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1. We have most definitely reached the point where Which needs to be utilized on Thursday. Our Thursday night experience was so unpleasant because of the crowds; we could barely move through Centeroo. We basically gave up and went back to camp. It also felt like the crowd was making everyone a little less civil - I got pushed and shoved so many times, and of course that kind of behavior just turns into a bad spiral. And I think it's especially problematic when that's happening on a Thursday - any first-timers would pick up the wrong impression of how people tend to act at Roo.
This. With them officially opening the gates on Wednesday, the Thursday crowds are huge. It was the ladyfriend's first time at Bonnaroo, and I remember telling her multiple times during the course of the evening that it wasn't like this the whole time.
I'd rather see them focusing on making sure Fri-Sunday are solid. Thursday was the second strongest day of the fest, which is ridiculous in my opinion. Put the has beens on Thursday (Guster, Ben Folds) and put the up and coming exciting artists during the main event.
This. With them officially opening the gates on Wednesday, the Thursday crowds are huge. It was the ladyfriend's first time at Bonnaroo, and I remember telling her multiple times during the course of the evening that it wasn't like this the whole time.
I'd rather see them focusing on making sure Fri-Sunday are solid. Thursday was the second strongest day of the fest, which is ridiculous in my opinion. Put the has beens on Thursday (Guster, Ben Folds) and put the up and coming exciting artists during the main event.
I dont mind that thought process as I had to leave Guster early to get a good Alabama Shakes spot. However music artist have egos and I am not sure Guster or Ben Folds or the kind would be too happy with the idea of a Thursday slot
I'd rather see them focusing on making sure Fri-Sunday are solid. Thursday was the second strongest day of the fest, which is ridiculous in my opinion. Put the has beens on Thursday (Guster, Ben Folds) and put the up and coming exciting artists during the main event.
I dont mind that thought process as I had to leave Guster early to get a good Alabama Shakes spot. However music artist have egos and I am not sure Guster or Ben Folds or the kind would be too happy with the idea of a Thursday slot
It doesn't even have to be them (although I think 'headlining' Thursday is a decent gig). Courtney Barnett, Tove Lo, and Ben Booker all directly against each other is a waste, and then follow that with Mac Demarco vs Jungle? Those are all really big names, all directly conflicting. Meanwhile Friday during the day and Sunday were slim pickins. Swap in MO for Tove Lo, or put King Gizzard in there or something. Still good acts, but not a huge "must be there" draw.
This. With them officially opening the gates on Wednesday, the Thursday crowds are huge. It was the ladyfriend's first time at Bonnaroo, and I remember telling her multiple times during the course of the evening that it wasn't like this the whole time.
I'd rather see them focusing on making sure Fri-Sunday are solid. Thursday was the second strongest day of the fest, which is ridiculous in my opinion. Put the has beens on Thursday (Guster, Ben Folds) and put the up and coming exciting artists during the main event.
I agree that Thursday shouldn't be the second best day, but I think that speaks to a different issue as the crowding on Thursday doesn't necessarily depend on the quality of acts. You also have to remember that the musical taste of many here does not line up with that of the majority of festival attendees. For evidence, I could find the video I saw yesterday on @notmichelbade's Facebook with the mad storm of people descending on the What when they opened it before 21 Pilots. Temples is a show that stuck out to me for whatever reason. Their crowd would have been half the size it was if they were playing the same slot on a different day. With the earlier opening time, I feel like a vast majority of attendees are in and setup by the time the music starts on Thursday. Everyone's at peak energy for the weekend, so I would also venture that a larger percentage of people are actually in Centeroo at that time yet this is the time where they have an active stage capacity that is a fraction of what it is every other day of the festival. I still say the easiest answer is to pick some of the higher scheduled acts and move them to the Which or just schedule them there in the first place. I didn't attend, but I have seen a couple places that Glass Animals was one of the Thursday acts that people missed simply because they couldn't get close enough to actually hear anything. Their crowd size was a surprise to exactly nobody that had been paying attention at all. Same goes with Alabama Shakes and Alt-J from recent years. Schedule them on the Which and be done with it.
Side note: Ben Folds actually had a good sized crowd considering the competition. It was well out of the tent.
Post by birdsintherain on Jun 17, 2015 10:06:04 GMT -5
Keep the comedy tent open all the time. More live acts, and when it's not feasible to have a comedian up there, run videos.
More shade.
Make sure there's actually food for the VIP thurs night buffet. I got literally a few tomatoes and a bit of broccoli and didn't feel right going back up without a ticket stub to show I'd had a ticket.
