5th bonnaroo, 1st volunteer, good times

This weekend was amazing, and the second best roo I've been to (losing out to Radiohead blowing my mind away). Of course nothing was perfect, but the little things were just naturally part of a major production, or honestly my own fault.

The whole volunteering check-in process was weird and not well thought off, but it went by smoothly and no major issues or delays. The line to get the wristband was about 20 minutes, but the line also had 100+ people.
The line to get onto the farm was around an hour, but I just blasted music and danced on the outside, near the grass.

Interestingly, no searches to get in. No one stopped us at all, and we basically drove right into our campsite.

The first night rain was bad, but its bonnaroo, and horrible rain is expected for at least 1 day. Just gotta be ready for it. I did help 2 cars which were stuck in the mud, and pushed it to get some traction.

I was assigned Clean Vibes and was a Trash Talker. My first day I stood outside That Tent from 5-11 and just told people which can to put the garbage in. Besides that, I was having a blast, dancing to the bands, the lunar stage, or the songs between acts. I just never stopped dancing and enjoyed every second. I had a camelback with water, yummy trailmix, and clean vibes coming around bring more ice cold water. Can't complain at all. Talked to a lot of people, made some cool friends, and kept at positive vibe the whole time. On my breaks, I went to the Silent Disco, mostly during DJ Equal.

After my shift, I relaxed a bit, and then hit the lunar stage from LA Riots till the end. Danced so much, had such a good.

I found a camera on the ground by me and after no one around me said it was their's, I danced with it up in my arm, and 20 minutes later a guy comes up with a flashlight pointed to the ground, looking for something, and had the happiest look on his face when he saw the camera on my arm.

Took a taxi back to camp, smoked a hookah with the neighbor, and pasted out.

Day 2 was my fault. I decided to party a little too much - I'll just say that my camelback had more vodka then water in it. But in the beginning it was good. Walked around the campsites, played some beer pong, met more cool people, just wandered around and loving it.

Got to Centeroo to check out The Gossip, and Damien Marley. Life was great and I was invincible.

After Damien, I wasn't feeling too well, and decided to head back to camp and rest. But I meet some cool people who said I can rest at their camp which is near the arch. So I exchanged a pass-out/nap for some of my vodka camelback.

When I came to, Kings of Leon just passed, I thanked my awesome hosts, and went off to camp to change.

I was still feeling out of it, but really wanted to see LCD and Chromeo, so I hopped on a taxi and went out again, but couldn't stay up for too long and kept taking nap breaks during LCD.

Realizing I wasn't gonna make it, I decided to go back to camp, and get ready for my 8am shift that morning. When I just left Centeroo, I realized I forgot my camelback, which was my pillow. A quick inventory told me that I just had some fruit, snacks, $40, and water. I said fuck it, and went back to camp. Nothing major lost, and not worth the worry of trying to find it at 3am while mostly drunk.

My shift that morning was in front of the lunar stage, so no music, but I got to watch 2 of the cup games. It was all good, got off early too.

Headed back to camp to finish up my rest and heard Big Sam and Jimmy Cliff from my tent. Feeling better, I head out to see Mumford and Son and Dead Weather. After Dead Weather, I again went to camp, rested, got lots of sleep, and went out for the night.

Checked out some of Jay-Z, Thievery, and Disco. I left in the middle of Disco.

Sunday saw another cup game, hopped around tents seeing a bunch of groups, and went to my shift at 5pm.

This shift was staff catering which gave me shade, cool working people to meet and talk about the bonnaroo production, and lots of yummy food. I got off at 9:30 instead of 12, and went straight to camp to pack up and head out.

Soooooo..... in conclusion....
I did not have the perfect bonnaroo with no lines, or without losing stuff, or with seeing every band I wanted.

But I knew how to listen to my body when to take it easy, I was fortunate to have good people around me. I made the best out of my job, and the few good acts I did really paid off throughout the weekend in karma.

I loved it, and can't wait until next year. Except that time, no vodka camelbacks!