After a week of Broo and a subsequent week of much-needed recovery, I am prepared to return to reality (although I'm not happy about it). I'm struggling to find a fine line between describing every detail of Bonnaroo in chronological order on one side, and understating just how amazing Bonnaroo '11 really was on the other. I will begin by saying that Bonnaroo is not simply an event, but in fact a mindset. One must go in with the knowledge that they will not properly shower for 4 consecutive days, endure the blistering heat, and other details that might dissuade others from attending. For Sarah and I though, these paled in comparison to the positive aspects of Bonnaroo. For four days, we were immersed in amazing music, an amazing atmosphere, and an extremely well organized event overall. Although it was a bit confusing to grasp the names of the tents and stages (they were playfully named, "This Tent", "That Tent", "The Other Tent", "Which Stage", and "What Stage").
One thing I really liked about Bonnaroo was that not only were fans grateful that they could see their favorite bands play at a prestigious venue, but also the modesty of all the bands, who were thankful of the opportunity to play at such a renowned festival. There was a sense of mutual respect between artist and audience that I had never really felt before. It was truly an intimate setting, it created a real bond between everyone at Bonnaroo.
Now, I realize I'm starting to sound like a total hippie, but that's what Bonnaroo does to you. Bonnaroo is its own counter-culture society. Security guards/policemen are at a minimum, especially inside Centeroo itself, and there is no real sense of any authority. But the collective emphasis on having a good time and enjoying music is what comes from this, and it was refreshing to see people simply being nice to each other.
What was also refreshing was the Lemon-Basil popsicle I had from one food stand. Amazing. Insert shameless promotion here: http://www.kingofpops.net/ Seriously check them out. The variety of food was what you might expect from Bonnaroo. Pizza and Burgers and other typical festival food was in abundance, but so was Thai, Greek, Organic, Vegan, and other types of food.
Because it got so hot from 9am to about 3pm, there were several things available to do in order to keep cool. We watched 2 fantastic documentaries in an air-conditioned Cinema Tent, as well as great stand-up from Donald Glover (who really took advantage of his first Bonnaroo appearance) and legendary English comic Bill Bailey). Documentaries, it was said in the Q&A session following 'The Last Mountain', are so important in a democracy as an alternative media source to corporation-funded news and information that we see today. This enforced the counter-culture mentality of the festival and really resonated with me personally.
I could elaborate on so many details so far, but I will restrain in my sorry attempt to keep this post concise and short-ish. What I have failed to discuss so far is the only thing that brought me to Bonnaroo in the first place: The music. It's tough to start, as every act I saw exceeded all my expectations. While most rap acts like Eminem and Lil Wayne are simply not my cup of tea, I was so impressed with Childish Gambino. Aka the aforementioned Donald Glover, the comedian (actor in Community, writer for 30 Rock) turned rapper really gave a great performance with an accompanying band, and will only become more and more popular from here on out.
Florence Welsh from Florence + the Machine belted out an epic set, and sounded even better live than she did on her first album, Lungs. I know I wasn't the only on in the audience who got the chills multiple times from her performance. Every band mentioned in my previous post played better than I could have imagined, especially Mumford & Sons. I think that their encore to what was already a fantastic and pretty ballsy set was the highlight of the entire festival. While the band could have simply churned out their entire first album and given everyone what they wanted to hear, Mumford & Sons really impressed me. They played at least 4 or 5 brand new songs from their upcoming album, songs that no one else had heard yet. I describe this as "ballsy" because not everyone might like something new so soon. (This was M&S's first Bonnaroo appearance as well).
After their last song, they announced that they would like to bring some friends on the stage with them. What this really meant, was that members of Old Crow Medicine Show and the Apache Relay joined the band onstage. With their assortment of slide guitar, accordion, harmonica, mandolin, horns, and harmonizing vocals, they played a rousing rendition of Amazing Grace. After each chorus, a different instrument would solo as they jammed for a good 10 minutes. The entire experience left many in the crowd in tears, and created an atmosphere of such happiness, love, and an appreciation for musical proficiency. And it summed up everything that Bonnaroo is about. The impression that Bonnaroo '11 left on me leaves only one thing to be said: See you at Bonnaroo '12!
Oh and I found a sick video of Arcade Fire playing 'Wake Up'
in front of just about every single person at Bonnaroo:
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