-Warning, this might be kind of lengthy-
As an 'avid' follower of this thrilling blog detailing the adventures and misadventures of my life, I'm sure you are aware that I, along with my friends Scott and Alexis, attended the 10th anniversary of Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, TN. 6 days of intense heat, music, heat, dust, people, and heat!
Oh man. I don't know exactly where to begin on my tale/overview. Our first day there, we were sent to and stationed at the wrong campground for our designated volunteering positions. This was slightly worrisome at the start, but we opted to stay where we were, mostly because we had already commenced the setting up of our tent and campsite, but also because our neighbors seemed like really cool peeps whose company we would enjoy. This ended up being a wise decision. Our neighbors were from Kentucky (Lexington, if you cared to know) and offered to share a spare tarp they had to create a little shady spot between our cars that we helped to hold up with some sticks of bamboo. How resourceful!
The Kentucky crew, Rachel, Danny, and Marisa were really interesting, cool people with excellent taste in music and movies, as well as being a lively, sarcastic group. I enjoyed hanging out with them in the evenings and whatnot. Some other neighbor buddies included a girl from NY, Michelle, Adam from NC, and a guy from Boston, Tappan.
All of us were volunteers and had our various shifts around 'roo, but our supervisors supplied us with free water (thank goodness!!!) and our schedules allowed us to see just about every band we came to see. We started off with a bit of moshing to Wavves, where we found another cool kid, Mike, who joined us for a few other shows like Best Coast, the Decemberists, etc. Have I mentioned that the people there were super cool? They were. There is a lot of hype about everyone being on drugs and being drunk, but I was fortunate enough to have a sober group with me, as well as finding new 'roo buddies who were there for the music, as opposed to the partying, as well. Refreshing, for sure.
There were lots of non-music attractions there, as well. There was a water slide, a Ferris wheel, a giant cuckoo clock that shot flames from it's bum on the hour, a cinema tent, a comedy tent, and tons of really interesting vendors. I watched Garden State and then had the opportunity to attend a Q and A with Zack Braff. I waited from about 10 AM to 2 PM to do so, not to mention this was after an all night shift (meaning that I had no sleep that night. None at all). It was definitely a highlight for me, though. The vendors were neat too. They had a lot of art, 'roo merch, handcrafted jewelry and fun little instruments, body art, and random little nick-knack shops. There was also plenty of food! It was pretty pricey, but there was a wide variety and the portions were more than satisfactory. Volunteers received 3 meal tokens and I chose some delicious pizza, burrito (the size of my head) and some Asian food. So very yummy.
The heat was dreadful, to say the least. You could, literally, not sleep past about 7 AM, because by that time it was so hot that one would just bake in their tent. Not fun. I was lucky enough not to get sunburned, but I was one of the lucky few. Standing in a huge field, watching and waiting on shows, meant lots of standing in the hot June sun. It was well worth it, though. The bands we saw, such as the Strokes, Ray Lamontagne, the Black Keys, Pretty Lights, Freelance Whales, Beirut, Mumford and Sons, etc. were just fantastic. (Beirut was probably my favorite to see).
The whole atmosphere was really awesome - emphasis on the 'awe'. I feel really blessed to have gone and met the people I did and see the bands there.
p.s. The pictures I took there were on disposable cameras that haven't yet been developed, so here are some Internet photos I found until I can upload the real thing.
-Katelyn.
