Whether it's your first Bonnaroo or you’re a music festival veteran, we welcome you to Inforoo.
Here you'll find info about artists, rumors, camping tips, and the infamous Roo Clues. Have a look around then create an account and join in the fun. See you at Bonnaroo!!
There is soo much info on the board I'm kicking off the hints and tips section, stuff that works well but might not of been thought of.
I went to Roo last year with two other friends, afterward we came up with some ideas to make life a little nicer for this year. Some we learned the hard way.
Water. The water they give out for bathing and drinking is well, sulfur tasting at best. The taste and smell will not go away after filtering or boiling. So instead of this we drank the water from the ice melting. I hike so I ran our water through my filter and we filled our camelbacks and used it to cook with. One gallon milk containers filled with water and frozen, these both keep food and drink cold and while it melts, drink it. We brought a case of bottled water with us last year, this year were bringing more, heat stoke is a pain in the a$$ and you miss bands playing, Drink ALOT of WATER.
Food We brought way too much food. Our neighbors were cool enough to help us eat it but it made the ride down kinda tight. This year I'm planning it like when I go hiking. Keep it small, less messy, witch means less trash. Bring small granola bars or smallish food with you to Centertoo, I was surprised be how hungry I was after a few hours, and not wanting to miss anymore bands than I had to, this saved my life. PB&J in a zip-loc saved me more times last year. I brought my camp stove with me, After a long day of grooving Mac and Cheese hit the spot, instead of plates eat out of the pot. Less clean up and more time to play. Ramen soup, by itself kinda bland. Get some dehydrated veggies, (I like carrots, celery, and some onion) and canned chicken, throw in the chicken juice and veggies with the water and season packet boil it, then throw in the noodles, it's damn good eats.
Camping If you can figure out a way to tie a tarp to the top of your car and to the top of the tent your golden. More shade, is a boon in the campsite. We tied the end of the tarp to a luggage rack and the other end to ropes leading to the stakes to keep our tent down. Plenty of room to move and the sun wasn't so bad. I'm thinking cheap white sheets this year, dark colors absorb light, light colors reflect it. Our dark grey tarp got too hot last year. Open the windows on your tent. Or don't put the rain fly on unless your gone. At 8:30 in the morning your roasting alive in there. Light sticks on the tent guy-lines, I don't know how many times I tripped last year, no falls but close. Bring some TP in a ziploc baggie, if it rains your still good to go. I carried a small amount into centeroo, just in case.
Odds and Ends Bring extra zip-locs. I carried the little maps with the list of bands and what times they played in one. I folded it so that it fit perfect in the baggie and all I had to do was get it out of my pocket. I also kept some band-aids in it too, you never know when you or someone else get's a blister. I also kept extra money in the folds of the map. Just in case. Sunscreen, don't leave camp with out it. Sunburn will sap your energy. I bathed in the fountain last year with some soap I bought at the Copa Soap booth, Good soap, I wasn't near as bad for the trip home doing that once a day. Comfortable shoes, break them in before Roo. I love my birks but almost lost them in the mud. I'll wear them again, but will choose my footing more careful. I brought a mini-mag lite for those late trip to camp, and to the bathroom. Bug's weren't too bad to me last year, Off is good. Don't forget to tick check at random times. I did first thing when I woke up to make sure I'd not got any in the tent. A good wide brim hat is nice to have keeps the ears and head from getting burned, also kept the sun out of my eyes. Try to remember things around your camp. When coming back all tired and half drunk or high it's easy to get lost. In order to get back to camp I had to remember to make a right at the second set of porta-potties and head straight up. Sounds silly until I watched my friend stumble around trying to find home.
After reading though this I sound like I'm talking down to you guys, that's not my intention, I just want to pass on stuff I know worked for me and my buddies. I hope this helps the newbies to the Roo. I'll add stuff later on about the whole "HOW AM I GONNA SEE/DO ALL THIS STUFF!" I know I was overwhelmed last year, I'll still be overwhelmed this year. They just keep adding people I want to see.
