Bonnaroo and Back Again Concluded

Getting Home

Honestly, I was tired. Very tired. And I still had around 30 hours worth of driving to do. So we drove back to Nashville, said g’bye to Lindsay and Steven and picked up Brooke and Austin. We took showers at Michelle’s (thanks a huge sack of thank you’s) and ate a bit of breakfee at WAFFELHOUSE. It was tasty, I got my hash browns smothered and covered, baby!

After the best Dr. Pepper in the south, things got a little sketchy. We were traveling in Missouri and there was a storm that we were heading straight into. Austin and Brooke wanted to visit Mark Twain’s home town Hannibal (why they haven’t changed the name of that town is beyond me… actually it’s probably a really appropriate name so never mind). We found the statue of Tom and Huck. It was creepy. Visiting a statue at 9:30 pm in a ghost town and being surrounded by abandoned stores and warehouses all located right next to the Mississippi River whilst a storm is a-brewin’ is probably not the best idea. We also encountered a full-on riverboat that was all lit up despite the absence of anyone. I’ve never been so freaked.

We finally made it to our hotel (a nice sketchy one to match our sketchy night) and caught some winks. The next day we went to Nauvoo which was amazing and then drove. And drove. And drove. We stayed in Nebraska (probably my favorite spot) and then drove. And drove. And drove.

And then at last, we were home. Well, that’s about it. Hopefully y’all enjoyed it and I wasn’t too boring. Next year: Sasquatch!!

Bonnaroo

Day One

Bands: River City Extension

Wavves

Best Coast

Mini Boone

The Drums

Best of the Day: Mini Boone—these guys had so much energy, it was really fun to watch them perform.

There were five main stages: What Stage, Which Stage, This Tent, That Tent, and The Other Tent. I think they did this cause its funny to see people get confused. Especially when they’re wasted. There was also the Comedy Theatre, the Cinema Tent, and loads of other tents that were sponsored by different businesses. Our personal favorite was the There Tent sponsored by State Farm. They had huge fans and tons of bean bags and chairs. That’s where we spent most of the first day cause we were so so tired.

Did I mention it was super hot and dusty and smoky? Well, it was. This is how I survived.

Day Two

Bands: Ben Sollee

Justin Townes Earl

Matt & Kim

The Decemberists

Ray Lamontagne

Florence + The Machine

Arcade Fire

Ratatat

Best of the Day: They were all so good, but my favorite discovery was Ben Sollee

The nice thing about Bonnaroo was the free water. It was nice to fill up whenever I needed to. I was able to drink as much as I was sweating, so I hardly ever had to use the portables. They were gross.

Adventure time—Lindsay and Steven decided to go to Walmart to get food. Our supply was very healthy and with not a whole lot of carbs. Steven had to rectify that situation, and I couldn’t have agreed more. They got there by hitching a ride with some guys that wanted to get more beer and by taking Lindsay and Steven with them, they were able to get more booze. Those two are brave souls. It’s funny to see how far a person would go for some Tang and Pop Tarts.

While Shelley and I were waiting for Arcade Fire to start up, a man named Chuck asked me if I had a pipe he could smoke his weed in. After informing him I didn’t, he said “I brought my own weed, I just didn’t bring anything to smoke it in,” to which I replied “Well, what are you gonna do?” Then we had a pretty lengthy albeit forgettable conversation.

Day Three

Bands: Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens

Old Crow Medicine Show

Alison Krause

Mumford & Sons

Loretta Lynn

The Black Keys

Gogol Bordello

Best of the Day: Old Crow Medicine Show—to hear them perform in their native land gave me the chills. It was really cool. Although Gogol Bordello was really great. Especially when they sang “Start Wearing Purple.”

There were SO many people there. They sold 85,000 ticket to Bonnaroo, and Saturday was probably the craziest. It was one massive crowd. I should’ve gone to a lot more shows, but I was so so tired of people that I couldn’t wait to get back to my campsite. It also rained and stormed a little bit. Lightning and thunder are awesome in the south.

