Bonnaroo Music Festival

Location(s)	Great Stage Park, Manchester, Tennessee, USA
Years active	2002–present
Date(s)	June 13–16, 2013
Genre	Indie rock, Jam bands, Jazz, Americana, Bluegrass, Country, Folk, Gospel, Alternative rock, Hip hop, Reggae, Metal, Electronica, Funk, R&B, Stoner Rock
Website	Official website

The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an annual four-day music festival created and produced by Superfly Presents and AC Entertainment, held at Great Stage Park on a 700-acre (2.8 km²) farm in Manchester, Tennessee, USA. It hosted its eleventh annual event June 7–10, 2012. The main attractions of the festival are the multiple stages of live music, featuring a diverse array of musical styles including indie rock, world music, hip hop, jazz, americana, bluegrass, country music, folk, gospel, reggae, electronica, and other alternative music.

The festival began with a primary focus on jam bands and folk rock; it has diversified greatly in recent years but continues to pay tribute to its roots. Past notable acts include Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Phish, My Morning Jacket Stevie Wonder, The White Stripes, Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Tom Petty, The Dead, The Allman Brothers Band, James Brown, Wilco, Bon Iver, Beirut, The Flaming Lips, Willie Nelson, Jay-Z, Bob Dylan, The Black Keys, Dave Matthews Band, Buffalo Springfield, Arcade Fire, The Strokes, The Black Crowes, The Decemberists, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bruce Springsteen, Beastie Boys, and Widespread Panic. The festival features craftsmen and artisans selling unique products, food and drink vendors, a comedy tent, silent disco, cinema tent, and ferris wheel.

The festival was named one of the "50 Moments That Changed Rock & Roll" by Rolling Stone magazine.^[1] and "Festival of the Decade" by Consequence of Sound and among the 10 Best Festivals by GQ Magazine.

History [edit]

The word Bonnaroo, popularized by New Orleans R&B singer Dr. John with his 1974 album Desitively Bonnaroo,^[2] means "a really good time." It is a Ninth Ward slang construction taken from the French "bon" meaning "good," and "rue" from the French "street," translating to "the best on the streets."^[3] The name was chosen both for its literal meaning and to honor the rich Louisiana music tradition.

The first Bonnaroo took place in 2002 and took inspiration from music festivals in the 1990s, including those put on by the band Phish, Coachella and Glastonbury. With no traditional advertising, the festival sold out in nearly two weeks. By 2003, the festival had been named by Rolling Stone as one of the top 50 moments in rock & roll. Comedy acts such as Jim Breuer were first added in 2005. In 2007, Bonnaroo purchased the land for the festival, creating Great Stage Park with all of its iconic features. A permanent main stage was installed in 2010.^[4]

Economy [edit]

On January 10, 2007, Bonnaroo organizers Superfly Productions purchased a major portion of the site where the annual music festival is held. The purchase of 530 acres (2.1 km²) encompassed all of the performance areas and much of the camping and parking area used for the annual festival; the festival will continue to lease another 250 acres (1.0 km²) that currently serve as additional parking and camping. Since its inception, Bonnaroo has contributed more than $1 million directly to Coffee County organizations. In addition to annual charitable contributions, the festival's activities provide annual revenue to the county. Measured in a 2005 study, the economic impact of the event on Coffee County was more than $14 million in business revenues and more than $4 million in personal income.^[5] The Bonnaroo music festival makes most of its income from the fans.

Environmentalism [edit]

Bonnaroo promotes itself as a sustainable festival.^[6] As a reward for sending a letter to a legislator in support of climate change legislation, the Natural Resources Defense Council gave 17 free downloads from various Bonnaroo artists.^[7] A Greener Festival has recognized Bonnaroo's efforts for the past three years.^[8] There is a defined process, which includes a self-evaluation and an audit from Greener Festival auditors during Bonnaroo.^[9]

Accolades [edit]

In 2008, it was named "Best Festival" by Rolling Stone magazine, calling it "the ultimate over-the-top summer festival." ^[10]

One of “50 moments that changed rock & roll” – Rolling Stone

“Bonnaroo has revolutionized the modern rock festival” – The New York Times ^[11]

“Festival of the Year” – Pollstar

“Best festival of the summer” – SPIN ^[12]

“The culmination of a musical movement” – USA Today ^[13]

“The concert event of the summer” – USA Today

“Music and subculture melted together into a pot of creative bubbling energy” – CNN ^[14]

“Bonnaroo: Three days of musical history in the making” - AP

Venues [edit]

The official venues located at Bonnaroo often change from year to year. The following are a few of the more permanent venues.

