Need Bonnaroo update, Please

[Angry Ewok]

I stood around the front row for a few hours before Humphrey's, but got a voice mail and had to run off. Lost my place real quick.. It's okay though, cause I spotted myself in one of Bonnaroo.com's official photo's of MMJ's performance...



I'm barely visible, but I know I'm there, and that's what counts. Hell yes.

[Specialist]

Wasn't Iron and Wine FUCKING AWESOME?

amazing, one of my favorite performances of bonnaroo

oh and...

though mmj was my favorite band at bonnaroo, the mars volta put on the best performance...and John Prine at a close second, and Kings of Leon...gah, there were so many great ones.  

Did anyone catch the Secret Machines...i was so tired after Iron and Wine, i just went back to the tent.

[sweatboard]

the mars volta put on the best performance

I wanted to see them so bad but I was so tired I went to lay down under a tree and I fell asleep, when I woke up they still weren't playing for a while so I decided to walk back to my tent......Got lost for an hour and a half.  Ah Bonnaroo.

[cmasters]

This was my first trip out to Tennesee to see the ol' Bonnaroo.  My main reason to go of course was to check out the Jacket in such a big crowd.  But anyway, this was my take on the festival.  Don't get the wrong impression from the article ; I had a lot of fun.  I just didn't dig the crowds.  

My Morning Jacket was fucking awesome though.  I just write about them all the time so I decided to lay off my crush a little (heh).  Anyway, thought ya'll might enjoy seeing my thoughts.  If not... sorry   :-/

http://www.dailynebraskan.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/06/14/42af35235e46a//

[Angry Ewok]

Not a bad article. I think it's universally accepted that the staff members at Bonnaroo are all drug dealers and morons. From what I saw, the only officials that were doing an admirable job were the various Mounted Security/Staff people.

When we arrived at Bonnaroo, the staff member walked up to the car and said, "Hey. Oh, I already searched your car, right." Not in the form of a question, he waved us on. So we kept going. We were then directed around Bonnaroo twice by the various morons wearing STAFF shirts, until we finally said, "Fuck it," and parked at the very front of the 'Roo, in Camp R2-D2 (gotta love the Star Wars camp names).

Because we made ourselves at home without the help of the staff, we actually arranged the cars so that we could leave immediately if there were an emergency - this is definately something that needs to be worked on at 'Roo, next year.

I, too, saw numerous Staff members selling 'Roo'ers drugs (one staff guy was selling Crystal Meth like candy until one of his buddies said, "Fucking idiot, you've still got your work shirt on.")...

From your article:"The 2005 Bonnaroo information guide told the festivalgoers they would be served healthy meals, but instead, we found ourselves eating overpriced fair food."

This bothered me more than the drug dealing Staff. Examples of prices:

Various beers: $2.00
Bottled water: $2.50
Bottled soda: $3.00
Cup of sweet tea: $3.00
Cup of Lemonade: $5

And as far as "healthy food" goes, I wasn't expecting much. From what I saw, the choices were Pizza ($5 per slice), Corndogs ($5), plate of chips ($6), and a plate of rices ($8?)... If you wanted healthy or even cheap food, you'd have to bring it yourself or buy it from your fellow roo'ers...

I'm still going back next year, though.

[Specialist]

the porto potties were awful, usually i was there waiting around 11:30am for the cleaners to get there, but even after that it still was pretty gross.

yeh, the food sucked, i bought a peice of pizza at the main venue before The Black Crowes, it was super cold and was bent in half.

of course none of this is enough to keep me from going back next year, it was the best 3 days of my life.

[EC]

Okay.  I need to disagree a bit.

There was a ton of options for healthy eating.  It was expensive, yes.  Absolutely agree.  However, we had lovely organic, fair-trade coffee in the morning.  There were organic, whole-grain wraps with all kinds of vegetables.  I ate brown rice and black beans.  For $6.  That is awesome.  Both Jen and I were VERY impressed with the variety of food.  The prices were crap, but we didn't expect any better.

As far as organization, I have never seen a better organized event of that size.  80, 000 people (is that right?) from Thursday to Monday?  Did we all not get the Bonnaroo email updates letting us know how to move about?  I did.  The only people offering me drugs were the muddy dread kids.  No staff ever offered me drugs.  And the staff were cool.  We didn't know about glass bottles, and we'd bought two bottles of wine, so they let us pour them into plastic containers so we didn't have to ditch them.  Very. cool.  The mud is inevitable.  The majority of the crowds being retarded is inevitable.  Bathrooms run out of toilet paper.  These things can't be helped, but they can be controlled well, which they were.  The garbage was cleaned up every night.  Water in the stations was refilled.  The portable bathrooms were cleaned out and restocked.  I can hardly remember needing something and not being able to find it in ten minutes.  

I would like to applaud the guys who put Bonnaroo together.  I can't even imagine what it takes to get a festival like that up, and then to make it run.  Fuck it, I know what it takes to put a small event together, and it's insane.  Something like that?  The dudes done right.  It can't be done any better.

[sweatboard]

I thought it was fun to go into the porto pots just to see what kind of new and freaky shit would be gretting me.  I didn't see two the same, like snowflakes....

