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!!
Post by JustSoYouKnow on May 9, 2009 2:05:02 GMT -5
What I have found, if the city gets too packed they start pulling people into bonnaroo. But, you will not get favored spots at all. They open the whole thing up Thursday morning at the announced time.
^^ I agree. We're staying in Murfreesboro wednesday night and leaving round 8am to get in line on Thursday morning. I'd much rather end up in BFE than sit in line for hours on end. I'm budgeting extra money for taxis anyways. BFE has more space. Last time I went we were right in front of the arch but some friends were a few streets over and I couldn't believe how cramped they were for space. If we get too cramped or if it's too far, we'll check out tent only. I'm not gonna stress too much about where we camp. I just don't want to wait in line forever.
..........Well..a word of advice.....what you are saying and what happens don't jibe together. If you propose to get in line around 9am on Th that usually IS a pretty prime time and there WILL be some waiting last year I waited about 3-4 hrs hitting the line around 9am. If you want no line and don't care about BFE go on in Wed. night or at like 5 am Th morn. almost guarenteed BFE.
But I will also bow to the theory that anything can happen and it can be pretty random.
A Thieve's Parade 2/24 Conspirator 2/26 Kevin Smith 3/11 Keller 3/17 Papadosio 3/18 JJ Grey 3/25 Bela Fleck/Edgar Meyer 3/26 Toubab Krewe 3/27 O'Death 4/11 Budos Band 4/22 EOTO 4/28 Summer Camp 5/6-29 All Good
Has anyone ever arrived late Thursday night? I most likely won't be leaving Michigan until around 2pm Thursday. Is it safe to assume they'll still be parking cars and letting you set up camp around midnight or later?
I'd love to get there early Thursday and experience things the day before but that would involve me leaving my boyfriend at home and going Solo... which is still very very tempting.
We've gone the last 2 years and entered off I-24. In 07 we did tent camping, "arrived" about 12ish-at the exit/line of traffic and waited in line-we'll ok we (there were 3 cars in our crew) jumped line a couple times as that was our first year and we kept debating waiting in line, going to next exit, etc. but overall ended up waiting about 3 hours, got a decent camping spot maybe a 15-20 min walk to centeroo. In 08 it was just my boyfriend and me and we did RV, arrived in line (no line cutting that year and we waited about 4-5 (maybe even 6) hours, then they tried to stick us in tent camping, and after some fussing/discussing we ended up basically picking our own spot. I have to say that last year seemed like a clusterf**k compared to 07-very disorganized. While in line to get searched, etc. some of the volunteers said that other volunteers had quit/walked off due to no breaks, etc. Anyway we ended up about the same place as 07. This year we are not able to leave/arrive until about lunch time on Friday, again doing RV, anybody else ever arrived on Friday, if so what's that like? Sorry for the Loooooooong post-I'm very wordy if ya didn't know by now. Anyway...what's everyone's thoughts/previous experience of arriving on Friday? Long wait still, good/bad spots, etc........
Bonnaroo offers the modified multi-person golf carts for $5/person fir rides around the farm. Most times they will let you load all of your crap up, they might make you pay extra, because they are losing people by taking up space with your stuff.
Bonnaroo offers the modified multi-person golf carts for $5/person fir rides around the farm. Most times they will let you load all of your crap up, they might make you pay extra, because they are losing people by taking up space with your stuff.
I wish I would have known they were so cheap b/c I sure could have used one after Friday night last year.
Post by sthomas1312 on May 17, 2009 15:41:14 GMT -5
the more I have been reading this site for the last 2 years, and heading into my 2nd Bonnaroo, I have finally come to the conclusion there is no rhyme or reason to getting in and where you are going to be.
We've gone the last 2 years and entered off I-24. In 07 we did tent camping, "arrived" about 12ish-at the exit/line of traffic and waited in line-we'll ok we (there were 3 cars in our crew) jumped line a couple times as that was our first year and we kept debating waiting in line, going to next exit, etc. but overall ended up waiting about 3 hours, got a decent camping spot maybe a 15-20 min walk to centeroo. In 08 it was just my boyfriend and me and we did RV, arrived in line (no line cutting that year and we waited about 4-5 (maybe even 6) hours, then they tried to stick us in tent camping, and after some fussing/discussing we ended up basically picking our own spot. I have to say that last year seemed like a clusterf**k compared to 07-very disorganized. While in line to get searched, etc. some of the volunteers said that other volunteers had quit/walked off due to no breaks, etc. Anyway we ended up about the same place as 07. This year we are not able to leave/arrive until about lunch time on Friday, again doing RV, anybody else ever arrived on Friday, if so what's that like? Sorry for the Loooooooong post-I'm very wordy if ya didn't know by now. Anyway...what's everyone's thoughts/previous experience of arriving on Friday? Long wait still, good/bad spots, etc........
I used to day park and arrive by noon on Friday. I have never seen any lines or traffic at that time. Drove straight up to the entrance by the Winery.
