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This year had some very big positives and very big negatives for me...but was overall a great time, as every Roo is. First off, the WEATHER. WOW. Couldn't have asked for better weather. Also, the improvements were great. The added water stations with better water pressure, the shade structrures...it seems like Roo really does listen to its customers and I love that.
On the negative side, the schedule just sucked. Many of the bands I wanted to see were late on Sunday and I was already beat and decided to pack it up after the Beach Boys. The late night scheduling was pathetic.
The vibe was very different this year. Maybe its because of Phish, but there were a lot more hippies this year. I'm cool with it and it made for great people watching, but I didn't get the feeling like I could approach anyone and strike up a conversation like I did the past couple years. Still, the sense of community was there and you could tell that the artists could feel and appreciate it.
No sets other than Radiohead really stood out to me as being phenomenal...but I was with my friends and had a great time regardless of the (in my opinion) weak lineup.
3rd roo, but my first since 2004. it was a trip being back after such a long stretch. the short review is I had an amazing, fantastic, magical, spiritual, crazy time, and I'll be buying 2013 tickets in the presale.
I discovered new music to love and other performances made me realize I don't like the band very much.
musical highlights off the top of my head include St Vincent, Radiohead, Phish (tweezer and set II), FlyLo, Skrillex, SBTRKT, The Word, Dispatch (thought I hated these guys, they converted me).
logistically the festival was very impressive. only place the lines for restrooms got crazy was near the What stage, so I just used portable urinals there. I never had to use the water refill station since I brought 100oz of water in everyday in my camelbak. the sound was pretty much great everywhere, only the Which stage could be hit or miss.
my only real complaint was the late night scheduling. spectrum road and the word would both have been better during the day IMO. won't beat the unchained horse but you can guess how I feel.
better every year for me the weather made a huge difference in how i felt overall for sure i felt it was cleaner. the added shade and water was WONDERFUL i only saw one bad performance and it just wasnt the correct place for that act. loved the world music - wish more of you would try it. the entrance seemed easier overall for most people i talked to there was a problem with wrist bands but it seemed like they told the people to put them on too loose. not the volunteers fault although the scanning was a bother at times - i think thats going to go in a cool direction. i think its a needed change and if you lose your bracelet you will be happy about it. i know someone who did and they were able to get it replaced. the one "lost" was deactivated and maybe they caught that person. it will also allow for safe purchases of bracelets as you can look up the number on roo site and make sure its registered before the purchase then change it to your name.
This is my second 'Roo with my first being in 2003 so it has been quite a while but overall this weekend was everything i expected and more. Musical Highlights: 1. The Word - unreal set and they were just outstanding 2. Radiohead - had never seen them and they were great 3. The Civil Wars - had to choose them over fun. and young the giant and man am I glad I did. It is rare to see a crowd that huge just held in rapt attention as the duo played an incredible set.
The weather was just perfect and it needs to just continue in that direction ever year.
The ln scheduling was pretty weak but we all knew that going in right and it is completely out of our hands.
Major problems with the wristbands this year. My group went through 5 between us as the seams popped on 4 of them and the 5th scanned fine through the little handheld scanner, but would not scan through the cattle movers. Fortunately, they had a LOT of those, so they gave zero hassle about swapping them out if anything went wrong.
Musically, it was stellar. As is usually the case, I was underwhelmed by two of the three headliners but the third (Radiohead) made up for it. Too many musical highlights to even try to list them all. Alice Cooper melted my face off with a set full of surprises. The Dirty Guv'nahs made me a fan, Flogging Molly was one big party, and The Roots were as good as advertised. The Sunday bookends of the angel voices of Sarah Jarosz and Joy Williams was just a perfect ending.
In other news, Unchained really was playing and everyone who showed up for that big "secret" Atoms for Peace show that was never even in the realm of possibility, got to hear exactly what was advertised, a not terribly good group of Van Halen impersonators with an audience of about 200 people.
It was fun. Perhaps the strangest thing about it though was the difference in my expectations and what I got. Several bands which I was excited about left me underwhelmed. Others which I went into with little to no expectations really impressed me.
Radiohead was great, despite the pretty poor spot my friends had staked out (behind scaffolding in the field). The Chili Peppers were good, but I don't know, it just felt like they didn't bring it. I enjoyed the Beach Boys far more than I had expected. I was particularly impressed with some of the small cafe acts, like Oberhofer. I feel like they could have easily done more in a tent than a Van Halen tribute group... And we wandered around a bit during the multi-way conflict on Sunday evening (Bon Iver, Civil Wars, Young the Giant, the Shins, Fun.) to see a bit of each. While Bon Iver was good and we stayed for half of the set, I was most impressed by Fun., even though I only knew one of their songs.
