Bonnnarooooo
Trip Start
Aug 01, 2009
1
3
10
Trip End
Sep 21, 2009
Where I stayed
Great Stage Park
Manchester, Tennessee
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Bonnaroo is a four day music festival in Tennessee. It generally runs on the second Thursday through Sunday of each June and includes non-stop music, revelry, and on-site camping on a 700-acre farm. Some of this year's headliners include Yeah Yeah Yeahs, MGMT, Beastie Boys, Santogold, Ani Difranco, Of Montreal, Wilco, Animal Collective, The Mars Volta, TV on the Radio...you get the point
This is Chad's first experience at Bonnaroo and my second. We drove down to Manchester, and once there, we waited in a line of cars for over EIGHT hours just to get inside. Let me specify by saying that we waited in a line of cars for eight hours in 90 degree heat with no A/C or bathrooms or anything...just a long line of cars winding down a dirt road.
Day One: Phish is one of the headliners, so there are strung out Phish-heads hopping fences and trying to buy tickets/drugs/whatever on the side of the highway, totally oblivious to the threats of state troopers. After a full day of waiting in line (and missing some good acts) we arrive inside only to receive a thorough car search wherein security takes away all of our fine, hand-crafted Wisconsin microbrews! We are then ushered to a camp site which is a good 35 minute walk from all of the music venues, but we're tired and don't much care by this point. Chad and I attempt to set up our tent in total darkness--I hold a flashlight between my teeth and do some kind of Cro-Magnon dance to make it work. As soon as we finish pitching the tent, the heavens open up and let forth a torrential downpour; lightning strikes the field near our tent several times. So much for Day One!
-- Jen
Day Two & Onward: I am in fact having a good time for many reasons. One, I absolutely LOVE hanging out with Jen. Love her forever. Two, despite the massive crowds I've really enjoyed the music. And the smell of the food drives me insane!
Here’s what bothers me about Bonnaroo: it’s a destination for college students and burnt out hippies to enrich themselves in drugs. I guess that’s fine if that’s what you’re into, but I look at some of these people and wonder…do they have jobs? Is this all they do? Then I wonder: what is the definition of a hippie? By the looks of it, they talk a big game for making a difference in the world, but instead get too caught up in drugs, festivals, and dirty clothes to follow through on anything they promote (well, except drugs).
Two things to take away from this: 1) Jen and I are probably not hippies because we have goals for this world that we probably will or have already achieved. 2) We’ll have to work that much harder to help improve our society, country, and world to pick up the slack of the so-called hippies, who in fact are too busy tripping on LSD in the woods of Bonnaroo!
-- Chad