Bonnaroo offers the modified multi-person golf carts for $5/person fir rides around the farm. Most times they will let you load all of your crap up, they might make you pay extra, because they are losing people by taking up space with your stuff.
Post by sthomas1312 on May 17, 2009 20:23:06 GMT -5
I know the camp we were in last year, the taxis were driving up and down the road all day, and I saw them all over by the entrance to Centeroo. they seemed pretty available
Might be a really dumb@ss question, I'm just wondering.... I won't be getting to the 'Roo until about 8PM Thursday night... how many hours do ya'll figure it'll be to get in about that time? Anybody else ever get there about that time, and if so, what's your experience been?
I think it's mostly random. Two years ago, I got there a little before noon Thursday and I was put as far back as possible (it took 30-40 minutes to get to Centeroo and I'm a fast walker). Hours later, while walking to Centeroo, I was annoyed to see people just arriving getting prime camping sites. It seems like it would make the most sense to fill the close areas first, then move out, but I don't think there's any method to how they do it.
A better question might be which direction are you coming from and which gate are you entering from? It seems like coming from the south, you get routed in through the eastern entrance(s), and your chance of being waaay out there is better than if you're coming to Manchester from the north.
My wife and I are planning on heading over to tent-only. We are digging the guaranteed proximity to the entrance. Anyone have any experience with that?
Does it fill up? Should we plan on getting there by a certain time to make sure we can grab a spot? We were planning on being in line by 9 or 10 AM. Do they pack you in tight there, or is there breathing room? Finally my brother is coming in late that night. Do you think it would be a problem for us to set up his tent for him? I know it says you can't save spots but its just one small tent.
My wife and I are planning on heading over to tent-only. We are digging the guaranteed proximity to the entrance. Anyone have any experience with that?
Does it fill up? Should we plan on getting there by a certain time to make sure we can grab a spot? We were planning on being in line by 9 or 10 AM. Do they pack you in tight there, or is there breathing room? Finally my brother is coming in late that night. Do you think it would be a problem for us to set up his tent for him? I know it says you can't save spots but its just one small tent.
Thanks
I have never camped in tent only but I don't think it is too different from regular camping, other than you may have a little more room. I think you should be fine setting his tent up. As long as you aren't taking up oodles of room or more than you and you brother's share you should be fine. I seriously doubt anyone would say anything to you. He is getting there the same day as you just later, right? I would look at it as just setting up your camp (that happens to include him) rather than saving a spot.
My wife and I are planning on heading over to tent-only. We are digging the guaranteed proximity to the entrance. Anyone have any experience with that?
Does it fill up? Should we plan on getting there by a certain time to make sure we can grab a spot? We were planning on being in line by 9 or 10 AM. Do they pack you in tight there, or is there breathing room? Finally my brother is coming in late that night. Do you think it would be a problem for us to set up his tent for him? I know it says you can't save spots but its just one small tent.
Thanks
I've never camped in Tent Only, but I've been to Camp Inforoo a few times. I'm pretty sure it's a free-for-all, no assigned spaces, just set up where ever you can find the space and setting up two tents wouldn't be a problem. The problem is trying to save empty space for someone who is coming later with their tent, which would not work unless someone stands there and guards the space constantly to keep someone else from grabbing it. It does get crowded, from what I've seen. So getting there as early as possible will make it easier to get a good spot.
Post by tatphishgirl on May 19, 2009 17:21:26 GMT -5
I guess we are going to try to arrive later in the afternoon on Thursday. It seems that the lines will be shorter. I don't really care if we are in BFE or not as long as we have nice neighbors etc. Please let me know if that is not correct if the lines last all day Thursday or what. with much thanks Kelly
I guess we are going to try to arrive later in the afternoon on Thursday. It seems that the lines will be shorter. I don't really care if we are in BFE or not as long as we have nice neighbors etc. Please let me know if that is not correct if the lines last all day Thursday or what. with much thanks Kelly
From what I've seen, the lines are a bit better later into the afternoon than they are in the morning. But it seems like as long as you dodge the initial rush in the morning from people who have been waiting for the gates to open, your wait shouldn't be too long to get onto the farm. The staff work surprisingly quickly to get people through the gates, in my experience.
I guess we are going to try to arrive later in the afternoon on Thursday. It seems that the lines will be shorter. I don't really care if we are in BFE or not as long as we have nice neighbors etc. Please let me know if that is not correct if the lines last all day Thursday or what. with much thanks Kelly
From what I've seen, the lines are a bit better later into the afternoon than they are in the morning. But it seems like as long as you dodge the initial rush in the morning from people who have been waiting for the gates to open, your wait shouldn't be too long to get onto the farm. The staff work surprisingly quickly to get people through the gates, in my experience.
This is really encouraging.... we will be rolling up on Manchester around 8PM or so on Thursday night, and I was hoping to be able to catch some of People Under The Stairs' set... looks like there may be an opportunity to do so!!!! SWEET!!!!!!!!!
