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!!
So it is my first roo and let me say I have been more than stoked for months. Also, inforoo has been a more than helpful source of questions, one fo them being about money.
My question to those of you with experience is:
How are the food prices? Is it worth bringing our own food, if so then what? How much am I looking to spend for the four days I am there?
Post by Whoreshack on May 14, 2011 14:02:11 GMT -5
$5-$10 a plate. Try bringing a few meals worth of non-perishables, lots of snacks, corn, fruit, & liquids. When supplies dwindle Sat & Sun, splurge on more vendor grub. We've found over the years you don't want to spend too much time & energy cooking at camp. Peace.
Post by belltwala1 on May 14, 2011 14:20:09 GMT -5
i agree you will want to bring something in case you are hungry in the AM or late and dont want to go get something. i tend to bring sandwich items and chips. t his year im bringing some melon as well. i bring iced tea (frozen) and water.
i think the vender food is reasonable. you can get better prices in shakedown than inside centeroo but centeroo has some unusual offerings
Post by 10goldbees on May 14, 2011 14:51:38 GMT -5
bring a bunch of Clif bars. they'll give you good energy, they're filling and they wont melt in the heat. i never really eat at my campsite. usually just cliff bars, pb&j's, pop tarts and apples.
Post by WooHooRooRoo on May 14, 2011 17:48:30 GMT -5
I'm looking for some light healthy salads to make for the Roo this year. I have a wonderful pasta salad I'm going to make But would like a few other options. Any suggestions?
I don't bring much food but will cook once a day. I usually make breakfast tacos and grilled cheese. Peanut butter, along with some fruit and nuts is about it.
I always make coffee, though.
That being said, if you're camped anywhere near BFE it's a long hike in the morning. Learned that the hard way my first year. So bring something to nom on while you're walking to Centeroo. You'll arrive way less drunk.
One piece of advice I learned from this board regarding food (and clothes): bring half the amount of food you think you'll need, and twice the amount of clothing.
One piece of advice I learned from this board regarding food (and clothes): bring half the amount of food you think you'll need, and twice the amount of clothing.
Good one. Plenty of people plan to cook a bunch and decide against it when they get there.
Post by themidnightrider on May 15, 2011 11:32:35 GMT -5
I do bring my own food and get a slice or 2 of pizza from spicy pie each day. Remeber it is HOT on the farm! When bringing food remember this! to make things easier on myself I bring the follwoing.
I'm looking for some light healthy salads to make for the Roo this year. I have a wonderful pasta salad I'm going to make But would like a few other options. Any suggestions?
I find this option the best for campsite food choices. Pasta salads and fruit salads are quick, easy and healthy items that pack in a cooler really well.
Post by plasticpepper on May 15, 2011 14:08:08 GMT -5
I consider the prices for the vendor food to be pretty good, especially considering most people don't seem to get too hungry in the heat. The bigger things - burritos, chicken fingers + fries, stuff like that - are maybe a bit pricey, probably $8 or so, but chances are you'll only be wanting one "big" meal like that per day. And then there are plenty of smaller things / snacks - samosas, sweet potato fries, arepas (hopefully!), grilled cheese - that you can get for a couple bucks or less.
I agree with the others about not bringing too much food. When you're faced with the choice between a vendor (which is about 15 feet away and the food looks and smells amazing) and taking an hour to walk back to your campsite, prepare and eat food, walk back to Centeroo, and get through security again....you're going to end up buying the vendor food.
My strategy is always to bring snacks and plan on buying a fair amount of food. I bring fruit snacks, peanut butter crackers, mini cereal boxes, fruit, stuff like that. In 2007 I brought some pasta salad and fruit salad which were quite tasty (at least at first, the fruit obviously started to get mushy eventually), so I might bring some pasta salad or something again this year. But for the most part I bring snacks so I have stuff to eat in the mornings before I go into Centeroo and in the afternoon/evening if I happen to come back to the campsite to rest during the day. But I never want to have to leave Centeroo just to go eat.
Post by tylerempire on May 15, 2011 15:57:00 GMT -5
I'm a roo virgin, but my plan for food is to bring a whole lot of beef jerky, Cliff Bars, and PB&J to keep me from spending too much at vendors. Besides that, I'll probably end up trying the Spicy Pie, Samosas and Dollar Grilled Cheeses that I've been hearing so much about. Oh, and what's this about a Pesto Mozzadilla? I'll take five, please!
