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!!
I know this seems really silly, but this will be my FIRST EVER Bonnaroo, and I've been researching all of the FAQ's and Tips and such, but have only heard bad things about the "Mad Rush" to claim tent space. I have anxiety issues, and the thought of having to slam park, then shove everything out in order to make sure we even have a spot to raise a tent makes me nervous. Is it really as bad as it seems, or is it a case of rare bad neighbors? I've heard several horror stories where people couldn't even pitch their tent, and had to sleep in their car. In case you were wondering, I just have a small 2 person tent, with a small shade canopy.
Post by myscatterheart on Mar 13, 2010 9:12:58 GMT -5
Nah it's not that bad. No worries. A lot of the people here have real elaborate set ups that take a bit to get up, so they need to throw down their tarps just to ensure that by the time they have X set up there will still be room for Y. However, last year we casually got out, put the tent up, said hi to the neighbors, stretched our legs, then got to the EZ up... but there wasn't a lot of space. One dude moved his setup for us to get our EZ up in. Probably because he knew he would chill under it when we were gone.e As long as you're polite, chances are your neighbors will be polite. You'll have enough space.
Ive been wondering about this too, this will be my first as well as the other 4 people I will be with. We have a 12 x 15' tent we want to set up and from what I can gather, with us parking 2 cars it seems fine
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
Post by JustSoYouKnow on Mar 13, 2010 20:02:19 GMT -5
those are special stories... i'm sure someone among the 80,000 will have a bad set-up story. My first year, the dash wasn't as bad as I assumed. We planned to take up all of our camping spot, so we really were looking out for those non-considerate neighbors. It didn't turn out that way AT ALL, the neighbors to one side were a group of 4 one person tents with no shade tent, and the neighbors to the other side were 2 girls that had a 10 person tent(way too big to fit), which we helped them set up by afixing one side to our shade tent for support and using their stakes for the other sides. No confrontation, we were happy to help them out.... if we hadn't helped them then they would have probably slept in their car. Your small tent and shade canopy will be no problem at all... and remember, there is always tent only!
Post by hibouxdufromage on Mar 13, 2010 20:44:23 GMT -5
The best time to make friends with your neighbors is during setup. Also the best time to make sure you have enough space. We do not believe this to be a coincidence.
If you steal their tent stakes and guy lines they'll be too busy looking for them to set up in your space
Seriously though I've had a cramped year before, but there is always "enough" room. Most people are happy to rearrange during the initial setup, but once the stakes are in the ground its over, lol.
Post by snowflake78 on Mar 15, 2010 13:48:37 GMT -5
Wow. I think location may play a part. I've only been one other year, in 2005, and was in an RV. We got a killer spot in George McFly right on shakedown. We were in the RV getting all of our stuff unpacked and not worried so much about outside because surely people would mind the chalk lines, right? Not so much. Before we could get outside, cars had pulled up into our RV spot on one side and a couple of shakedown wookies were set up literally almost underneath our RV on the other. We could barely get out the door. We were on a corner, which probably made it worse. Also, we didn't want to say anything for fear of breaking the whole "bonnaroo spirit" thing so we just dealt with it. These weren't the type of neighbors who were planning on sharing alike or anything. They never even spoke to us. I'll be claiming any outside space early on this year and hoping to meet some nicer neighbors.
I'm not sure what plays a part, but I've never had super friendly neighbors in the two years I've gone. In 2009, we parked and got out and people were scrambling to put their stuff up immediately. There's no way we would have had a 10x10 spot! We headed to tent-only. Before we left though, we did ask one neighbor (who was obviously in our area) if he didn't mind saving a bit of room for our tent in case tent-only was full. He looked peeved but said he would. We didn't need it though, because tent-only was perfect!
Lauraroo, if it looks like your neighbors won't be accommodating or have snatched up all the available space, make the trek to tent-only. You get pretty much all the space you need there. I promise it will be worth hauling your stuff there.
Thanks for all the help!! I will just cross my fingers and hope that my neighbors are as kind as all of the inforoo'ers here! Also, I decided to camp out in my van, and just pop up an EZ up for shade, so even if everyone is rude, I won't need that much space. .
Post by belltwala1 on Mar 17, 2010 14:52:40 GMT -5
i always worry about this but its never been a real issue. i do think you need to get out of your car and start to stake out your site when you get there. this helps everyone really you will find space unless you have some very specific or very large.
one year they really smushed us in but we still were able to set up out tent and shade tent...we just had to do it over some of our neighbors space.
Tent only is the way to go. Get there early and you and your group have all the space you need. The only thing is, if you make a nice circle out of your tents, people will pitch their tents in the middle.
Thanks for all the help!! I will just cross my fingers and hope that my neighbors are as kind as all of the inforoo'ers here! Also, I decided to camp out in my van, and just pop up an EZ up for shade, so even if everyone is rude, I won't need that much space. .
I wouldn't necessarily plan on camping in your van, it might be ok in the middle of the night but as soon as the sun comes up it's going to turn into an oven (ovan? haha). I suppose you can always crawl out and get a couple more hours under the EZ-up, I certainly did that a couple times last year even though I was using a tent. It gets hot fast.
Wolfaroo, I'm planning on sleeping late night in the van with various window covers and portable fans, and then sliding the air mattress out under the EZ up if it becomes an "Ovan" situation (OOOH, SITUATION, FIST PUMP!)
It all really depends on how you're parked. If the people doing the parking are very good at their job they may not give you a lot of room. My first year in '07 the people parking the cars weren't really in sync, so we had a lot of room. The trick is to make sure you give yourselves enough room away from the cars to your right and left. They'll try to pack everyone in like sardines, but you need to make sure you have ample space apart from the adjacent cars. And making friends of your neighbors is always a good thing.
The best method is a well hidden (under the drivers seat, they never look there!) semi-automatic hand gun for brandishing. Last year we had at least 3 cars worth of space on either side of us. We even managed to set up a small horseshoe pit!
Post by sthomas1312 on Mar 21, 2010 17:30:26 GMT -5
another good tip is get to know someone or a group from here, arrange a meet up right before so you can enter the grounds and park together, then you will know your neighbors already plus have space for all you stuff
I will just cross my fingers and hope that my neighbors are as kind as all of the inforoo'ers here! Also, I decided to camp out in my van, and just pop up an EZ up for shade, so even if everyone is rude, I won't need that much space. 