Scheduling was a little wonky this year. Late night Friday was a bit lackluster, why no Which stage act? Like I mentioned above, there seemed to be more conflicts than I've seen in previous years. And I wonder this every time, but I've never heard a valid reason for it. Why do they have small acts (or at least those with obviously less draw than others on What stage while they have other acts in tents where people are crowded in tightly far outside of the tent? It seems like it would make the most sense to always put the biggest acts on What and Which to spread people out more and make the experience more enjoyable for everyone. And now that so many people are here on Thursday, why not have an act on the Which stage on Thursday? Some of those sets could have easily filled out Which and again helped spread people out some. Using the Bonnaroo Mindreader thing, they now have a pretty good estimate of what is going to be most popular, so why not take that information into account in scheduling?
The weather was really nice. It was by far the mildest I've ever seen it a Bonnaroo. It did get a little chilly late at night, but it's a welcome change from the blazing heat of midday that we normally get.
So, out of my 6 Bonnaroos I'd rate it above average. Not the best, but it's up there.
fifth year for me, and probably my best roo ever. took my little sister to her first camping festival and she had a blast. the weather and added shade/water/porta potties made a huge, enormous difference.
Post by nicthedick85 on Jun 11, 2012 11:38:31 GMT -5
Weather was awesome. Packed in tigher atleast rv area was. Lines to centeroo were a little long at times. Scheduling sucked but I knew that ahead of time. Pretty nice roo this year. All the shows I wanted to see and got to were awesome.
And jugg I take back everything I said about flying lotus. That was probably my favorite show.
The big blister on the ball of my left foot forced an early pull out on Sunday. I'm diabetic, so I have to take care of my feet.
Moshing at Bad Brains still has me swollen and bruised. It was a blast. Art vs. Science was totally interactive with the crowd. I saw them on the Sonic Stage during the day. Wish I could've caught one of their night performances. Spectrum Road was angelic, but playing to a less than sparse crowd due to conflicts. My cheeks are sore from smiling at their musical proficiency. Was that a Cream cover on their last song?
Post by concertjunkie on Jun 11, 2012 12:02:31 GMT -5
Saw alot of really great shows. Wish they would get rid of those barricades taking up space on both sides of all the tents though. Makes it much harder to get a prime spot without camping there all day for an act.
Post by thebendskida on Jun 11, 2012 12:17:03 GMT -5
Sbtrkt had the entire audience moving together to a hypnotic fashion. Which was something I'll always remember. Little Dragon blew me away and GroupLove made me cry with there amazing set. Of Course Radiohead brought one of there best live shows I've seen and it was great to relax to the Beach Boys after 4 days of craziness.
The real surprise was smaller acts Shahidah Omar killed the Miller Lite Stage. It was packed with great energy and great people. Happy I walked by and sat down.
The weather was the best Tennessee weather I've every experienced. I will be at 2013.
Bonnaroo 2008-2013
0ct 11 Pearl Jam
Oct 12 Pearl Jam
March 16 Arcade Fire
April 29 Arcade Fire
Sept 4 Wilco
Sept 9 The Hold Steady
Oct 16 Pearl Jam
Oct 17 Gaslight Anthem
This was my first roo. RHCP also met my low expectations. Bad brains was awesome, and dear God That was one of the bet Phish shows I've seen. Bon Iver was the worst next to radio head. All of it was so amazing my mind is blown to bits. My only complaint is that Skrillex should of been turned the fuck down I couldn't hear superjam at all. in general they need to work on the which stage sound system. Couldn't really hear Ben Folds but that may have been a good thing.
Okay. So this was my fourth Bonnaroo, and my favorite. I mean, it was almost perfect. My favorite band in the world played an incredible fucking set. It wasn't the marathon of '06 but we did still get an extra tune in the first Encore. Logistically they did very good this year. Portos were cleaner than I've ever seen em, and I didn't wait in line once for water, nor did I ever have to leave the general vicinity of the show I was at to get it. Had my first ever put experience at Bon Iver, which was a fucking spiritual experience.
One thing needs to be improved though, very badly, and that is handling the crowd. First, there needs to be AT LEAST one more entrance for centeroo made if we have to go through security checkpoints and wristband scanners. Thursday and Friday I waited in line for a very long time and Friday I missed most of Tune Yards because of it. Also, the tent shows are just getting way too packed for them to not have a video screen outside each tent.
Some people will complain about the schedule but honestly with the exception of the Saturday late night nonsense, I thought it was great. I got pit for Bon Iver and still saw most of the shins.
Groop Camping was fucking awesome. I'll post some pics later but our site was fucking awesome.
Finally, the weather. Oh my god, the weather. It was fucking perfect, save the downpour this morning while taking down our site.