As for beer, I won't drink much during the day, but in the evening, I'll be all over the craft/micros. I bet I'll spend twice as much money on good beer as I do on food.
One piece of advice I learned from this board regarding food (and clothes): bring half the amount of food you think you'll need, and twice the amount of clothing.
yup. Since i'm probably camping a bit far with the toll booth volunteers at the west bushy branch toll booth, I'm planning on eating in Centeroo during the day. Breakfast at camp and snacks at camp when I'm volunteering or something. I have a Camelbak and will also probably bring a steel bottle for extra water. I'll probably bring in some frozen sealed water bottles and then use the free water. If I were to do anything crazy, i'd leave it for night, for sure, as others have said. Dont dehydrate yourself in that crazy heat.
I'm still deciding what to bring. Since I'll be there Tuesday, I need a few meals. Fruit is good but enough for the 1st 2 or 3 days, i think, or else it'd probably get mushy/rot. I'm thinking eggs for breakfast and some yummy juice. lots of frozen waters, a few Gatorades and probably a small size of Lactaid with cereal and honey. something easy for breakfast that doesnt involve cooking. etc etc I'm probably gonna work out a good checklist on the ride down to make use of the 12 hour drive
Looking forward to seeing what else people bring though...
I bring Clif Bars, granola, trail mix and peanut butter and/or cheese crackers. I think I'm adding watermelon this year since I'm not bringing beer (too hot to drink and I never go back to camp. I'll just buy a couple if I want them, but corn usually hits the spot!) Aside from more water than I think I can drink but always do, I brink coffee drinks and Bloody Mary ingredients. I leave any heavy lifting at home. I don't even so much as want to assemble a sandwich at Bonnaroo (but I will shake a mary!) Snack food plus one "meal" inside Centeroo and a $1 grilled cheese after the last show is plenty. I think I spent a total of $60 on food and drinks last year, including what I brought.
Post by yfoogsittam on May 16, 2011 8:44:55 GMT -5
Last year (first roo): I brought PB and J and bread and trailmix to save money and get a ton of protein and nutrients with the peanut butter, and figured vendor food would be too expensive, plus I brought multivitamins and a tooon of beer, so i'd just get my calories from beer if I needed to, right?
well... the peanut butter melted, bc I left it out in the heat. literally, I could pour the peanut butter onto the bread. The whole loaf of bread got squished and mangled by day 2, and after the ice in our cooler turned to luke warm water in the TN heat, the jelly also began to melt. Also, warm peanut butter in 90 degree heat is one of the worst things ever imo. I felt like gagging trying to get it down. Also, the M&Ms and chocolate in the trail mix bags melted. For beer, I only had about 8 beers for the whole weekend. I couldnt even trade people beer at neighboring camps. The sun was just so hot that beer wasnt nearly as refreshing as it should have been and it got hot by the end since I wasnt drinking fast enough.
This year: Multivitamins were a great idea, even just for the placebo effect. I'll be bringing in a lot of beef jerky (Mingua beef jerky), chocolate-less trailmix, prob only a case of craft canned beer at most (quality over quantity for me this year). Clif bars since they dont melt in the heat, and more money for vendor food! The food smelled and looked so good. I was broke by the end of the trip surviving on dollar grilled cheeses, but that was poor budgeting on my part. I plan on bringing more with me this year.
B Vitamin suppliments are a must, they keep you going. A good way to do this is with 5h energy. If you are taking a 5h energy, down it with about a litre of water, and you should be good to go and well hydrated.
Bring a giant bag of DumDums. They're everyone's favourite lollipop, cheap enough to give out without wanting anything in return, and a lot of times that little bit of sugar during your wait over at What is just the pick-me-up you need.
It's also a solid way of saying, sorry I cut in front of you, but I really want to see this band.
My must-haves are oranges, string cheese, some type of non-water drink that isn't soda (a juice, some hydration drink, etc.), trail mix with chocolate and other fun things in it, granola bars, and some sort of chips to nosh.
I find PB&J gross in such heat, though a friend brought cold cuts and I did like that.
I'm the opposite of my sister in that I love PB&J in the TN sun. When it all gets a little squished together? My fave. Also really like a crunchy chip, like Sun Chips or Doritos. And fruit snacks. Oh - string cheese sounds pretty good, too.
But that's it for me for camp food. Everything else is bought from a vendor because I feel a little gross just eating snack-y food all day long and have no desire to cook or wash dishes on the farm.