Day Four

Bands: The Head and the Heart

Mavis Staples

Junip

Iron & Wine

Beirut

Best of the Day: Beirut—these guys were unbelievable. I’ve seen them before, but not like this. The crowd was super pumped and just got louder and louder. It was such a great experience that put me on a high hours later. In fact, I’m still in awe of how amazing that show was. Another cool little bit about this concert was that there were deaf people there and had people translating for them. It was cool to see how they interpreted the music.

We also watched a documentary called Dive which is about dumpster diving. Let’s just say Imma believer now. Before, I felt indifferent, but I didn’t want to do it; and now I’m all for it. We waste so much food and we need to do our part to stop the wasting.

This was my favorite day. We were able to relax, see some amazing performances and enjoy our last few moments there. I loved it. There weren’t nearly as many people there and the partying (for the most part) was done. It was very peaceful.

Best of the Festival: Beirut—I’m telling you, it was incredible!

Bonnaroo and Back Again

K, this is a long story, so I'll post in segments. And please just ignore the fact that I'm a dork.

Road tripping to Bonnaroo was quite an experience. I was able to see one fifth of the states and traveled places I’ve never been. I (and I alone) drove our little Ford Fiesta rental—who we loving called Caballero de Negro del Castillo—for a grand total of sixty hours. I was the only one old enough you see and so I drove just about all the way. My good friend Austin spotted me for a few hours so I could catch some winks but overall it was me behind the wheel. Our road trip was an eight day excursion and I had some AMAZING experiences. Here are just a few:

Getting There

We made our way to Kansas that first night. (Now here’s the part where moms need to look away.) We didn’t really have a place to stay and didn’t want to just sleep on the side of the road so we asked a gas stop attendant where we could crash for a few hours. He told us about a RV park just down the road and also a public park where he thought anyone could stay the night. (We weren’t too sure about that last bit, in most states its illegal to stay at any public park past ten.) We opted to stay at the RV park. There wasn’t anyone awake when we got there and we weren’t too sure about staying, but there was no other option. So I decided to sleep as long as I could but overall if I couldn’t go back to sleep, we would just get up and go. So we left at 4 a.m.


The next cool place of interest was the St. Louis Arch. It was freakishly tall and so so cool. We got lost for a little bit trying to find the freeway and when we finally made it, we all remarked about how shady that part of town was. It was kind of scary. This was the first time I had ever seen the Mississippi River in person. It is a grand, brown, amazing thing to behold. I highly recommend anyone to go check it out.
We were traveling in Kentucky when a car honked at us and then caught up to us and the passengers inside were waving profusely at us. That’s when I noticed that I knew these people! My DJ friend Max and his awesome sister Whitney were driving right next to us in their blue Beetle. I knew they were going to Bonnaroo as well, but it was quite a surprise meeting up with them this way. We later got on the phone and decided to have dinner together in Nashville. I was also able to convince them to caravan with us so we could be at the same campsite, thus improving our festival experience.

Ok, so let me just say how remarkable all the landscape was this whole time. Everything was green and luscious and beautiful. It’s unlike any other place in the world. I loved driving because it allowed me to see amazing scenery I might have otherwise missed. Kentucky especially was beautiful as well as Tennessee.

When we got to Nashville we met up with Michelle and her husband Austin. They told us about a good place to eat (some southern bbq, thank you very much) that just happened to be right next to the Grand Old Opry. It was pretty cool and delicious. I think I would really like Nashville. I’ll have to go there again and really sink my teeth into it. After getting a good glimpse of lightning bugs for the first time (southerners don’t call them fireflies), we dropped off Brooke and Austin with Michelle and picked up my friends Lindsay and Steven at the airport. Finally we were headed towards Manchester where Bonnaroo was being held. We got in a horrendous line around 1:30 a.m. and didn’t get to our campsite till 7:30 a.m. It was ridiculous how long that line was! I maybe got an hour of sleep. But we were there! We made it! And now we can rock out to some awesome music!

Bonnaroo

I'm leaving tomorrow for this magical festival of music, art, cinema, comedy, and extensive people-watching. I'll be taking photos and video all along the way. Expect more of this when I return.