Don't close down the air conditioned VIP tent at 5pm on Sunday!!! Who on earth made the decision to do that??!
9-4 to 9-6 SummerDance Festival 9-20- St Paul and the Broken Bones 9-30 Ott 10-21 Emancipator Ensemble 10-22 ATB 10-23 W&W 10-28 STS9 11-18 Dan Deacon 11-21 The Werks/ Twiddle 12-4 Darude 12-8 The Revivalist 12-30 & 12-31 Decadence NYE (Denver) 1-17 Mr. Carmack 1-28 Yo La Tengo 2-9 TAUK 2-27 Lotus and Michal Menert 2-29 Beach House 3-3 to 3-6 Okeechobee Festival 5-9 King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard 5-23 DIIV
I'd rather see them focusing on making sure Fri-Sunday are solid. Thursday was the second strongest day of the fest, which is ridiculous in my opinion. Put the has beens on Thursday (Guster, Ben Folds) and put the up and coming exciting artists during the main event.
I agree that Thursday shouldn't be the second best day, but I think that speaks to a different issue as the crowding on Thursday doesn't necessarily depend on the quality of acts. You also have to remember that the musical taste of many here does not line up with that of the majority of festival attendees. For evidence, I could find the video I saw yesterday on @notmichelbade's Facebook with the mad storm of people descending on the What when they opened it before 21 Pilots. Temples is a show that stuck out to me for whatever reason. Their crowd would have been half the size it was if they were playing the same slot on a different day. With the earlier opening time, I feel like a vast majority of attendees are in and setup by the time the music starts on Thursday. Everyone's at peak energy for the weekend, so I would also venture that a larger percentage of people are actually in Centeroo at that time yet this is the time where they have an active stage capacity that is a fraction of what it is every other day of the festival. I still say the easiest answer is to pick some of the higher scheduled acts and move them to the Which or just schedule them there in the first place. I didn't attend, but I have seen a couple places that Glass Animals was one of the Thursday acts that people missed simply because they couldn't get close enough to actually hear anything. Their crowd size was a surprise to exactly nobody that had been paying attention at all. Same goes with Alabama Shakes and Alt-J from recent years. Schedule them on the Which and be done with it.
Side note: Ben Folds actually had a good sized crowd considering the competition. It was well out of the tent.
Right, I get all that about popularity. I was just picking on Ben Folds cause he sucks. But I disagree that the same number of people are gonna show up Wednesday night/first thing Thursday no matter who is on the bill. I think the big mainstreamish draws on Thursday got more people there early. Tove Lo, Gramatik, and Glass Animals all had over 10,000 schedule adds. If Capp Dogg is serious about keeping Thursday small, maybe he should just stop booking really popular bands.
Regarding thursday and the which, bonnaroo could even make it a social media fun yay good times thing, and announce that whoever gets the most adds for Thursday on their web site gets to "headline" that night on the Which stage.
On thursday I like walking over to the Which stage when no one is around and just staring at it from the rail for about five minutes. I did notice they were setting up a stage already, which turned out to be the screens for Gambinos set.
Keep the comedy tent open all the time. More live acts, and when it's not feasible to have a comedian up there, run videos.
More shade.
Make sure there's actually food for the VIP thurs night buffet. I got literally a few tomatoes and a bit of broccoli and didn't feel right going back up without a ticket stub to show I'd had a ticket.
Don't close down the air conditioned VIP tent at 5pm!!! Who on earth made the decision to do that??!
I'd also like late night Comedy options. Especially on Thursday. Lots of comedy clubs have shows after midnight.
I'm confused. You guys had to empty your camelback before entry? Not only did this never happen to me - I was also never searched. A couple times they felt camelback (I guess looking for bottles), but thats it. never hadto open my bag, never was patted down. And many times I was just waved in through without anything at all. I was VIP this year - is this a VIP perk? Last year I wasn't VIP and I was patted down and backpack searched every time.
Must be a VIP perk - I never emptied mine either. They basically glanced inside of all of my zipped compartments and sent me on my way.
They made us empty it ONCE. We went back a few hours later, they acted like it never happened. We asked why they made us, and they said, you won't have to worry about it again. I am assuming something happened to have us dump them for that small window.
I feel like whomever they book on thursday will get a big draw just because it is the first day. I question how many people got there early because they wanted to see Thursday bands as opposed to just getting to bonnaroo ASAP because 'bonnaroo ya'll!' Even if you aren't into ANY of the thursday bands, you are gonna be on the farm and setup by Thursday evening.
that said, nothing this year was as bad as japandroids, alt j, or sleigh bells from years past.