Post by christinapeacock on May 20, 2009 19:01:51 GMT -5
We arrived around 5:30pm in 07 - and it was absolute chaos. It was our first time and had no idea what to expect, but we figured there would've been SOMEONE to lead us where to park. But no. Instead, we drove willy nilly, using our map as a guide. We parked right by shakedown, a block from tent only. We hauled our gear and setup camp as the sun was going down. Which was good, since we didn't get baked in the sun. By night fall we were up and running and skipping into centeroo - a 5 minute jaunt. Really is a crapshoot.
My wife and I are planning on heading over to tent-only. We are digging the guaranteed proximity to the entrance. Anyone have any experience with that?
Does it fill up? Should we plan on getting there by a certain time to make sure we can grab a spot? We were planning on being in line by 9 or 10 AM. Do they pack you in tight there, or is there breathing room? Finally my brother is coming in late that night. Do you think it would be a problem for us to set up his tent for him? I know it says you can't save spots but its just one small tent.
Thanks
The time you plan to arrive you should have no problem finding a spot. If I remeber correctly tent only didn't truly fill up till about Friday sometime. By truly filling up I mean, by friday people were squeezing into any and all of the smallest spots.
As for setting up other peoples tents if they will be arriving shortly after I don't think anyone would care or notice but if they showed up the next day you may get some pissed off neihbors and remember, you want to be able to trust your neihbors as you will be next to them all weekend.
Just to put things in perspective here, regardless of when you get in line, the Bonnaroo traffic is possibly the fastest moving & most well-organized festival traffic ever, and it's gotten better every year. They have DEFINITELY mastered getting tons of people in QUICK. One of the reasons I love the fest so much.
I have to disagree - the 7 hour wait last year was horrible. It barely moved for the first 4 hours. And then we inched along the last three. Talk about bladder-splitting!
From my experience, it's not quite totally random. I've been going in the main entrance, Exit 112 right off the highway, each year since '06, getting in line at about 9-10 am Central, and get a pretty damn good camping spot within 5-10 minutes of Centeroo. From what I've observed, they seem to fill up the closer camping areas to Centeroo from the main entrance. The more they fill up, the further back it goes. I might be wrong, but those are just my two cents
From my experience, it's not quite totally random. I've been going in the main entrance, Exit 112 right off the highway, each year since '06, getting in line at about 9-10 am Central, and get a pretty damn good camping spot within 5-10 minutes of Centeroo. From what I've observed, they seem to fill up the closer camping areas to Centeroo from the main entrance. The more they fill up, the further back it goes. I might be wrong, but those are just my two cents
So if I am coming from the North (Nashville) would it be better for me to stay on 24 and go down to exit 117 and turn around and go in at exit 112 on the other side of the highway?
They always have exit 111 by the winery closed off when I come through on Thursday afternoon. They then route you back on Bushy Branch and park you in BFE
From my experience, it's not quite totally random. I've been going in the main entrance, Exit 112 right off the highway, each year since '06, getting in line at about 9-10 am Central, and get a pretty damn good camping spot within 5-10 minutes of Centeroo. From what I've observed, they seem to fill up the closer camping areas to Centeroo from the main entrance. The more they fill up, the further back it goes. I might be wrong, but those are just my two cents
So if I am coming from the North (Nashville) would it be better for me to stay on 24 and go down to exit 117 and turn around and go in at exit 112 on the other side of the highway?
They always have exit 111 by the winery closed off when I come through on Thursday afternoon. They then route you back on Bushy Branch and park you in BFE
Yeah, that's what I'd suggest. Go down and turn around. Don't get on Bushy Branch. It leads into the back, if I'm not mistaken, so they'll likely put you there
So if I am coming from the North (Nashville) would it be better for me to stay on 24 and go down to exit 117 and turn around and go in at exit 112 on the other side of the highway?
They always have exit 111 by the winery closed off when I come through on Thursday afternoon. They then route you back on Bushy Branch and park you in BFE
Yeah, that's what I'd suggest. Go down and turn around. Don't get on Bushy Branch. It leads into the back, if I'm not mistaken, so they'll likely put you there
Cool then that is what I will do. I'm not going Bushy Branch way again. Last time I had a 40 minute walk
Has anyone ever had trouble caravanning? I'm going with a group of hopefully 7-8 cars to get in on Wednesday night. I figured it would be easier to park together if we went in Wednesday night rather than Thursday.
and we waited about 4-5 (maybe even 6) hours, then they tried to stick us in tent camping, and after some fussing/discussing we ended up basically picking our own spot. I have to say that last year seemed like a clusterf**k compared to 07-very disorganized. While in line to get searched, etc. some of the volunteers said that other volunteers had quit/walked off due to no breaks, etc. Anyway we ended up about the same place as 07. This year we are not able to leave/arrive until about lunch time on Friday, again doing RV, anybody else ever arrived on Friday, if so what's that like? Sorry for the Loooooooong post-I'm very wordy if ya didn't know 
by now. Anyway...what's everyone's thoughts/previous experience of arriving on Friday? Long wait still, good/bad spots, etc........