Post by JayFromRochester on Apr 13, 2004 10:24:03 GMT -5
Porta Potties
Last year a couple members of our group showed some real creativity in this regard. Between them they essentially put together a little kit in one pocket of the backpack they took into Centeroo.
Backpacker's TP in this little damp-proof tube
A baggie of Clorox wipes
Alcohol based hand sanitizer stuff
Small flashlight that was just for this kit
Whatever 'feminine products' were expected to be needed that day
May seem like a lot, but it was really just one very small pouch in the pack and their foresight was appreciated by everyone who wanted to borrow the pack to go to the john--especially latenight!
Water
We drank tons of water last year. Tons. But by the end it seemed like it just wasn't staying with us. You were just continually thirsty and if you drank you just had to make more trips to the porta john. This year we're brining a cooler to make Gatorade too. From backpacking, I've found that half-strength Gatorade is just about the best thing going to rehydrate yourself and replace the salts that your body needs to retain the water after sweating for three days.
Food
TheDrugsDoWork is 100% correct. We all had grand ideas about how we were going to hang out in the morning and make omlettes and crap for breakfast before a big day of shows. Reality was, we ate a couple pieces of jerky and a pop tart. For supper, one night we made noodles and threw some red sauce on them; another, a friend who had come in from his hotel brought a sack of sub sandwiches for everyone. Keep it real simple.
Gear
'Keep it simple' goes for your gear, too. We brought all kinds of stuff we didn't use or need last year. It just made more work and stuff to keep track of. This year we're really scaling back on a lot of the incidentals in an effort to simplify. If you have time, why not go camping a week or two before Bonnaroo, especially if you don't go that often? Bring what you're planning to bring to Bonnaroo and keep track of what you use and what you don't. Leave the latter home.
Also, bring a bunch of trash bags and use them. By the end of the weekend last year our campsite looked like a war zone and we had to spend a lot of hungover time Sunday morning returning it to something resembling the way we found it.
Beyond that, be nice to your neighbors and HAVE FUN!
I had planned on bringing a Road Trip grill made my Coleman. But from what I have heard it sounds like people do not spend a lot of time at the camp sites. I personally think that I will enjoy the camping aspect of Bonnaroo almost as much as the musical aspect. Basically what I mean is that Im going to need some time away from the craziness at Centeroo. How much time do people really spend on average during the day at the camp site? I want to spend as much time as I can at Centeroo but I also want my BBQ time. what are peoples thoughts?
Don't worry, you can have your BBQ time. I definitely agree that we brought too much food last year. We figured out that if we got up in the morning and fired up the grill that we could go ahead and grill burgers and dogs and if you werent' hungry yet, put it in a plastic baggie and take it with you to Centeroo until you get hungry. Some people go all out with food but I think I would have been fine on cheese and crackers all weekend.
Water is definitely essential. I totally agree with drinking your ice as it melts. Last year we brought 3 coolers: one for food, one for water/beer, and one just with ice. The one with ice was a huge 5-day cooler and we never ran out and had to buy ice. Buying ice can be a hassle when you have to stand in line to get it and then hike back to your campsite while half of it melts before you get there.
Another hint for creating a 'bathroon' at your tent site. Last year we took a 10 gal. bucket, along w/ a portable toilet seat, TP & an extra tent(2-man maybe?). Have plenty of cheap, small 5/10 gal. trash bags and just set-up shop in the tent. Obviously, fill up the bucket w/ a trash bag, do your business, then pull out used trash bag, tie up, take to garbage. Easy & no mess! We also found the small trash bags perfect for urinating in. Just discreetly stand and piss into & dispose properly. You don't want to piss all over the ground, esp. when you and many others will be living there for a few days. By having our 'nuts tent' we were able to keep our campsite clean & smelling great. Plus, it sure beat having to walk 10 minutes to a nasty port-o-john just to take a leak. PS Early, early mornings, just after they service the port-o-johns, are the perfect time to use them!
