Whether it's your first Bonnaroo or you’re a music festival veteran, we welcome you to Inforoo.
Here you'll find info about artists, rumors, camping tips, and the infamous Roo Clues. Have a look around then create an account and join in the fun. See you at Bonnaroo!!
shit. roorunner was telling me about this on thursday night. definately sounded pretty ridiculous to sit in traffic at the holiday after getting your shit because they don't have someone there to direct traffic.
Post by finrooster on Jun 19, 2007 23:32:25 GMT -5
I had a great V.I.P experience. First off stayed wed. night at the holiday Inn (in the hotel) So the couple hour line to get in was bearable after a good sleep and shower. The food was alright. (not going to bonnaroo to meet Emeril) Not too veggie friendly (but last year wasn't either) Thats why ya have vendors and a grill. The V.I.P tent was better air conditioned last year. But I didn't melt. All and all the overwhelming cleanliness of VIP was worth every penny. I wonder how many complaining VIP'ers actually walked around the general population. The dust , the stench etc. etc. Another awesome Bonnaroo experience!
Post by layingblames on Jun 20, 2007 0:09:07 GMT -5
OH OH OH! i completely forgot to talk about the convo i had w/ one of the VIP supervisors.
they were equally as mad as i was when i talked to them on friday about the lines/treatment/lack of communication/lack of delivering the goods. the guy also told me that their intention was to search ALL of the RVs at HIE at checkin. and that they were initially going to allow no cameras, flashlights, umbrellas, chairs on any days of the festival.
what company would the VIP supervisors be with? i would like to at least credit the only people who actually gave me straight answers when i draft my little letters. the couple of people i talked to in the trailer were very helpful and completely honest w/ the facts, as they were.
I'm sure SF/AC will better prepare/plan next year, but I felt really, really bad because I had posted in the "Convince me to go VIP" thread that VIP was the sh*t and there would be no waiting and no security checks. It really made me feel like I mislead you guys and I'm sorry.
Don't feel bad, Andrea! You have been one of the most helpful, cheerful persons on Inforoo! AC/Superfly dropped the ball on this one, and they deserve all the blame.
Side note: I think I saw you in your FJ Cruiser, on my way from the HIE to the campground, as I was on Rt. 41. I would have yelled "Corncat," but I didn't want to wreck the car trying to get the window down in a hurry. Too bad we couldn't have shared a first-day hug (or a second-day handshake! ;D)
Thanks for saying that, I was pretty bummed that first day about the whole deal
Yeah, it's quite possible it was us you saw - we were on Rt. 41 for a looonnnnnggggg time.
The real thing about the VIP access to the tents is consistency. Did we have access or not? For me it was nice to be have that option for some of the shows.
Overall it was the way to go I just think doing a couple of things better, ie allow access into the site earlier, breakfast no breakfast or at least start lunch earlier (there are show that start early)
First, this was an incredible experience, the music, community, and spirit of the event were simply amazing! Now for my gripes:
1. Traffic. WTF? While some of you folks rationalize that 80,000 people arriving will cause problems, I simply don't buy that whole enchilada. Back in the day, I went to a "Yes" concert with over 100,000 other people at JFK stadium in Philly and waited a fraction of the time...and they ALL arrived around the same time. Haven't you guys been to a sporting event were 70 to 80,000 people go? There's got to be a better way! BTW, I too was waiting on Rt 41 but finally decided to be aggressive (which I shouldn't have to do, and made me feel like an ass). If you saw a white Maxima following a lumber truck going down the wrong side of 41, that was me...sorry!
2. Parking: I was under the impression that there would be plenty of room. Not so. I was directed to the BFE section of VIP and was sandwiched between 3 other campers, not allowing enough room to set-up a shade area, which we know is of utmost importance, especially in the morning.
3. Bathrooms. My wife said that the AC in the one set of bathrooms was out of service, and was not repaired for the first couple of days, if it all. It was a ten minute walk to showers and bathrooms. That is simply unacceptable when that was one of the major reasons for shelling out $1200.00.
4. Food. Acceptable, but the lines at noon were overwhelming. What if I wanted to make a 1:00 show? Couldn't be done.
5. Lighting. I know this is a little nit-picky, but wasn't anyone else blinded by those lights at the back of VIP? The plus side? I didn't need lights at night, even INSIDE my tent.
Oh, did anyone else hear that woman yelling...for HOURS, 'get off the road, get on the grass?' Really annoying!
