Should You Bonnaroo?

By Bill Owens

This year was my fourth Bonnaroo Music Festival. I’m a Deadhead so Bonnaroo is  reminiscent for me of the multi-date Grateful Dead shows I attended in the past only better organized and obviously a gazillion more bands to see.

 

The wise Bonnarooer brings adequate equipment and provisions to maintain life outside of Bonnaroo Village. You can pay an extra $40 to bring an RV and camp in the RV section. Many folks rent rv’s for the trip that range greatly in price and size. The fellers next to us had a pretty good size RV with AC, shower and the whole bit that they paid $2100 for the trip for. There is the option of staying at a local hotel and traveling back and forth everyday but I wouldn’t recommend it. You can camp in a tent next to your car or you can really get communal and carry your tent and supplies to an area for tents only. Depending on your budget you can bring all your food and beverages and buy nothing in the venue or bring a bank roll and buy everything there. There is a general store for basic stuff but you could even buy a tent there if you wanted. Ice is available for sale the whole 4 days. Tons of vendors official and unofficial. Don’t plan on bringing anything (food or beverage) in glass as they search your vehicle and take it away at the gate.

 

The weather at Bonnaroo has always included at least one night of torrential downpours that turned the big meadows into swamps of mud. This year was beautiful mid June weather (low 90’s) with only a slight sprinkle one day that really felt good. The biggest weather related problem was the dust that by the end of the weekend made about half the crowd look like wild west bank robbers with their kerchiefs tied over their mouths.

 

This is the main stage where the big headliners played like The Police, Tool and Widespread Panic. The Police were fun to see but they stopped playing 45 minutes early-I felt Stung. Widespread Panic made up for it by playing 20 minutes early and playing 45 minutes longer than scheduled. They covered “Fairies Wear Boots” by Black Sabbath which takes us all pretty far back.

A cool guest of just about everybody’s set this year was John Paul Jones of Led Zepplin fame. He played with Gillian Welsh, Warren Haynes (Gov’t Mule) and Jorma Kaukonen (Hot Tuna). Everybody came to play with Warren including Bob Weir , Jorma, John Paul Jones and even a brief visit by comedian Lewis Black. One of the very rare bad crowd scenes was when Lewis Black got pelted with a bottle when he came on stage with Gov’t Mule. As you can imagine Lewis Black had some choice words for the perpetrator. The only other bad scene I experienced was a very crowded venue area where we were sitting on our blanket and people kept standing on my hands. (Could give a guy a complex.)

The Bonnaroo facility is covered with paintings of various rock and pop icons including giant size bobble heads of people that look like Jerry Garcia or Allen Ginsburg.

 

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Boy, you don’t see this everyday. An artist’s display of cast iron sculptures powered by propane that he lights and varies the supply of propane to create various flame images and sounds. To say nothing of the cherry red iron sculptures themselves. Very impressive. You can see the soundboard type control panel he used to run it. Nice to stay warm by in the late evenings when it got chilly.

 

Here are lines of people waiting to more or less be searched before going in the venue. You are not permitted to take in your own beverages, weapons, illegal drugs or large patio chairs. Smaller chairs that don’t block others’ view are okay and advisable. We saw items get taken away that greatly disappointed their former owners. The level of scrutiny seemed to vary greatly from time to time depending on the time of day and the age of the searchee. Being 48 and very cooperative meant very little searching of my meager possessions.

“Green Peace.” When asked by this Naked Sunfish correspondent how long it took to put all this on she said “about 30 seconds”. Later we found a group that was painting people on a mass scale with insecticide sprayers in kiddy pools.

There are about five stages and there are acts on just about every stage at any given time so you have to hustle form one stage to another to see your favorites. Oh such a fun problem to have! (i.e Do we stay to hear the last of Ralph Stanley or skip out on the last 10 minutes to see the beginning of Bob Weir and Ratdog?) Also, many different genres of music are available including jazz, rap, bluegrass, folk, rock, punk, pop, heavy metal, gospel ( I’m sure I’ve missed some but you get the point.)

 

This woman used a fairly ingenious method of keeping track of where she was supposed to be and when,. On her right leg she has written the names of the stages and the times she was to be there that day. Keeping that all straight is a major chore in trying to see all the bands you’ve set out to see in a day.

You can get lost so having your map they provide is essential as well as plans and/or a cell phone to stay in touch you’re your companions. This photo shows my buddy Brad outstanding in a field.

These metal stage areas have open sides to allow good viewing/listening all around.

 

You can squeeze yourself up front for that once in a lifetime view or just hang back for plenty of room.

 

Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys.  Great stuff!  At one point I heard Ralph Stanley exclaim “Somebody stop me! “ Apparently what happened was someone handed him an instrument and he was falling backwards. At 86 he’s a very old living legend. Generally, show were from noon until 3am for four days.

Bonnaroo can be exhausting. But it’s a cool enough place that you can plop down and take a nap if need be. At one point during the Wide Spread Panic show I was so tired I was dosing off and jerking my head back up to stay awake.

Okay well, this is a water source provided by the organizers. As you can see there are no showers on site unless you bring your own. Likewise, the bathroom situation is a porta-potty but they get high marks for cleaning them multiple times a day. Bringing your own camping toilet for those times between cleanings is a good idea but we never used it this year.

 

The Centeroo gateway.

If you’ve been turned off by the concert scene in the past because of the hassle of beer swilling crowds, this could be for you. You can relax at your campsite or head back in for more music for over 5 days. 

 If you want to check it out go to Bonnaroo.com. or you can email the likes of me at Billstsalor@cs.com.