The
Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an annual four-day
music festival created and produced by
Superfly Presents and
AC Entertainment, held at
Great Stage Park on a 700-acre (2.8 km²) farm in
Manchester, Tennessee,
USA.
It hosted its eleventh annual event June 7–10, 2012. The main
attractions of the festival are the multiple stages of live music,
featuring a diverse array of musical styles including
indie rock,
world music,
hip hop,
jazz,
americana,
bluegrass,
country music,
folk,
gospel,
reggae,
electronica, and other
alternative music. The festival began with a primary focus on
jam bands and folk rock; it has diversified greatly in recent years but continues to pay tribute to its roots. Past notable acts include
Radiohead,
Phish,
Stevie Wonder,
The White Stripes,
Neil Young,
Pearl Jam,
Tom Petty,
The Dead,
The Allman Brothers Band,
James Brown,
Wilco,
Bon Iver,
The Flaming Lips,
Willie Nelson,
Jay-Z,
Eminem,
Bob Dylan,
The Black Keys,
Dave Matthews Band,
Buffalo Springfield,
Arcade Fire,
The Strokes,
The Black Crowes,
Metallica,
Red Hot Chili Peppers,
Bruce Springsteen,
Beastie Boys,
Nine Inch Nails, and
Widespread Panic.
The festival features craftsmen and artisans selling unique products,
food and drink vendors, a comedy tent, silent disco, cinema tent, and
ferris wheel.
The festival was named one of the "50 Moments That Changed Rock & Roll" by
Rolling Stone magazine.
[1] and "Festival of the Decade" by Consequence of Sound and among the 10 Best Festivals by
GQ Magazine.
History
The word
Bonnaroo, popularized by New Orleans R&B singer
Dr. John with his 1974 album
Desitively Bonnaroo,
[2] means "a really good time." It is a
Ninth Ward
slang construction taken from the French "bon" meaning "good," and
"rue" from the French "street," translating to "the best on the
streets."
[3] The name was chosen both for its literal meaning and to honor the rich Louisiana music tradition.
The first Bonnaroo took place in 2002 and took inspiration from music
festivals in the 1990s, including those put on by the band
Phish,
Coachella and
Glastonbury. With no traditional advertising, the festival sold out in nearly two weeks. By 2003, the festival had been named by
Rolling Stone
as one of the top 50 moments in rock & roll. Comedy acts such as
Jim Breuer were first added in 2005. In 2007, Bonnaroo purchased the
land for the festival, creating Great Stage Park with all of its iconic
features. A permanent main stage was installed in 2010.
[4]
Economy
On January 10, 2007, Bonnaroo organizers Superfly Productions
purchased a major portion of the site where the annual music festival is
held. The purchase of 530 acres (2.1 km
2) encompassed all of
the performance areas and much of the camping and parking area used for
the annual festival; the festival will continue to lease another 250
acres (1.0 km
2) that currently serve as additional parking
and camping. Since its inception, Bonnaroo has contributed more than $1
million directly to
Coffee County
organizations. In addition to annual charitable contributions, the
festival's activities provide annual revenue to the county. Measured in a
2005 study, the economic impact of the event on Coffee County was more
than $14 million in business revenues and more than $4 million in
personal income.
[5] The Bonnaroo music festival makes most of its income from the fans.
Environmentalism
Bonnaroo promotes itself as a sustainable festival.
[6] As a reward for sending a letter to a legislator in support of
climate change legislation, the
Natural Resources Defense Council gave 17 free downloads from various Bonnaroo artists.
[7] A Greener Festival has recognized Bonnaroo's efforts for the past three years.
[8] There is a defined process, which includes a self-evaluation and an audit from Greener Festival auditors during Bonnaroo.
[9]
Accolades
In 2008, it was named "Best Festival" by
Rolling Stone magazine, calling it "the ultimate over-the-top summer festival."