Oh one more critical thing is the volunteers. Bonnaroo needs to stop overworking them so hard and start giving them more resources to help people. I've talked to volunteers who Had 15 hour shifts, and others who had one 8 hour shift over the course of the festival. That causes volunteers to do their jobs poorly which affects fest goers. Also, they should really have some paid workers that know what the fuck they are doing. One of the tollbooth volunteers broke my friends wristband while another put it on the wrong wrist of another friend. We had to go to 4 different Pod info booths before we got any answer other than, "I dunno man I'm just here for the free ticket."
The scheduling thing is getting weird, I'll admit. The people that run Bonnaroo are smart - they clearly know what will be popular and what won't. While I never have a problem with conflicts (you need them for crowd control), I really wish they'd get a hand on which bands belong where. Some bands that should have been in a tent were on the What stage, and vice versa.
Agreed.
Either this or expand the size of one (or more) of the tents. It kills a performance to have to watch it from waaaay outside the tent, in my opinion. Several times this weekend we left sets we wanted to see because we couldn't even come close to "seeing."
11/2/19: Tool 5/17/19: Blues Traveler 5/9/19: Tool 11/10/18: Tenacious D 9/20/18: White Denim 7/23/18: Radiohead 6/4/18: Jack White 5/20/18: Tool 5/18/18: A Perfect Circle 5/18/18: Alice in Chains 5/6/18: Blind Melon
First Bonnaroo experience. Overall a great time! volunteers did work hard...from speaking with many of them in casual conversation, a bit too hard. Difficult to work 15 hour shifts, free ticket or no; but even so all were friendly. Do think a bit more time in information sessions would help them and help us all. Was surprised with such diversity how everyone melded together for the duration and were so tolerant of , and kind towards, each other. Remarkable! Understand the scheduling, maybe because having been at NO Jazz Fest so often I am used to that, EXCEPT for late night / early am stuff. Gary Clark Jr was the highlight of the festival for me! Do not understand the purpose of being scanned in and out so often. Seems like this could be handled in a better manner and not so micro managed. Why is it done this way?
Post by Whoreshack on Jun 11, 2012 21:01:32 GMT -5
They really improved the wait to get into the Farm this year. Fixed it, really. Sound on Which was better. The portos were pretty darn clean. Ditches were manageable. The grounds were in great shape, especially early on. Better shade and water availability and the weathergods were smiling down on us, all weekend long. One of the best all-around Roos I've attended in 10 yrs. Just gotta work out some of those late-night, scheduling snafus.
Post by EthnicallyCrimean98476 on Jun 11, 2012 21:08:29 GMT -5
We didn't have to wait on the freeway at all this year.
Per 60+ year old Wal-Mart employee in White House, TN, they opened the gates on Wednesday at 3 P.M. She also told us that they had arrested 54 people already (This was around 3 A.M. Thursday morning) and that the interstate was completely shut down. So actually disregard this post entirely.
Post by drbrainfreeze on Jun 11, 2012 22:11:51 GMT -5
Pros: - No-wait to get in! - Weather was great --even the rain added to the fun - Radiohead, Foster the People, Amish Company Pretzel, Arepas, Trampled by Turtles playing The Weight, Avetts playing "Down to the River to Pray" and giving a shout out to Doc Watson, wearing warpaint for Grouplove, hearing God Only Knows. - and getting rid of the bleachers at Which.
Cons: - This was my 6th year, and I swear that I feel there are insanely more people at some of the shows. And the sight lines to the stages are tough when you are outside the tent. - Late night wasn't my thing this year. I did enjoy watching the spectacle of the Skrillex crowd.
*** and here is the winner for the big Con of the weekend (feel free to skip, its just me venting) ***
Dear horrible neighbors in Camp Bond,
I hate your Wiz Khalifa / Rage Against the Machine playlist that you insisted on blasting all night. You and your group of a dozen or so teenagers seemed to be preoccupied with getting blasted as opposed to actually seeing live music. I partly feel bad that you wasted an awesome weekend, but then I think about how you wanted to fight my wife and two friends because we asked you to turn the music down at 4am -- so screw you.
I am thinking VIP next year, mainly because of this.
Pros: - No-wait to get in! - Weather was great --even the rain added to the fun - Radiohead, Foster the People, Amish Company Pretzel, Arepas, Trampled by Turtles playing The Weight, Avetts playing "Down to the River to Pray" and giving a shout out to Doc Watson, wearing warpaint for Grouplove, hearing God Only Knows. - and getting rid of the bleachers at Which.
Cons: - This was my 6th year, and I swear that I feel there are insanely more people at some of the shows. And the sight lines to the stages are tough when you are outside the tent. - Late night wasn't my thing this year. I did enjoy watching the spectacle of the Skrillex crowd.
