Since writing posts about every amazing aspect of Bonnaroo would take ages, I decided to break it down into just the main highlights.
1.
Through a friend of a friend, we managed to procure guest passes that gave us special access to guest camping, free showers (general admission paid $7 a shower!!!!), better/more reasonably-priced food, chance celebrity sightings, some priority seating/sound stage access, cleaner porta-potties with shorter lines, a sneaky pathway to bring in our own alcohol from the campsite (otherwise we would have been paying $6 for a beer), and backways throughout the festival to avoid the massive crowds. After we got back to AZ and were sitting in rush hour traffic, Tyler said, "I wish we had guest passes for life." Then I reminded him that we could get in the carpool lane and all was well.
2.
Taking an RV to Bonnaroo turned out to be an excellent idea. Running water, refrigerator, a place to sleep, crazy pictures of families camping and enjoying the outdoors on the exterior of the RV... what else could you need?
While we were picking up our guest passes, another group was thoroughly entertained by our RV, so much so that they decided to add their own touch to it, taping Eminem faces to the back and writing a speech bubble for the two girls on the door saying, "Hey sis! Look at all those hippies!!!"
3.
Guest camping was just a few minutes away from the festival. We talked to one person who said that they had to take AN HOUR WALK from their general admission camping to the festival. Yikes.
4.
Adult Swim hosted carnival games, including Balloonicorn Blowout where Tyler put a unicorn helmet on and attempted to pop ten balloons in 30 seconds. He managed to get seven and earned some sweet shades as a consolation prize. I would post the video, but I don't think I would ever be forgiven.
5.
Arcade Fire was amazing! The crowd was enormous and we had seats in the guest bleachers where we danced around like crazy. I've never seen Tyler so happy at a concert before and I started jumping up and down when they started playing
my favorite song of theirs as the last song of the encore. Unfortunately I'm singing very loudly in that particular video clip, so that will never see the light of day, er, internet.
6.
Celebrity sightings! In our time in the guest compound, we spotted
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (seen in the picture above with two body guards),
Mumford and Sons giving an interview (see video), and
Donald Glover. Much to Tyler's dismay, I walked up to Donald Glover, said hi, and made Tyler come over and say hi too. He was really nice and cool about it. But then I spent the next several hours feeling embarrassed and slightly mortified myself. I don't know what possessed me to do it because I would never ordinarily have the guts to just walk up to a celebrity. I guess that's just what having a special wristband does to you. Yeah... I still feel embarrassed.
7.
Alison Krauss was the main selling point for me when we were first thinking about buying tickets for Bonnaroo. She did not disappoint.
8.
Mumford and Sons was absolutely incredible. We read later that there were more than 50,000 people in the crowd. It was hard to believe that they only have one album so far with the number of people there belting out every lyric. They ended their encore with
Old Crow Medicine Show and
Jerry Douglass, playing a ten-minute rendition of "Amazing Grace" that gave us all goosebumps.
9.
Fried Oreos. They were gooey and delicious and worth every calorie.
10.
People watching. It doesn't get any better than people trying to channel Woodstock and act like hippies all weekend. I wouldn't have thought that
Galactic and hippie-dancing go together, but apparently they do. Now I need to learn how to dance with a hula hoop for next year.
11.
The first night while waiting in line for the
Silent Disco, I saw something in the sky that looked a lot like the floating lights shown in the movie
Tangled. I didn't think that people actually launched sky lanterns, but lo and behold they do! Now we're trying to devise a way to launch our own sky lanterns without starting another forest fire.
Here is what we saw:
Thursday:
River City Extension
Freelance Whales
Band of Skulls
J. Cole
Sleigh Bells
Childish Gambino
Friday:
Phosphorescent
Matt & Kim
The Decemberists
Florence + the Machine
My Morning Jacket
Arcade Fire
Big Boi
Ratatat
Saturday:
Chiddy Bang
Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas
Mumford & Sons
The Black Keys
Buffalo Springfield
Eminem
Scissor Sisters
Girl Talk
Sunday:
G. Love
Neon Trees
Galactic
Iron & Wine
Cold War Kids
Explosions in the Sky