[10]
One of “50 moments that changed rock & roll” –
Rolling Stone
“Bonnaroo has revolutionized the modern rock festival” – The New York Times
[11]
“Festival of the Year” – Pollstar
“Best festival of the summer” – SPIN
[12]
“The culmination of a musical movement” – USA Today
[13]
“The concert event of the summer” – USA Today
“Music and subculture melted together into a pot of creative bubbling energy” – CNN
[14]
“Bonnaroo: Three days of musical history in the making” - AP
Venues
The official venues located at Bonnaroo often change from year to year. The following are a few of the more permanent venues.
Which Stage at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, TN.
- Centeroo - The Central area of Bonnaroo. Serviced by two main
entrances, nearly all of the festival activity is enclosed in this area.
Various merchants and activities supplement the plethora of music
related activities located within Centeroo. While Centeroo is open 24
hours a day, musical artists generally only play from noon until the
evening, followed by the unopposed headlining act. Afterwards, there are
late-night sets, usually running from midnight until the early morning,
sometimes as late as 5 or 6 AM.
- What Stage - The main stage of the festival is also the largest.
What Stage is open from approximately noon until midnight (late night
sets usually over by 3am). Traditionally, the headlining act each day
will play on the What Stage with no other acts performing on any other
stages.
- Which Stage - The second stage, Which Stage, is generally one of the
last stages to finish before the headlining act each night. After the
headlining act performs, a late night show generally follows here.
- This Tent, That Tent, and The Other Tent - These three tents serve
as a combined tertiary tier for musical performances. Late night shows
also generally occur in all three of these venues, along with the yearly
Superjam, a one-off combination of various musicians performing at the festival.
- Comedy Tent - This tent is reserved strictly for comedy acts, such as stand up comedians.
Various other small tents and stages also exist, such as the Solar
Stage, Lunar Stage, Sonic Stage, and the Cinema tent. See the Bonnaroo
website for further details on these venues.
Facilities
Camping space and parking are included in the Bonnaroo ticket price
but are limited to the patron's vehicle and the space immediately behind
the vehicle. Patrons are directed to a parking space by festival staff
and parking and camp set up are monitored to ensure adequate open lanes
remain through the campgrounds. Some creative campers work together to
command more space than the usual area behind the car, and circus-like
tents pop up here and there with numerous people sharing a large
communal "chill tent" and cooking area and smaller tents branching off
in several directions. (Festival organizers also offer "Groop Camping"
in a designated area of the farm, a VIP option offering more space and
other benefits, RV areas, and a large tent-only area.) A more typical
experience is the small site occupied by two or three campers with a
tent and a shade canopy, leaving enough room for folding chairs and
cooler. Within walking distance of all Bonnaroo campsites are ranks of
portable (not flushing) toilets which are cleaned approximately once per
day during the festival by roving pumper trucks and their crews. Close
camping proximity to the portable toilets has been a mixed blessing:
good when the drinks are flowing and the bladder calling but bad when
the pumper trucks come and stir the smells as they may do at any hour of
the day or night. Also within walking distance are watering stations
where Bonnaroovians may fill water jugs or wash publicly. The portable
toilets and watering stations are found throughout the general admission
campgrounds and in Centeroo. Also available to campers are pay showers
at each of the pods - see "Activities." Patrons are allowed to bring
portable generators of a limited size but there is otherwise no access
to electricity at the Bonnaroo campsites.
Activities
Some graffiti by Nashville artist
Ryan McCauley on the Graffiti Wall, which separates Centeroo from the campsites.
Available to the Bonnaroo public throughout the week are various
activity tents. These tents become most popular with the night crowd,
with such activities set up as The Silent Disco tent and several other
club or bar-themed venues. In the Silent Disco, each person upon
entering the tent is given a set of headphones that syncs with the DJ
and the music, so everyone is listening to the same song through the
headphones while appearing from the outside to be dancing to no music at
all. Other activities include the Comedy Tent where comedians from
Mike Birbiglia to
Flight of the Conchords
have performed. The Cinema tent, showing a variety of mainstream and
independent movies, is also popular as it is one of the air conditioned
tents, and the Broo’ers Festival tent is a popular attraction featuring a
variety of breweries from all over the United States. Outside the big
tents, Planet Roo hosts a variety of non-profit organizations sharing
information on healthy lifestyles and resource conservation, and
Splash-a-Roo (a giant slip-n-slide area) and a giant mushroom fountain
provide a practical way to beat the heat. Bonnaroo creators designated
the wall surrounding Centeroo, colloquially called "the Graffiti Wall",
as a place for street artists to paint whatever they feel like painting.
