Almost every year in June, the hubs and I make our pilgrimage with all the long haired, bongo playin', incense burning, hula hooping hippies to
the southern Mecca for jam rock a little farm in Manchester, Tennessee for 5 days of concerts, camping, dancing and a whole host of other shenanigans. The Bonnaroo tribe consists of about 80,000 people and is not for the faint of heart. It's a commitment. A commitment to live communally in a field with no shade, no running water and only port-a-potties. It's also a commitment to camp with people who
may or
may not bathe during their experience- did I mention it's in June in Tennessee?? It's a commitment to regularly apply sunblock, stand in lines to eat, bathe and go to the bathroom and it's a commitment to knowing you'll come home bone tired, but with some excellent memories!
the not-so urban sprawl
This has been a ritual for us for years. Weeks of planning, epic trips to Costco for supplies, packing and repacking, checking off lists, last minute stops for batteries and gas, and let's not forget the ongoing search for decent canned beer. It's an EVENT. And for us, it has been THE event for the bulk of our summers. The hubs and I used to buy our tickets early- before the lineup even came out, as we could usually be sure that there would be enough bands there to suit our tastes. As Bonnaroo has grown, the festival has attracted a more diverse musical line up and comedy acts.
This year's line up is no exception.
The first year I made the trek was 2003. It was before I knew the hubster and none of my friends were interested, so I went by myself with a 2 man tent, a beach chair, toilet paper, a bag of granola and a jug of water. Missed the memo about sunblock that year... Anyway, I was hooked. I stayed for 3 days, met a gazillion friends along the way and felt like I had found my tribe. It reminded me of the very first Grateful Dead concert I had ever been to, only turned up to 11.
Since then, I have been almost every year and have enjoyed it just as much as the first time. I think in 2004 I bought a hammock to take. In 2006 I upgraded my tent and bought a cot the size of a twin bed. Now, this is how we roll:
She's no beauty and she smells kinda funny, but she's got 2 beds and AIR CONDITIONING!! Since most of the best shows go late into the night and it's too hot to sleep after 7 AM, the air conditioning is ESSENTIAL to the Roo experience. You can sleep until 1 or 2 PM (most good shows don't start until later than that), then get up, eat and dance the night away!
In 2009, we splurged and went VIP. This allowed us the closest camp sites to Centeroo. Centeroo is where the music happens (2 large stages, 2 large "tents" and a ton of smaller tents and stages). Well, where the music you
pay for happens, as nearly every camp site has someone with a guitar or a djembe drum ready to engage you in conversation and a song.
The first year I went, I was in the very last row of the very last campsite- about a 2.5 mile walk each way to Centeroo. SUCK. If you've got the cash, VIP can be a somewhat swanky option. The super secret entrance into Centeroo for VIP guests kept us out of lines and allowed us to smuggle in a few beers from our camp site. But the real advantage to VIP happens before you even get there. When our tickets came, we got super secret traffic directions to the venue that prevented our 60 mile drive from turning into 6 hours of this:
We also had flushing toilets, hot showers, a designated "not so crowded" seating area and access to a couple of air conditioned tents in Centeroo. They also lay out a big spread for dinner on Thursday night with free beer. This was awesome, since it poured down rain, and we sat in a tent drinking free beer and wondering what the sorry suckas stuck 2 miles from their campsites were doing! The toilets were probably the clincher for me though. Air conditioned bathrooms with running water to wash your hands and face are PURE LUXURY at Bonnaroo! No trying to balance a flashlight to make sure you don't stand, touch or sit in something undesirable, no baby wipes needed to wipe everything down prior to doing your business and no huge lines (especially important when there's free beer). Bathroom attendants keep everything clean and stocked. The showers were a little funky- not sure they were all that better than a shower tent and a bucket of water that only you and your camp mates use, but still, it was nice. BUT THE COST!!! Oh dear lord, the cost. It costs about triple the regular cost. I find myself regularly wondering if it was worth it. But it's hard to go back, once you've had the good stuff. At least if you're a lady of leisure, like myself!
Last year we shocked everyone by skipping Bonnaroo. We had big plans to attend the Crossroads Festival in Chicago and the Rothbury Festival in Michigan. Plans fell through for Crossroads, and they canceled Rothbury. Boooo.
This year we sit on the fence- do we Roo? It
is conveniently located and there are several great acts on this year's roster. However, I think I prefer a smaller festival with mostly hippie bands and hippie crowds. Hippies know how to live communally and generally like happy music over angry music and they wiggle instead of moshing. It's the familiar, and with 80,000 people living together for 5 days in a field, I think I prefer the familiar... Am I aging????