Post by BonnarooPaul on Apr 19, 2004 17:05:03 GMT -5
If you're going to grill out, the best time is for when you first get there. you want to use the perishable foods first.. this year, i'm going to invest in spam cuz it doesn't have to be in the ice as long as it's somewhat cool and i can just warm it up...
but mostly i'll be saving more money to buy vendors this time around.
one other thing that i posted before. if you want a good quick but thorough shower, just pour water out of a jug on you as you stand in some grass with your swimtrucks on. lather up with some shower gel, then rinse the same way.. the water is a little cooler but beleive me you'll be glad because of how hot it is..imo much better than wipes. wipes are good for refreshers.
however you sleep(tent, car, etc...) make sure there is an additional tarp or shade over it.. it makes a huge difference in the heat. shade shade shade..very important. sunscreen also, even if you don't normally use it.
someone posted this earlier but i find it important also. mark your tent lines with something glowing or bright so noone will trip over it at night in their blurriness.
memorize landmarks your FIRST trip from your camp to centeroo... learn some of the main roads near your camp.. the map will help but if you don't know where on the map you are, it's useless.
Post by lunaladybug on Apr 27, 2004 15:10:42 GMT -5
Just wanted to mention, about the food:
Sometimes you just feel like eating whatever little snacks are around, or eating off the vendors and don't feel like bothering with your own stuff.
Personally, me and my friends always bring our grill (we're a BBQ lovin bunch), and like to go all out on at least one or 2 meals. Aside from that, it's a lot of burgers and hot dogs. This year, I want to wake up early on Friday and make a huge breakfast with mimosas to get our weekend off right. ;D
Post by chillybonz on Apr 27, 2004 19:05:38 GMT -5
A good breakfast is the most important meal of the day and easy to accomadate since everyone is at camp in the mornings. The rest of the day you can just grab whatever / whenever..IMO
"As you wander through life, sister/brother, whatever be your goal, keep your eye upon the donut, and not the hole." -Sign in the mayflower Coffee Shop, Chicago
;DCattrips if i see your bus can i use your potty!? Now that we've heard you have one there is going to be a line! just kiddin but really about the using your pottie
Post by Capttrips25 on May 10, 2004 17:33:17 GMT -5
If I have the time Im going to plumb in an outdoor shower head on the back. I bet that would get used more than once or twice if it happens. I will have a water pump and water on board so the shower thing may happen.
Post by Capttrips25 on May 11, 2004 7:46:59 GMT -5
One thing you should bring is a towel...
The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels.
A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value — you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you — daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
.....and as for the hotel towels.....lets just say i feel pretty bad for the ppl who got the ones my friends in the past have used ......no matter what they cleaned them with ;D
they make waterproof blankets...she thinks they are rubbermaid* says they are only about $5 and they roll up pretty small...can get them at wally world.
they would be great for lounging while at a show if the ground is a lil damp
"Work like you don't need the <a href="http://www.ntsearch.com/search.php?q=money&v=55">money</a>...<a href="http://www.ntsearch.com/search.php?q=Love&v=55">Love</a> like you've never been hurt...and DANCE like no one is watching." ~unknown
bring ziplock bags......you can use them for food storage....wet clothes/rags...to keep your camera and other goodies dry if it rains....put wetwipes in a ziplock and take with you to centeroo...great for instant refreshment or if you happen to get beer or food spilled on you....
Post by bellakabey on May 12, 2004 20:56:25 GMT -5
Last year we brought plastic shower curtains and then put a sheet over them ... waterproof yet not sitting directly on plastic (and sweating all over it in the heat). This year a few of us bought waterproof blankets ... waterproof on one side yet fabric on the other. Folds to fanny pack size. Check out Coleman's website; can search for a local supplier to ditch shipping fees. (Not as cheap as the shower curtain, though, but hey, we're splurging.)
Post by jambandjohn on Feb 22, 2006 1:25:08 GMT -5
My friend Kev and I bring one of those screen room tents and set up our small camping tents inside it, along with a couple of chairs and our coolers. This keeps us pretty well shaded so we can get a little extra shuteye after those late nighters. A few blue traps held up with squeeze champs on the inside and it's very weather proof (as we found out 2 years ago). We've gotten alot of "I'm doing that next year!" comments from our neighbors...
......no matter what they cleaned them with ;D