Outside the music venue, in the packed campgrounds known to
Bonnaroovians as Tent City, there are also about 11 pods set up by
festival organizers with activities and services for the campers. Each
pod has an information
[15]
and medical booth and a community art project. Often these are joint
projects between invited artists and the campers themselves: past
festival pods have featured birdhouse construction and decorating
[16],
stretched canvas and paints open to anyone with a message or picture in
his or her mind, a giant Lite Brite-like panel, and huge frames and raw
clay which Bonnaroovians shaped and moulded to their taste. Some of the
art installations are finished prior to the festival and have offered
visitors an opportunity to walk through a bamboo forest 15 to 20 degrees
cooler than the surrounding farm and to peer through a series of large
kaleidoscopes. In addition to information, medical services and an art
project, each pod offers public showers for $7 each.
Activities like these, along with great food vendors and unique
shopping, provide an easy and fun way to hang around the festival in
between music performances. In 2009, Bonnaroo featured the Bungaloo, a
community art project that invited festival goers to paint a small tile
that was then affixed to 10 foot water drops suspended between The Other
Tent and This Tent. For each tile painted, the festival-goer could vote
for the charity of their choice. Bungaloo, a new online paint company,
made a $1000 donation to the charity with the most votes.
Weather
Bonnaroo is held in June in Middle Tennessee, and it is not unusual
for temperatures to reach the 90's in the daytime and dip into the 70's
at night. High humidity is a given. Rain should be expected; severe
thunderstorms are not uncommon, and tornadoes are possible year-round in
Tennessee, though none has ever hit the campgrounds during the
festival. Most information sources recommend attendees bring a sun-hat,
sweater or jacket, rain poncho, and a pair of boots in addition to
shorts, bikinis and sandals. Heat exhaustion and dehydration are
frequent complaints among Bonnaroovians and have contributed to
fatalities at past Bonnaroos. They are easy to avoid, however, by
drinking plenty of water, avoiding excessive alcohol consumption, and
limiting time in the sun. Sun burn is another common ailment at Bonnaroo
- but is also easily avoided through liberal application of sun-screen.
Bonnaroo veterans bring shade tents and camp fans and plenty of water
or at least a container that can be filled at one of several public
water outlets. When the weather is dry, Bonnaroo's gravel and dirt roads
generate clouds of dust. Bonnaroovians often fashion handkerchief masks
to filter the dust before breathing it. Many Bonnaroovians go barefoot
for the weekend, and the hardcore barefoot music fans
[17] much prefer the dust to the alternative of walking around on hot asphalt or concrete.
Security
Bonnaroo is patrolled by several levels of security and numerous
public and private organizations with the same priority: ensuring the
safety of the 80,000 or more music fans who make the festival what it
is, as well as the 7,500 or so locals who call Manchester home
year-round. Off-site and around festival entrances there is a large
presence of Tennessee Highway Patrol, Manchester Police and Coffee
County Sheriffs Department personnel directing traffic and maintaining
order. Upon entering the festival grounds attendees and their cars are
searched by festival volunteers but might also be pulled out of line and
searched by the Coffee County deputies or special drug task forces.
While the volunteers seem to focus on the "no list" publicized on the
official Bonnaroo Website and including such items as glass containers,
pets, firearms, fire-works and nitrous oxide tanks, the police seem to
search primarily for drugs and have prevented marijuana, LSD and "magic
mushrooms," among other drugs, from entering the site.
