How do we define failure in terms of event planning?
It may seem like a simple question — after all, it’s not super hard to measure where an event went wrong. Bodily harm of attendees, personal damage to items or equipment, or just general poor planning can do a lot to determine the perceived success or failure of a large-scale event. But what if it’s not always that simple?
In this first post, I’ll be looking at two famous events: Woodstock, which is known as one of the most integral events of the 20th century; and its antithesis, Altamont, which is credited as “rock and roll’s all-time worst day.” These two festivals have far more in common than we give them credit. So why is one considered a success and one isn’t? By answering this question, we can better define what makes an event a failure.
The One that Defined a Generation
Image via Pixabay
In August of 1969, at the end of arguably one of the most musically-creative decades of all time, a new, unheard of music festival was hosted in the small upstate New York town of Bethel. That new, unheard of music festival was called Woodstock.
The festival, which boasted large musical icons like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix — some of my all-time personal favorites, I might add — lasted three days straight and brought in over 400,000 people. Woodstock is heralded by the New York Times as “A Moment of Muddy Grace.”
The One that Ended the Party
Image via FreeImages
In December of that same year, another counterculture music festival was hosted in Tracy, California at the Altamont Race Park. The festival, known as the Altamont Speedway Free Festival or just Altamont, was expected to perform well, occurring just four months after the success of Woodstock. In fact, some anticipated that it would be a “Woodstock West.”
Like at Woodstock, several large bands and performers were slated to sing, including Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Santana and the Rolling Stones. Unlike Woodstock, a fight broke out between festival goers and security that resulted in the stabbing death of 18-year-old Meredith Hunter and the injuries of several others. After the incident, Rolling Stone Magazine deemed the festival, “rock and roll’s all-time worst day, December 6th, a day when everything went perfectly wrong.”
These two music festivals, while seemingly at opposite ends of the event planning spectrum, have more in common than you might think. First, both had far higher turnout than expected — Woodstock had over 400,000 attendees when they expected less than 200,000, and Altamont had over 300,000 people when their capacity was about 240,000. This resulted in a lack of shelter, food, water, health supplies and sanitary waste receptacles at both festivals. And traffic overflow at Woodstock got so bad that some people just got out and left their cars in the middle of the road. Yes. Really.
Second, although Altamont is more infamous for it, both festivals were no stranger to injury and even death. Both festivals had high numbers of bodily injury, heatstroke and overdose; Woodstock even had three deaths occur during the festival: two from overdose and one person who was run over by a tractor.
So why is one heralded as a success and one as a failure? I believe it boils down to three reasons:
1. Expectations
Woodstock was arguably the first of its kind, meaning that there were little to no expectations of success going into it. The people that planned Woodstock had only planned a handful of other music festivals before, and no one expected would do as well as it did — which is why it was such a surprise when it became an icon on the counterculture.
Altamont, on the other hand, was riding on the coattails of Woodstock’s success. This meant that the pressure was on to live up to the legacy that Woodstock created. Even if nothing major had gone wrong at Altamont, those shoes would not have been easy to fill and could have very well have been considered a failure no matter what.
2. Bad Hires
Neither Woodstock nor Altamont used police officers as security — counterculture and hippie culture were often seen as an enemy of the police, apparently, so neither festival wanted a police presence to put a damper on the moods of event-goers. So, instead, Woodstock hired a hippie commune from New Mexico called the Hog Farm (yes, that’s the real name) to run security and provide free meals. Altamont, however, took a different route.
Instead of hiring police officers — or an existing group within the hippie culture, like at Woodstock — Altamont planners decided to hire the Hells Angels, a west-coast motorcycle gang known for its violent tendencies and illegal activity. I think it says a lot of about the culture of the time that the Hells Angels were considered a better option than police for security, and, ultimately it was because of this decision that Meredith Hunter was killed in the first place.
3. Media Spotlight
Since Woodstock was so unknown, few news outlets outside of the state of New York covered the event. A documentary was filmed during the festival that documented some of its pitfalls but wasn’t released until late 1970, well after word had spread of Woodstock’s perceived success — mostly through word-of-mouth.
After missing an opportunity at Woodstock, however, news outlets from across the country flocked to Altamont, which put the festival — and it’s pitfalls — under a much more intense spotlight. Another documentary was filmed at Altamont which, unfortunately, caught Meredith Hunter’s death on camera, bringing photo and video evidence of the carnage right into people’s living rooms.
So, as event planners, what can we take from looking at these two events? I think the lesson that can be learned here is that successful events and failed events can share a lot more characteristics than we realize. This can make event planning scary — because ultimately, the main thing that prevented Woodstock from turning out like Altamont was sheer dumb luck. Personally, I think that if either festival were held the same way today, they would both be considered failures.
Party Post-Mortem 