*** and here is the winner for the big Con of the weekend (feel free to skip, its just me venting) ***
Dear horrible neighbors in Camp Bond,
I hate your Wiz Khalifa / Rage Against the Machine playlist that you insisted on blasting all night. You and your group of a dozen or so teenagers seemed to be preoccupied with getting blasted as opposed to actually seeing live music. I partly feel bad that you wasted an awesome weekend, but then I think about how you wanted to fight my wife and two friends because we asked you to turn the music down at 4am -- so screw you.
I am thinking VIP next year, mainly because of this.
Camping next to amateur assholes is my biggest fear. Went the hotel in Murfreesboro route this year. On the way up I started feeling pangs of regret about missing out on the fantasy world type aspect of camping, but every night when I was leaving at 3am I was so happy to be heading to a shower and a bed. Guess I'm a softie.
Post by railroad436 on Jun 11, 2012 22:44:52 GMT -5
This was my first Bonnaroo and I head a great time. I've been to several other festivals and this one takes the cake.
The best thing was Friday night. Foster the People to Radiohead to Major Lazer to Flying Lotus to Big Freedia was the best music experience of my life. Friday night was absolutely incredible. I will never forget it.
PROS:
No wait to get in Excellent setup Lots of great music Variety of great food The push for everyone to recycle Friendly people Great atmosphere
CONS:
Driving to Exit 127 twice because there was no indication of which exit to get off to get in so we drove all the way down to Exit 90 or so before having to go back and then go in at mile marker 112
Saturday Late Night - After the awesomeness that occurred Friday night, Saturday night was disappointing. The Superjam was awesome but nothing interested me after that and Skrillex's sound was bleeding through the entire place including my tent. Thank god for ear plugs. I just wish there was another solid act playing the 2AM slot. I went to Unchained hoping for something different but headed to bed after it turned out to be them.
The sound on the Which stage. I went to several shows throughout the weekend at this stage and the sound was weak unless you were really close up front. You could be walking near the This, That, and Other tents and hear fine but once you started to walk away from the Which stage the sound was really weak. But, Skrillex goes on and you can hear it all the way to the moon. It was really disappointing for some of the crowded shows like FtP because I felt like I didnt get the full experience.
Lack of books and schedules. I know this is a constant complaint but if you shell out $280 for a ticket, you should get a book. If they dont want to give you a book, just give out a schedule or sell them for $5. I would have bought a couple of them. One to carry and another to keep as a souvenir.
My cons arent a huge deal and I thought the festival was amazing overall. If the line-up is right, I will definitely be back.
Turtles are, actually quite sexy, if you think about it. I’m getting an erection just thinking about turtles. No, not a stripper named turtles, that’s not funny. Actual turtles.
—?Thom Yorke
Mostly crappy, but kinda funny story that happened to us in Camp Allison Reynolds...
My friends and I came back to camp for a little pre-gaming prior to The Roots on Saturday, and our neighbors inform us that a strong gust of wind had caused an errant shade canopy from a campsite at least 10 cars away and across a lane to go flying and land on my friend's truck. We surveyed the damage, and it had left some severely deep scratches and paint damage on the roof of the truck. Our neighbors pointed out where it came from, and the owners of the canopy were at their campsite trying to put it back up, so we naturally had to confront them about it. There were two girls and a guy who looked to be about 19 each, and their car had NJ license plates. One girl was particularly defensive and vocal (and we found out later that she had just met the other two who actually owned the canopy while at Bonnaroo). Despite our neighbors who witnessed the flying canopy standing beside us and recounting what happened, she was adamant that the entire event was impossible, and that "Tennessee wind cannot do that." She also stated that the canopy was properly staked, but someone had stolen their stakes earlier that day.
We were obviously getting nowhere, and then suddenly a particularly f*cked up stanger walks by, points at the canopy, and says something along the lines of "Oh man! I saw that canopy go flying through the air earlier and it slammed right on top of that that f*cking truck!" then pointing to my friend's truck. When my friend told him that was his truck, the stranger tried to give my friend a high-five, which my friend politely declined.
Later on, the defensive girl came over to apologize and survey the damage, and my friend got the canopy owner's name and phone number (not that there is much he can do with that information). The f*cked up stranger had excellent and hilarious timing.
How does that happen? I've gotten one every single year I've gone the past 6 years.
They only give one per car. I got one because the person I came with gave me the book since it was my first fest and he tore the schedule out. I found a schedule on the ground Sunday or I wouldnt have had one.
Turtles are, actually quite sexy, if you think about it. I’m getting an erection just thinking about turtles. No, not a stripper named turtles, that’s not funny. Actual turtles.
—?Thom Yorke