On-site security features teams on golf carts who respond to
emergencies as they arise across the festival grounds. There are also
dozens of mounted security officers working in pairs and riding the
festival campgrounds 24 hours a day. The "Bonnaroo Mounties" watch
closely for signs of tent burglary - not uncommon at Bonnaroo, though
this is not a festival where you must nail everything down lest it be
stolen. They are also on the lookout for assault and illegal vending by
unregistered vendors.
[18] [19]Nonetheless,
illicit vending does occur at Bonnaroo, with such items as bootleg
posters, marijuana and mushrooms readily available. Many Bonnaroovians
have heard the marijuana salesman's refrain, "sticky nugs," echoing
around the campground at one time or another. The quality of the
marijuana is reportedly excellent, however, the quality of the mushrooms
has varied from very high to more or less bunk.
Under cover police have also been known to roam the Bonnaroo grounds
attempting to buy drugs and bust illicit dealers. In the past, the focus
has been on prescription painkillers which are more likely to kill
attendees than mushrooms or marijuana. However, the police do not turn
their backs on dealing of the softer drugs and pot dealers are busted
every year.
Each time a festival patron enters Centeroo from the campgrounds he
or she is subject to search by volunteer security workers whose efforts
range from a look and a wave to thorough pat-downs and searches of
backpacks, purses, etc. Festival patrons can speed entry onto the site
for themselves and others by limiting the number of items they carry
into Centeroo and paying attention to the published "no list
[20]."
Prohibited items may be confiscated. Seldom is anyone prosecuted when
searches uncover marijuana paraphernalia or small stashes - but it is
possible. While marijuana use is a fact of life at Bonnaroo (and in fact
vendors set up every year offering thousands of water bongs and small
glass pipes for sale) marijuana remains illegal in any form in
Tennessee, and the state has not yet recognized medical marijuana and
will not honor out of state medical marijuana cards.
Christian Outreach
One unique aspect of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is the
annual effort by local and regional Baptists to reach out to festival
attendees with free refreshments and entertainment in the "More Than
Music" tent. On a site near the edge of the Bonnaroo farm (close to Pod 9
and just off Brushy Branch Road) the "More Than Music" tent offers
shade and fans, sweet iced tea, water, snacks and other comforts to
anyone who walks in
[21].
Specializing in a soft-sell approach to proselytizing, the hosts have
offered art demonstrations and regular worship services as well as free
access to computers and the Internet in an effort to spread the love of
God
[22].
Forgot your toothbrush or deodorant? Ask the Bonnaroo Baptists at the
"More Than Music" tent. The "More Than Music" effort has its origins in
the long traffic jams and often-chaotic scene which broke out around
early Bonnaroos when thousands more fans showed up than local
authorities had anticipated. Local church-goers stepped up to car
windows with bottles of water, and have not stopped being a part of
Bonnaroo since.
[23]
So called Christian outreach has also generated controversy at
Bonnaroo: the event has been picketed by people posing as Christians
with signs condemning the Bonnaroovians to hell, etc. The pickets have
been met by sneering counter protests and sparked arguments generating
unwanted stress and trouble for the already busy Bonnaroo security
staff.
Some well-meaning organizations have been first allowed and then asked not to come back to Bonnaroo. Super Bowl Ministries
[24]is one such organization. A volunteer with that group was not
... We talked about getting another championship and trying to put the
Celtics in the rearview mirror. That's something that was driving him
and that's something that continues to drive me.
Jerry
Buss had vision unlike any other. From humble beginnings to the L.A.
spotlight, he changed the game as owner of the Lakers, writes Ramona
Shelburne. 
Jerry
Buss admittedly loved winning with the Lakers, but he also certainly
knew how to enjoy life and have fun along the way, writes J.A. Adande. 
Jerry
Buss was a symbol of stability for a franchise that has had its fair
share of Hollywood drama throughout the years, writes Dave McMenamin. 
Current and former NBA players were among those remembering Lakers owner Jerry Buss on Twitter following his death Monday. 
For more news, notes and analysis of the Lakers, check out the Lakers Index. 