[aMillionDreams]

I can't even imagine what it takes to get a festival like that up, and then to make it run.  

A lot of drug money, apparently.  ;)
I was just reading a web journal from someone who went to bonaroo and they said that Jim sang with M. Ward during his set, I don't remember anyone mentioning that.  Did anyone see it?  What did they sing?  

[EC]

A lot of drug money, apparently.  ;)
I was just reading a web journal from someone who went to bonaroo and they said that Jim sang with M. Ward during his set, I don't remember anyone mentioning that.  Did anyone see it?  What did they sing?  

Thank you for reminding me!!!!  Yes, Jim did get up and sing with M. Ward and it was AWESOME.  Apparently the guitar was out of tune, but I didn't notice that at all.  (Maybe I was too excited.)  And the song was One Life Away, which Jim sings on (it's from Transistor Radio which everyone must get because M. Ward is a god.)

[Smoothie]

The have turned me into a huge fan.  It was my favorite show of the weekend.  The huge Louis the 14th puppet was some funny shit.  What does the Mozart Orchestrator usually do? Roadie? What was the name of the Dylan song?  Is Lay Low and Dan Dante on a CD???  Can't wait to see them again.

[EC]

Oh yeah.  This, too.  Obviously I was telling everyone we met at Bonnaroo to see the boys.  Our neighbour in tent city (intensity heh. just take a sec and you'll get it) anyhow, he was fucking brilliant, and I told him to go and see them, and he emailed me today:

I am going to send a 2nd email with the pics from My Morning Jacket.Don't want to flood your email with too many pics. What a fantastic show. I was a little late getting over there, but oh man was it worth every penny just to see their show.

OK, I thnk I have found a band that completely sums up my emotion and attitude towards music. My Morning Jacket proved the passion that does exist, the soul moving experiences that zoom through the brain, the goosebumps on the skin when you finally "get it". The energy they produce, that causes that over-whelming rising within the heart, can only move a person to dance, cry, drool, scream, run or at least at the moment...smile.

I also learned that, specifically for me, I can't say what I need to in a 3 minute song. That's why most of my material can't be squeezed into that radio genre. My Morning Jacket also taught me that variations on the same theme will bring another level to the table. It's like viewing a sunset, then looking at the same sunset 15 min from now. Oh yeah, I'll toss some sunset pics your way too.

Isn't that awesome?  

Oh yeah.  I played a little for him one morning, and brought out the autoharp and he LOVED it.

I love when people love my autoharp.  It makes me incredibly happy.

[sweatboard]

"It's like looking at a sunset and looking at a sunset 15 min. from now."  That is quite awesome.  Great post Meg,  glad to see you didn't forget your mission to spread the word while you were there. ;)  

[SMc55]

I thought it was fun to go into the porto pots just to see what kind of new and freaky shit would be gretting me.  I didn't see two the same, like snowflakes....

Brian! That was so gross. But funny  ;)

What I don't get is how the loos can get so disgusting so early on. Do thousands of people hold it in for days before they go to a festival? It certainly seems like it  :-/

I don't understand how we have the technology to put a man on the moon, cook the outside of a baked alaska whilst leaving the middle frozen, but can't sort out festival toilets.

Enough of this shit. Very best moment, everyone?

[Angry Ewok]

I said that exact same thing, "We can get to the moon, but we can't..."... here's a tip for future porta-potty experiences: buy some cigars and smoke them while in the cage of death. With my cigars I was able to use the potty without passing out in the process.

[EC]

Very best moment, everyone?

I'm going to exclude any My Morning Jacket stuff because it makes it easier to pick other things.  

Two things kicked the shit out of me:

Joanna Newsome getting up and singing an a capella song as her opening.  Every single person in that tent just went "Ho.ly shit."  

Ray LaMontagne starting to cry when the crowd roared for him.  It was pretty intense.

Okay, fuck it, Don Dante at Bonnaroo also hit me very, very hard.  I wasn't sure if it would at Bonnaroo because it's so big.  But it did.

[Specialist]

Enough of this shit. Very best moment, everyone?

The Allman Brothers playing "The night they drove ole' dixie down"

Witnessing the Mars Volta's mind blowing performance

Hearing John Prine sing "Paradise"

Sam Beam coming back on stage for an encore

The shock of My Morning Jacket being in front of me, and the Dylan cover...the whole set really.

there is so many more...

[frankgarrison]

M. Ward and Jim James photos:

http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=4302448&a=31793675&f=

MMJ photos (not as close):

http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=4302448&a=31793700&f=

I also got to meet Jim at the Dr. Dog show. He complimented me on my "Acheiver" Lebowskifest shirt

[EC]

Oh my.  Thank you for posting those.  The internet is so weird how you get to relive everything almost right away.  So surreal.

That picture of M Ward and Jim and Rachel might be my favourite picture from Bonnaroo so far.

But I haven't seen the puppet pictures yet.  So that might change.

p.s.  Those sunglasses that Jim wears remind me of my Uncle's sunglasses from 1974.  His hair is practically the same, as well.  

[EC]

Okay, just saw the puppets.  I know that Riny took a million pictures, which I can't wait to see.

Man.