1969 Altamont
Walk & Talk with Bill Owens, Photographer
Saturday, September 12 from 1:00 to 2:00pm
Hear the stories behind the photographs as Bill shares his wit and wisdom on the 1969 Altamont concert. Many young residents and visitors to Livermore, east of San Francisco are not aware that it was the infamous Altamont Speedway Free Festival took place here forty years ago. The Altamont Speedway Free Festival was a rock concert held on Saturday, December 6, 1969, at the Altamont Speedway in northern California, between Tracy and Livermore.
Headlined and organized by The Rolling Stones, it also featured, in order of appearance: Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Crosby, Stills & Nash, with the Rolling Stones taking the stage as the final act. Bill Owens shot the concert for the Associated Press newswire. “Our plan was to be the first news photographers to transmit images of the event. We didn’t know if the UPI (United Press International), Newsweek, or television stations were covering the event but it turned out that they weren’t,” says Owens. “I made images of the violence at the Altamont concert and sold them to Rolling Stone and numerous national magazines. I was afraid to use my own name in the photo credits, as I feared the Angels would come and murder me.”
Bill Owens is an internationally renowned photographer living in Hayward. His most famous work, Suburbia, has been exhibited in museums around the globe. He is also an author, digital movie producer, brewer, distiller and “raconteur.” The exhibit will be on display to patrons of Bankhead Theater performances throughout the month of September.
Tickets $7 per person, space is limited. Purchase tickets at www.bankheadtheater.org, or call 925-373-6800.