All in all though, this was an experience that will stay with me and we'll most likely be back. To use a bad metaphor; If women remembered the pain of childbirth, they'd only have one baby.' People tend to forget the less then enjoyable incidents and remember the positive ones. BTW, wasn't the music amazing? (and no, I'm not talking about the Police).
It was our first roo and we went VIP, and would again. We shared space with 3 other wonderful couples who were there for the music. The food was fine. Lines are to be expected. There was a cluster in the parking. When we arrived at VIP, there was no one directing traffic and we got an awesome spot halfway between the tent and the bathrooms. More bathroom trailers would be nice next year. All and all a decent experience. The music rocked.
Gov't Mule was the best show I've seen in 30 years of concerts.
HIE - Very simple solution - do not let RVS into that parking lot - let them park at Walmart and run a shuttle or let folks walk over. It wasn't that far of a walk. That way everyone could turn right onto 41 at the light - (I was pulling a popup and would have preferred doiong that) And when it fills up with cars, make them park at Walmart and take the shuttle. They need to have lot attendants and police at the exit. The "turn right and get back in line" solution was one of the most idiotic things I have ever seen. I actually had a girl tell me that she would only let me in line if we agreed to NOT let anyone else in. Of course we didn't agree - and she just nudged up and wouldn't let us in line. My hero of the weekend was the lady in the big RV who swung around me into the ramp intersection and blocked for me and a few others...karma to her! Next time we stopped, I got out of my car and threw her a hi"gh" five. The lack of information and direction from the "Roo staff was frustrating - even though they are volunteers, they should know what's up. That guy at the HIE was a complete A$$ho%@. We made some good friends in line - props to Sue and her husband the middle school principal (sorry - I forgot your name and Rich and Jenn who ended up camping next to us...lemonaide from lemons!
FOOD - The lines were caused by having to wait for food from afar. They needed to have "steam boxes" set up outside of the tent so that as one pan emptied it was quickly replaced.
SECURITY - The entrance lines were backed up by security checks. We were stopped outside of the first checkpoint, when a helicopter landed ( the small one that was buzzing around all weekend), a guy jumped out and started yelling at the guy for having the entrance line stopped. He said he doing what he was told...this guy was clearly one of the organizer's reps. After that, we found out they were searching every single car, 4 at a time - and searching every nook and cranny...instead of randomly...things started moving well after that.
Showers - just need to add more and a few more sinks with mirrors.
Generally a good experience after we set up...but definitely room for improvement.
"And no-one showed us to the land And no-one knows the where or whys But something stirs and something tries And starts to climb towards the light" Pink Floyd - Echoes - Meddle
This was our first bonnaroo & we went VIP with the RV. Personally I'd say VIP is a misnomer. They should call it "Premium". Too many VIPers to give anyone "VIP" treatment. With that said VIP is the only way to go in my opinion. We walked out in the GA area 1 time & got about 100 yards down the road before we said screw this let's go back!
We came up I-24 from chattanooga & said the hell with exit 127 when we saw the line & cops/interstate sign telling everyone to use that same exit which were supposedly secret VIP instructions. I can't give away our top secret entrance but we showed up around 6ish on Thursday night & drove straight into the HIE with zero wait. No line at the HIE, got our stuff, filled up the RV with gas & we were parked in VIP in 10 minutes, 5 of which was the tossing of our RV by the search team. Boy did they rip apart our RV.
Overall the experience was great. We were parked near showers & A/C bathrooms, VIP tent was a 5 minute walk. Obviously dust was terrible but not much they can do there. They dumped water on the VIP roads fairly often.
Food was decent, although running out of the ice cream/cold treats is just plain ridiculous. No way extra $ on their part in that area is going to break the bank. We were told they planned for 2 ice cream treats per VIPer for the whole weekend. Terrible planning if that's the case. If people taking too much is a problem stick a volunteer behind a counter in the tent whose job it is to scoop ice cream cones out of 5 gallon vats.
No snacks in the VIP tent under the main stage bleachers was irritating considering the information sent to VIP ticket holders specifically states snacks are served.
Turning off the hot water in the VIP showers Sunday night was also not cool. I'd bet lots of folks would have loved to take a hot shower after packing up the campsite prior to the road trip home on Monday morning.
As the weekend went on we realized the best course of action was to stick between the RV campsite, VIP tent, and main stage area, and then only venture out into the centeroo area when someone you really wanted to see was playing or to walk around.
