There was definitely an element of racial pride at work. Several people expressed to me that I wasn't safe and ought to leave right away, although in fact no one attempted any violence against me. It was clearly in the air, though, that this was a black festival, and that they were the ones who had the power to take over the streets for a while and do what they wanted there. Again, however, no one made any sort of attempt against me; what I received there were warnings that I wasn't safe, not acts of violence.
I've been to a few things since then that had a similar kind of lawlessness, but without the element of race. Large enough crowds completely overwhelm policing, and tend to produce liberation from ordinary bothersome laws. I've always enjoyed those occasions, though being so liberated I don't find that I actually take any liberties. I like the feeling that comes from the recognition of being free, and being free I do what I want -- which is what I do anyway. I like the absence of law, but not because it changes my behavior.
In any case I didn't have any bad feelings about it. Just kids having fun, as Crocodile Dundee said.
I've been to a few things since then that had a similar kind of lawlessness, but without the element of race. Large enough crowds completely overwhelm policing, and tend to produce liberation from ordinary bothersome laws.
ReplyDeleteI was at Altamont. December 1969- a long time ago. I was way in the back, very far from the killing[s] that went on in front of the stage, so my at-the-time reactions to Altamont were not affected by the killing[s]. I didn't find about them until the next day. I had the feeling when I was at Altamont that I could be part of a mob that could do some damage. At the time that didn't scare me, but energized me. Not that I did any damage, but that I had the feeling that I wouldn't mind it if I had done some damage.
I was on the other side of the fence in the summer of 1971. I was a paying customer at a Newport Jazz Festival festival, held outside. The tickets were reasonably priced, well within the range of my minimum wage earnings as a dishwasher at a pizza joint. The crowd outside the fence could hear the music quite easily, as the performers were very well amplified. The crowd (mob) outside tried to push the fence down, and may well have succeeded- I don't remember.
ReplyDeleteAs a consequence of the fence pushdown, either attempted or successful, that concert was stopped. Subsequent Newport Jazz Festival and Newport Folk Festival concerts were cancelled for that year. The next year, the Newport Jazz Festival moved to New York City.
The cancellation of the Newport Folk Festival annoyed me, because a high school classmate was a member of a group that was scheduled to perform at the Newport Folk Festival that year. She had a beautiful voice. Her mother was my 9th grade English teacher; her sister and I worked as aides at the same hospital one year.
I remember you said that you were at Altamont. Freaknik had nothing on that; it was mostly just thousands of kids riding around or walking the streets, playing music on stereos, drinking and dancing and smoking weed. I couldn’t tell you if anyone got killed; it seems possible, but honestly they were mostly college students from Atlanta’s historic black colleges, Georgia State, and Georgia Tech. They weren’t as wild as they thought they were.
ReplyDeleteI remember the admins at my college in Decatur suggesting that we avoid Freaknik, although some of that had to do with us using public transportation and the system getting overloaded. And since 80% of us were underage, and it was (nominally) a church school, the admins didn't care to have us getting drunk.
ReplyDeleteLittleRed1
Seems to me some old dead Roman named Cicero had something to say about the more law, the less justice ;-)
ReplyDeletenmewn
“Never was a government that was not composed of liars, malefactors and thieves.”
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