My Morning Jacket was one of the many bands at Bonnaroo who put on a headliner worthy performance for the more than 90,000 attendees. | Photo by C. Taylor Crothers/Big Hassle Media
Everything is supposed to be bigger in Texas, but that isn’t necessarily true. Music festivals are bigger, better and greener in Tennessee.
Texas sports several great mainstream music festivals – Austin City Limits, SXSW, Austin Reggae Festival, Free Press Summerfest, etc. – but none of those come close to capturing the experience of Bonnaroo.
Bonnaroo is an around-the-clock adventure more in the vein of European festivals. There is no nightly intermission to retreat home and take a relaxing shower, lick one’s wounds and recover in a comfy bed. Going to Bonnaroo is an investment and it is totally worth the schlep even from Texas.
Unlike ACL where people are carted to and from the festival and leave when they are done taking in the day’s attractions, festival-goers camp when they attend Bonnaroo and it turns the Manchester, Tenn. farm into a city of tents, RVs, hippies, hipsters and vagabonds. It’s awesome.
For four days, your life becomes hearing new music, meeting new people and having new experiences and just being immersed in the whole thing. It’s great to wake up and stretch and realize that your biggest problem of the day is whether to see Lil’ Wayne or Big Boi at midnight, or plan how you’re going to still have the energy to groove to Ratatat afterwards at 2:30 a.m.
With all 12 stages active during the day, it’s best to pick out a few bands that you want to see and spend the rest of the time walking around and exploring. It’s hard not to stumble upon something really cool that you haven’t heard or seen before.
Daytime is also a good time to check out the tents at Center Roo and throughout the site to escape the heat. They house everything from drum painting, a silent disco – cooler than you think, a 24-hour cinema and non-profit organizations.
Between shows and letting out your inner-hippie by donating to alternative energy groups or signing up for newsletters to support America’s famers, it’s always good to rehydrate and eat to prepare for the night’s headliners. There were plenty of free water stations to refill at and many concession stands that cater to carnivores, vegetarians and vegans at reasonable prices with lines that moved quickly.
Preparing for the nighttime is important. Bonnaroo is truly an around the clock experience and it’s best to avoid letting the sun beat you down during the day because the bigger acts at night come hard and quick and you don’t want to miss out on those.
This year, on Saturday starting at 6:15 p.m., you might have gone from Mumford & Sons to the Black Keys, straight to Buffalo Springfield and then to headliner Eminem at 11 p.m. And it doesn’t end there. After Marshall wrapped up, there were choices to be made, Dr. John or String Cheese Incident at midnight and Gogol Bordello or Girl Talk at 2:30 a.m. These choices are like asking an NBA GM, “Do you want Kevin Durant or Blake Griffin?” Well, gee, I don’t know they’re both great choices.
This is what separates Bonnaroo from the other festivals in Texas and the rest of the U.S. There are more great choices for everyone no matter your music taste and they can play into the night until the sun comes up. Some festivals like Cochella and ACL have restrictions on how long and how late a set can go, but Bonnaroo is free of these restrictions.
Since its inception, Bonnaroo has also been committed to reducing its carbon footprint. Clean Vibes is a waste management company that has partnered with it since its first year in 2002 and has helped divert 60 percent of the waste at the festival from going to landfills and instead being recycled or composted. That is a pretty impressive number when you consider that over 90,000 people attend Bonnaroo each year.
Texas has its official slogan, but let’s be serious, things are bigger, better and greener in Tennessee.
this is good to print because there's no info on bonnaroo out there and there's so much info on UH art, bands, etc.