Keep the comedy tent open all the time. More live acts, and when it's not feasible to have a comedian up there, run videos.
More shade.
Make sure there's actually food for the VIP thurs night buffet. I got literally a few tomatoes and a bit of broccoli and didn't feel right going back up without a ticket stub to show I'd had a ticket.
Don't close down the air conditioned VIP tent at 5pm!!! Who on earth made the decision to do that??!
I'd also like late night Comedy options. Especially on Thursday. Lots of comedy clubs have shows after midnight.
they used to have later comedy shows on thursdays. i remember leaving a lewis black show a few years ago at like, 11 or 11:30. this was also when they booked smaller, less popular bands on thursday (i wanna say like, 2006 ?)
Right, I get all that about popularity. I was just picking on Ben Folds cause he sucks. But I disagree that the same number of people are gonna show up Wednesday night/first thing Thursday no matter who is on the bill. I think the big mainstreamish draws on Thursday got more people there early. Tove Lo, Gramatik, and Glass Animals all had over 10,000 schedule adds. If Capp Dogg is serious about keeping Thursday small, maybe he should just stop booking really popular bands.
I think we're just advocating two different solutions to the same problem. I am saying up the capacity. You are saying lower the demand. All of those bands you mentioned would have a lot of adds regardless of when they played, but I would say their numbers are inflated due to the competition. Tove Lo was up against Courtney Barnett and Benjamin Booker. Both are fine acts but don't have nearly the mainstream appeal that Tove Lo does. If you put her in Ben Folds spot, she's competing against the end of Alabama Shakes and Tears For Fears. Both of which are significantly bigger draws than Barnett and Booker, so you would have to assume Tove Lo's schedule adds would be much lower.
I do agree i think they need to open the Which Stage on Thursday, if only for a few acts. People seem to be getting there earlier and earlier on Wednesday.
My other improvement request is that Kalliope stage, start playing after some of the late night tents are over. I do like, it and it can be a fun time, but Saturday night, trying to hear D'Angelo, and the Superjam, from outside the tent, and with the Kalliope stage going hard, it was really hard to hear.
I feel like if Bonnaroo knows none of the tent acts are going till sunrise, they can easily just start it up at the end of the late night tent acts or something.
I feel like whomever they book on thursday will get a big draw just because it is the first day. I question how many people got there early because they wanted to see Thursday bands as opposed to just getting to bonnaroo ASAP because 'bonnaroo ya'll!' Even if you aren't into ANY of the thursday bands, you are gonna be on the farm and setup by Thursday evening.
I'm sure there's a lot of that, but I think if you had swapped out Tove Lo, Grammatick, and Glass Animals for MO, Rustie, and Soja it would have made a noticeable difference in the crowd size Thursday.
I think we're just advocating two different solutions to the same problem. I am saying up the capacity. You are saying lower the demand. All of those bands you mentioned would have a lot of adds regardless of when they played, but I would say their numbers are inflated due to the competition. Tove Lo was up against Courtney Barnett and Benjamin Booker. Both are fine acts but don't have nearly the mainstream appeal that Tove Lo does. If you put her in Ben Folds spot, she's competing against the end of Alabama Shakes and Tears For Fears. Both of which are significantly bigger draws than Barnett and Booker, so you would have to assume Tove Lo's schedule adds would be much lower.
I think most of the schedule adds happen before the schedule actually comes out. So the numbers are more indicative of general appeal than appeal vs. whatever else is playing right that moment.
I feel like whomever they book on thursday will get a big draw just because it is the first day. I question how many people got there early because they wanted to see Thursday bands as opposed to just getting to bonnaroo ASAP because 'bonnaroo ya'll!' Even if you aren't into ANY of the thursday bands, you are gonna be on the farm and setup by Thursday evening.
I'm sure there's a lot of that, but I think if you had swapped out Tove Lo, Grammatick, and Glass Animals for MO, Rustie, and Soja it would have made a noticeable difference in the crowd size Thursday.
I think we're just advocating two different solutions to the same problem. I am saying up the capacity. You are saying lower the demand. All of those bands you mentioned would have a lot of adds regardless of when they played, but I would say their numbers are inflated due to the competition. Tove Lo was up against Courtney Barnett and Benjamin Booker. Both are fine acts but don't have nearly the mainstream appeal that Tove Lo does. If you put her in Ben Folds spot, she's competing against the end of Alabama Shakes and Tears For Fears. Both of which are significantly bigger draws than Barnett and Booker, so you would have to assume Tove Lo's schedule adds would be much lower.
