedway stadium where the concert was held.

Furthermore, on the advice of the Grateful Dead, the Stones got Californian Hell's Angels to act as security. British Hell's Angels had done the same at the Hyde Park concert earlier in the year, but their Californian counterparts reflected a completely different culture.

They used extreme violence both on and off the stage culminating in the fatal stabbing of Meredith Hunter right in front of the stage. The whole episode and the mood and tension is very well captured in the motion picture Gimme Shelter.

If Woodstock was a high point of the counter culture then Altamont in many ways was not only a low point but reflected how this age of optimism was coming to an end and a darker culture was emerging.

Well, talking about the Hippie Dream; its best reflected on the cover of September 20th, 1969, issue of Rolling Stone, showing a man and a child bathing in the nude in a lake, the true essence of hippie propriety.

It was a brief but amazing period, running roughly from the mid to late 60s to the early 70s.In the minds of many hippies, it was the realisation of a dream: heaven had indeed come to earth. No police, no armies, no violence, yet 600,000 people lived together peacefully and harmoniously with free music, drugs and sex. The hippie dream had become reality.

So many of the heavyweights were there: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Santana, Ten Years After, The Who, Crosby Stills and Nash, etc. It was the high point of the hippie generation. It was billed as “Three days of peace and music”, and was meant to be the dawning of a new age.

But at Altamont the bubble burst. The Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones were among the hardcore highlights. Unfortunately, however, some of the groups seem to have decided that the Hells Angels would make for handy bodyguards and security.

Unfortunately, they gave the bikers free beer as a payment – supposed around $500 worth – which was a pretty good amount back then. But Hells Angels and plenty of free beer was a bad combination. As was to be expected, the crowd was always getting out of hand and trying to rush the stage. Before the eyes of thousands of young counterculture idealists, the Angels stabbed to death an over-zealous fan, and the demise of the counterculture began.

Well, talking about documentaries, I must mention these two which are on my favourite list.

1. Woodstock (1970): This Academy-Award winning documentary covers the events and performers at the watershed Woodstock music festival in upstate New York. Featuring live footage of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane, the hippie movement never looked or sounded any better. The documentary shows the good and bad of the hippie culture. The movement was a reaction against the Vietnam war and the sterile legalism that America and similar countries had devolved into by the early-mid 60s. The youth wanted freedom, peace and love and you can see this in the movie. It was a good thing. Yet you can also see the bad -- like the bad acid situation ("Hey, it's your trip, man..."). But Overall, for me it was a success, a good example would be the skinny dipping or, in many cases, semi-skinny dipping. Although this may have been a cool experiment at the event it never caught-on in the culture at large. Thankfully, we have this documentary to see the good aspects of the period -- some bad, some eye-rolling -- but mostly good, and definitely entertaining.
2. Gimme Shelter (1970): As mentioned earlier, how can I not talk about Gimme Shelter when it comes to the Hippie Culture and the Music Festivals. The fatal stabbing of Meredith Hunter right in front of the stage is one of the examples that I cannot forget and it becomes a downer for me when it comes to the Hippie Dream.

Hope the aforementioned is free of any ambiguity and is useful to you.

Thanks