Which Stage at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, TN.

Centeroo - The Central area of Bonnaroo. Serviced by one main entrances, nearly all of the festival activity is enclosed in this area. Various merchants and activities supplement the plethora of music related activities located within Centeroo. While Centeroo is open 24 hours a day, musical artists generally only play from noon until the evening, followed by the unopposed headlining act. Afterwards, there are late-night sets, usually running from midnight until the early morning, sometimes as late as 5 or 6 AM.
What Stage - The main stage of the festival is also the largest. What Stage is open from approximately noon until midnight (late night sets usually over by 3am). Traditionally, the headlining act each day will play on the What Stage with no other acts performing on any other stages.
Which Stage - The second stage, Which Stage, is generally one of the last stages to finish before the headlining act each night. After the headlining act performs, a late night show generally follows here.
This Tent, That Tent, and The Other Tent - These three tents serve as a combined tertiary tier for musical performances. Late night shows also generally occur in all three of these venues, along with the yearly Superjam, a one-off combination of various musicians performing at the festival.
Comedy Tent - This tent is reserved strictly for comedy acts, such as stand up comedians.

Various other small tents and stages also exist, such as the Solar Stage, Lunar Stage, Sonic Stage, and the Cinema tent. See the Bonnaroo website for further details on these venues.

Activities [edit]

Some graffiti by Nashville artist Ryan McCauley on the Graffiti Wall, which separates Centeroo from the campsites.

Available to the Bonnaroo public throughout the week are various activity tents. These tents become most popular with the night crowd, with such activities set up as The Silent Disco tent and several other club or bar-themed venues. In the Silent Disco, each person upon entering the tent is given a set of headphones that syncs with the DJ and the music, so everyone is listening to the same song through the headphones while appearing from the outside to be dancing to no music at all. Other activities include the Comedy Tent where comedians from Mike Birbiglia to Flight of the Conchords have performed. The Cinema tent, showing a variety of mainstream and independent movies, is also popular as it is one of the air conditioned tents, and the Broo’ers Festival tent is a popular attraction featuring a variety of breweries from all over the United States. Outside the big tents, Planet Roo hosts a variety of non-profit organizations sharing information on healthy lifestyles and resource conservation, and Splash-a-Roo (a giant slip-n-slide area) and a giant mushroom fountain provide a practical way to beat the heat. Bonnaroo creators designated the wall surrounding Centeroo, colloquially called "the Graffiti Wall", as a place for street artists to paint whatever they feel like painting.

Outside the music venue, in the packed campgrounds known to Bonnaroovians as Tent City, there are also about 11 pods set up by festival organizers with activities and services for the campers. Each pod has an information^[15] and medical booth and a community art project. Often these are joint projects between invited artists and the campers themselves: past festival pods have featured birdhouse construction and decorating,^[16] stretched canvas and paints open to anyone with a message or picture in his or her mind, a giant Lite Brite-like panel, and huge frames and raw clay which Bonnaroovians shaped and moulded to their taste. Some of the art installations are finished prior to the festival and have offered visitors an opportunity to walk through a bamboo forest 15 to 20 degrees cooler than the surrounding farm and to peer through a series of large kaleidoscopes. In addition to information, medical services and an art project, each pod offers public showers for $7 each.

Activities like these, along with great food vendors and unique shopping, provide an easy and fun way to hang around the festival in between music performances. In 2009, Bonnaroo featured the Bungaloo, a community art project that invited festival goers to paint a small tile that was then affixed to 10 foot water drops suspended between The Other Tent and This Tent. For each tile painted, the festival-goer could vote for the charity of their choice. Bungaloo, a new online paint company, made a $1000 donation to the charity with the most votes.