On June 10th, I left Molly for the weekend to make the trek down to Manchester, Tennessee for an event they call BONNAROO.
Bonnaroo is a 4 day music and arts festival that is held on a 700 acre field outside of Manchester, Tennessee. I went solo this year because a friend wasn't able to make it, but being surrounded by 85,000 "hippies" you are bound to make some friends.
I left on Thursday at 6 am for the 13 hour drive. I drove straight through with minimal stops, hoping that i would make it there by 8 pm. Just enough time to get my tent up in the daylight.
Boy was I wrong! I should have known from my previous years experience. I made it to the Manchester exit by 8, but then had to drive 30 more miles south to get in line for the stop and crawl traffic. There were people everywhere, grilling on the side of the road, people playing guitar and frisbee. Deffinitely a sight to see. It was midnight, 4 hours of waiting in line when I saw the festival lights.
This is an arial view of the 700 acre farm and the sea of tents and cars. It literally turns into its own city. minus the showers and flushable toilets. But taking water trough showers and using the porta johns is all part of the bonnaroo experience. Suprisingly they keep them very clean.
When you enter the grounds, you are in to stay, or at least until the 84,999 people leave allowing you a path to get your vehicle out.
The Bonnaroo arch is the gateway to the stages area that they named Centeroo. This is where you can hear mind-blowing music 24 hours a day. They have artist come every year and change the designs of the festival structures every year.
The Magic Mushroom Fountain. This fountain was a life saver. The weather in tennesee in june is HOT and humid. It was 90 degrees at 7:00 am. The heat index during the day reached 105. this was one of the only ways to keep cool. they also had mist tents, but definitely not as cool. It also served as eye candy at night.
The Flaming LipsThere were 160 acts on 5 stages in 4 days. They included music and comedy. The stages have very interesting and confusing names. What stage, Which stage, This tent, That tent, and The Other tent. You can only image the conversations when figuring out what bands play at what stages.
Their are obviously too many bands to list, here are just a few:
Jack Black of Tenacious DZac Brown Band
Umphrey's McGee w/ Disco BiscuitsStevie Wonder
DAVE MATTHEWS BANDI also watched; Kings of leon, Micheal Franti, Les Claypool, Nora Jones, Jay-z, weezer, Dropkick Murphys, John Fogerty and Conan O'Brien.
One of the many bobble head statues!
That Tent, no The Other Tent.
I had some really cool neighbors that I made friends with, from all over the country and from all different backgrounds. We meshed really well and felt like a family after having just met each other. We were together for only 4 days, and yet we were still emotional when we all parted ways. It seems funny, but that's bonnaroo.
jason! what an excellent post! did you take those photos of the musicians?? if so, you did a fantastic job! and, you must've had a primo spot in the crowd, too. wow, that's so great that you went down there by yourself and made all those friends. glad you had such a terrific time!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading it. Yeah, Im really glad I went too. It was a great time. It's like being in a different world. I didn't take any of the musician close ups, but the others I did. It was very difficult to get that close. Hope you had a wonderful birthday! Talk to you soon.
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