Pluses were the ease of breezing through the VIP tent to the main stage area with whatever we liked. I was loaded down with chairs, coolers, backpacks, etc. Bottles of liquour, mixers, etc. Hell we even took in a vodka loaded watermelon one night.
We ended up waiting a long time to leave monday morning, i think we misdirected into the GA exits. Or perhaps they shut down the VIP entrance to the campground.
Never saw water stations, they need to either include tons of bottled water available everywhere for VIPers or water cooler stations. Jack up the ticket price a little bit to cover it or have a H20 company sponsor & offer the water stations.
Some VIP bathrooms near the VIP tent are needed for the women & to be honest if they were close to the VIP tent/main stage entrance I would have used them as well even being a guy.
VIP was almost worth the price of admission of being able to breeze into centeroo at will vs. the GA lines to centeroo we witnessed on a daily basis as they checked everyone. Looked like a pack of salmon attempting to swim upstream everytime we walked past it.
By the way, what gives with The Police shutting it down at 9:45. Weren't they supposed to play until 10:30?
"what company would the VIP supervisors be with? i would like to at least credit the only people who actually gave me straight answers when i draft my little letters. the couple of people i talked to in the trailer were very helpful and completely honest w/ the facts, as they were."
The VIP supervisor, in the trailer by the hospitality tents at the back of the What Field, is Dave Precheur (sp?). He used to be the road manager for Blues Traveler in the late 80s and 90s. He's a great guy, was doing a lot to keep VIP running smoothly.
(I used to know him from Traveler shows in 89 and 90, until last weekend had not seen him in over 15 years! A nice surprise to go over to the VIP trailer for a small issue, and see an old familiar face.)
4 th Roo here, 1st time VIP.....Will be back next year to VIP....The cut down on walking is the main benefit for us....No searches getting into CenterRoo was awesome, we took in a small 3 Liter keg of beer and went to the VIP bleachers to the left of the stage and tapped it.....Showers were awesome, even when the water was cold.....Bathrooms were clean everytime I went into them and also A/C blowing like crazy.....Our spot was between the restrooms and VIP hospitality tent...always a breeze except on sunday.....Ironically the people we were in line with to get our tickets at the HIE, are the same people we camped with, even though we got our tickets and went to our cars in the lot, some how we got lined up all in a row and I had 4 of the best neighbors ever that I could asked for....We hung out all weekend....All the people I met in VIP were the nicest and hung out with many through out the whole weekend.....I actually was VIP profiling many times in Centeroo and would spot out other blue wrist bands to hang out with....Walking out to GA camping was like a third world country to me now....I do not know how I made it out there the last 3 years....Yeah there were some bumps, I am sure they are fixable...but there in no other festival this size and magnitude that runs like it does......GREAT JOB WILL BE BACK NEXT YEAR IN VIP THANKS FOR A GREAT TIME
We treat mishaps like sinking ships and I know that I don't want to be out to drift Well I can see it in your eyes like I taste your lips and They both tell me that we're better than this
It was funny-- my buddy and I, as pirates, ran into another three-corner-hat-wearing gentleman and hung out for an hour at the MLB semi drinking beer as instant pirate friends.
product performed great, as expected, natually smooth and noticably less stubbly ;D I couldn't make it to brunch, so I missed seeing most everybody but there's always next year... right?
product performed great, as expected, natually smooth and noticably less stubbly ;D I couldn't make it to brunch, so I missed seeing most everybody but there's always next year... right?
Next year.........we'll see. It will depend on a number of things occurring (including the gradual erosion of my long-term memory )
Post by moonshine3 on Jun 20, 2007 23:18:32 GMT -5
this was my 5th year, but my 1st in vip. we also had problems w/ the lights shining in our tent at night and the girl screaming ALL DAY. the food was alright, not very veggie friendly, but it was not horrible. the lines at the hotel were not bad for us nor was the wait to get in. there were really only a few problems for us. i was confused as to why there were ga people in the vip bleachers. the vip party seemed as if they had to search for a band to play. we brought our own drinks in most of the day which was nice. sitting in the tent to get out of the sun was nice too. it was worth the money, but we'll have to see if we will do it next year.
This was our first bonnaroo & we went VIP with the RV. Personally I'd say VIP is a misnomer.
I thought it was "Very Important Pirate" - which I was! ARRRRGH!
Damn! Rooskew, I think I saw you at Kings of Leon (in the VIP bleachers)...was it "Africa Hot" or what?, we shoulda had a beer...ahhh, maybe next year.