I think most of the schedule adds happen before the schedule actually comes out. So the numbers are more indicative of general appeal than appeal vs. whatever else is playing right that moment.
I don't totally agree with you, but I see your point. I also wanted to say that, as always, I appreciate your ability to have a discussion about such things where you actually use logic and legit examples. It helps.
Keep the comedy tent open all the time. More live acts, and when it's not feasible to have a comedian up there, run videos.
More shade.
Make sure there's actually food for the VIP thurs night buffet. I got literally a few tomatoes and a bit of broccoli and didn't feel right going back up without a ticket stub to show I'd had a ticket.
Don't close down the air conditioned VIP tent at 5pm!!! Who on earth made the decision to do that??!
Yeah we had VIP and we thought it was dumb to close down VIP tent in Centroo at 8pm or midnight. Thought If I can still get in to the VIP viewing sections then I should still get VIP access at that time in the centeroo lounge.
I also didnt like the What stage field being opened at 2/3pm. I understand it was due to the What shows starting later in the day this year.
I agree with everyone about the Thursday Night. Tove Lo was slammed packed and it stood to reason that it would be. I get the Jungle/DeMarco/Grammatik scheduling to weed out the population to make it more manageable. I'm cool with only having 2 acts on Which on Thursday Night. I would have put Jungle on there and maybe someone else.
Kalliope didnt bother me this year. I couldnt really hear it from VIP, but with everyone saying it was a problem then they should relocate it.
The Grove. I didnt venture to it so I dont know what it was like. To me I was in VIP so i didnt venture that way but if i had been in Pod 3 or 2 why would i go to Pod 7 to see a Grove when the music is in Centeroo. I get that they are trying to spruce up the campgrounds to make them more lively and engaging. If you want the Grove to be a hit put it in Centeroo or extremely close.
I don't understand why the silent disco can't be made larger and take the place of the Kalliope. Music can be available for those who want to dance to sunrise and people who want to sleep can sleep.
Who says no to this?
Cool idea but making the Silent Disco bigger would be a challenge for multiple reasons:
1. A bigger crowd would mean more security to make sure people don't steal the headphones 2. You would need a massive tent for rain cover to avoid water damage to the headphones 3. Matching the production that Kalliope brings would be very difficult/expensive 4. I doubt the Silent Disco company has 10,000 headphones available for Bonnaroo. Bonnaroo is the biggest event they do all year, and they probably already maximize what they have for it.
I don't understand why the silent disco can't be made larger and take the place of the Kalliope. Music can be available for those who want to dance to sunrise and people who want to sleep can sleep.
Who says no to this?
Cool idea but making the Silent Disco bigger would be a challenge for multiple reasons:
1. A bigger crowd would mean more security to make sure people don't steal the headphones 2. You would need a massive tent for rain cover to avoid water damage to the headphones 3. Matching the production that Kalliope brings would be very difficult/expensive 4. I doubt the Silent Disco company has 10,000 headphones available for Bonnaroo. Bonnaroo is the biggest event they do all year, and they probably already maximize what they have for it.
I've been to much bigger Silent Discos than Bonnaroo's.
Cool idea but making the Silent Disco bigger would be a challenge for multiple reasons:
1. A bigger crowd would mean more security to make sure people don't steal the headphones 2. You would need a massive tent for rain cover to avoid water damage to the headphones 3. Matching the production that Kalliope brings would be very difficult/expensive 4. I doubt the Silent Disco company has 10,000 headphones available for Bonnaroo. Bonnaroo is the biggest event they do all year, and they probably already maximize what they have for it.
I've been to much bigger Silent Discos than Bonnaroo's.
Really? I worked with that company before and I could have sworn they told me Bonnaroo is the biggest event they do. Maybe they were talking in terms of notoriety and not attendance.
I've been to much bigger Silent Discos than Bonnaroo's.
Really? I worked with that company before and I could have sworn they told me Bonnaroo is the biggest event they do. Maybe they were talking in terms of notoriety and not attendance.
I mean, they have competitors. The LN Silent Disco in the Coachella campground is at least as big, and addresses a lot of the issues Billybaroo raised.
I never really had any problems with the sound bleed from the Kalliope Stage this year and even though I could hear it from my camp (Camp Lando Calrissian) it never bothered me and I enjoyed heading over there after the LN sets ended. Also, it thins out some of the idiots out of the other late night set crowds. So I guess I am in the minority here. My only complaints are that it took us over 90 minutes to get to our spot Wednesday night after we had gotten through the toll booth and security and also that no shows went longer then scheduled. An hour and a half is too short for Bassnectar or Deadmau5.
9-4 to 9-6 SummerDance Festival 9-20- St Paul and the Broken Bones 9-30 Ott 10-21 Emancipator Ensemble 10-22 ATB 10-23 W&W 10-28 STS9 11-18 Dan Deacon 11-21 The Werks/ Twiddle 12-4 Darude 12-8 The Revivalist 12-30 & 12-31 Decadence NYE (Denver) 1-17 Mr. Carmack 1-28 Yo La Tengo 2-9 TAUK 2-27 Lotus and Michal Menert 2-29 Beach House 3-3 to 3-6 Okeechobee Festival 5-9 King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard 5-23 DIIV
Also whoever said you can get a donut in the pretzel line at the Amish vendor booth is a liar. They'll yell at you and make you go to the back of the donut line. Don't even try it.
I was able to get a donut and a pretzel from the same line with no issues. One thing I find insane is the wait time getting into the festival grounds. Last year a friend of mine waited 12 hours in the toll booth lines and that blew my mind. This year it was me that got stuck in a 12 hour toll booth line after a 13 hour drive. I couldn't stay awake, I kept falling asleep waiting in line. There has to be an answer to streamline the situation. Open the Which on Thursday to alleviate the crowds in centeroo. More late night sets! I also agree on more taxi's. It's pretty difficult to find a taxi.
EDIT: MORE SHADE!!!. The heat was pretty unbearable this year.
Also whoever said you can get a donut in the pretzel line at the Amish vendor booth is a liar. They'll yell at you and make you go to the back of the donut line. Don't even try it.
I was able to get a donut and a pretzel from the same line with no issues. One thing I find insane is the wait time getting into the festival grounds. Last year a friend of mine waited 12 hours in the toll booth lines and that blew my mind. This year it was me that got stuck in a 12 hour toll booth line after a 13 hour drive. I couldn't stay awake, I kept falling asleep waiting in line. There has to be an answer to streamline the situation. Open the Which on Thursday to alleviate the crowds in centeroo. More late night sets! I also agree on more taxi's. It's pretty difficult to find a taxi.
we had a 6.5 hour wait. i needed to pee so bad but everytime i'd jump outta the car, everyone would take off. Downfall of driving solo lol can't run off to go pee.
I was able to get a donut and a pretzel from the same line with no issues. One thing I find insane is the wait time getting into the festival grounds. Last year a friend of mine waited 12 hours in the toll booth lines and that blew my mind. This year it was me that got stuck in a 12 hour toll booth line after a 13 hour drive. I couldn't stay awake, I kept falling asleep waiting in line. There has to be an answer to streamline the situation. Open the Which on Thursday to alleviate the crowds in centeroo. More late night sets! I also agree on more taxi's. It's pretty difficult to find a taxi.
we had a 6.5 hour wait. i needed to pee so bad but everytime i'd jump outta the car, everyone would take off. Downfall of driving solo lol can't run off to go pee.
That GA line was RIDICULOUS! We drove by it and it was easily 5 miles of stand still. The worst was seeing the police walking down the road and making people empty everything out and then there being huge gaps in the line, while those put their cars back together. One of my friends said that they got searched by two different set of officers at different points in the line. So fucked up.
My main problem was with Kalliope this year. I don't mind that it exists or that it runs all night (that's actually pretty cool). My problem is having the bass bleed over to the stages right beside it while things like the Superjam are going on. People want to sit out in the grass and enjoy the show, without hearing some douche blast basslines over the top of the music. Schedule the Kalliope to be in between sets and we'd be all good.
EDIT: Whoever mentioned opening Which on Thursday is spot on. It doesn't even need to be all day. Just have one decent sized act to play while the rest of the tents finish up. It would definitely make things way less crowded.
Last Edit: Jun 17, 2015 13:07:48 GMT -5 by Deleted - Back to Top
Post by mypatronusispatron on Jun 17, 2015 13:22:54 GMT -5
The Red Bull Academey DJ Session from 2014 was probably one of the best things I ever experienced at Bonnaroo. Mannie Fresh djed and brought Mystical. It was great because it was a surprise (well to me anyways) and was at a smaller stage which was pretty cool and the crowd keep building and building till everyone was jamming to early 2000's hits. I was hoping for some that this year but was disappointed hopefully next year they'll bring something like that back.