With that said VIP is the only way to go in my opinion. We walked out in the GA area 1 time & got about 100 yards down the road before we said screw this let's go back!
We out in GA eat VIPers for breakfast. Without gravy.
With that said VIP is the only way to go in my opinion. We walked out in the GA area 1 time & got about 100 yards down the road before we said screw this let's go back!
We out in GA eat VIPers for breakfast. Without gravy.
We treat mishaps like sinking ships and I know that I don't want to be out to drift Well I can see it in your eyes like I taste your lips and They both tell me that we're better than this
I thought it was "Very Important Pirate" - which I was! ARRRRGH!
Damn! Rooskew, I think I saw you at Kings of Leon (in the VIP bleachers)...was it "Africa Hot" or what?, we shoulda had a beer...ahhh, maybe next year.
"Hey there - Just read your post regarding VIP issues. I am the girl who was going to let you into the traffic line "as long as you didn't let anyone else in". I'm sorry we had a misunderstanding - what I was trying to tell you was that I would happily let you in as long as you didn't let in any of the GA people who were trying to buck the system. Clearly all of us who waited forever in the HIE lot and were made to go west got a raw deal and I would never have suggested that those folks shouldn't be able to get in line as we were all trying to do. But, as we sat in traffic there were tons of GA folks trying to cut us by going around the traffic then trying to cut in. Again, I'm sorry you misunderstood my intentions and I hope our interaction didn't ruin your day. For what it's worth, getting stuck in the VIP clusterf*ck then getting cussed out by you guys was a pretty miserable way to start my Bonnaroo. Regardless, I'm giving you some karma in the hopes that all can be forgotten. Peace, whitney"
My Reply… No worries - I was just a little shocked at the comment - it did not ruin my day...Very nice of you to offer an apology and explanation. We were all a little cranky - my apologies and karma back at you.
"And no-one showed us to the land And no-one knows the where or whys But something stirs and something tries And starts to climb towards the light" Pink Floyd - Echoes - Meddle
Post by I Can't Wait! on Jun 22, 2007 17:58:16 GMT -5
This was my second roo and second vip. I would say last year went a bit more smoothly, the things that I was most dissapointed in were as follows:
The HIE debacle. How could a company who has run this event for so long just fall flat on their face like they did. We arrived at 10 and finally got out of the parking lot at 2, only to be sent away from the farm and wait in a long ass line to finally get camped around 4.
The mixing of RV's and Tents. What a bunch of crap. I love you RV'rs and it's nothing personal, but your generators need to be separated from those of us sleeping behind a wall of fabric. These first two things are probably the most important in my mind.
The communication amongst some of the staff was non existant. When we finally got parked we were asked to move at least five times by staff telling us that we were in the fire road after we'd set up some structures. I guess the company that painted the lines on the ground screwed it all up or so I was told. The first guy who asked us to move almost got his head chewed off when he approached me after having only had an hours sleep in the past 34 hours and having been subjected to the crap at the HIE. Turned out he was super understanding, and a very cool guy, he did everything he could to make sure we had no further hassle the entire weekend. I will be including him in the positive portion of my letter.
Not having access through the What stage at all hours kind of sucked. It was very cool to be able to walk across there last year to get to centeroo, I think the cool part was being able to be in there when very few other people were.
Walking up to the bleachers a couple of times and finding no one checking wristbands and them being completley full at a few of the bigger shows was kind of a let down. I don't love the bleacher locations, but at times it's nice to get up out of a heavy crowd and just look around a little. And my wife is all of 5 foot 2 so she really appreciates getting above it all when a show is just packed. It seems like really short people are magnets for really tall people to stand in front of them. Several times over the weekend we had to switch places at a show because a really tall guy would come and stand in front of her, while a short person would stand in front of me, bizarre and almost funny after a while.
All in all the VIP perks far outweighed the problems, most significantly the whole not having to sleep in centeroo because my camp was so far away, and being able to take care of my daily dueces in air conditioning (sorry to be crude) make it well worth it.
With that said VIP is the only way to go in my opinion. We walked out in the GA area 1 time & got about 100 yards down the road before we said screw this let's go back!
We out in GA eat VIPers for breakfast. Without gravy.
Finally someone said it....karma mac!. GA4LIFE!!!!
;D)
and Rich and Jenn who ended up camping next to us...lemonaide from lemons!
