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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 bonnarouser on Jun 22, 2012 16:44:59 GMT -5
Bonnaroo made a great move in adding Groop Camping this year. Now we have nearly everyone covered. For those that can afford it - VIP. For the RV crowd - an RV section. For groups of 25 or more - Groop Camping. For the "tent city" crowd, we have a long heavy walk in and out to "tent only", especially if you intend to have a decent camp site. And that is the problem.
For those of us that have too many attendees to camp where you park but not enough for groop camping, your only choice is to haul all your stuff into tent city and in our case, it was a 45 minute walk. It took our group of 6 a total of 3 trips in to setup our camp. Furthermore, security would not let us leave BFE to setup on Wednesday afternoon. They told us that we could leave Thursday at 8 AM so all 6 of us ended up sleeping in the car that night. We arrived at tent city Thursday morning only to find it completely filled up. About all we could do was pitch our tents in a straight line down a walking path.
Bonnaroo pitches a green planet but next year our solution to this is to take 3 cars in instead of 1. So we are in the "tweener" group caught in the black hole that exists on one end with the Groop camping and RV crowd and on the other with the one car - one tent crowd.
BTW, this is the ONLY complaint I had this year, otherwise everything was just about perfect. I guess I'm getting spoiled to the point that I do not want any pain at all !!!! Whine, whine, whine ! Anybody else have something similar happen to them ?
For those of us that have too many attendees to camp where you park but not enough for groop camping, your only choice is to haul all your stuff into tent city and in our case, it was a 45 minute walk. It took our group of 6 a total of 3 trips in to setup our camp.
Invest in one of these bad boys.
Seriously, these things are essential for this kind of thing (or any festival where you park first and camp elsewhere). I'm glad Jess/Joel had the one they did. Cuts down the amount of trips.
Also, if you don't want to grab one of these, I'd say the best advice is to do ONE trip and bring along JUST the things you need like a tent, some lights, etc. Just enough to claim space. Then set that up and relax until the next morning. On Thursday they start running golf cart taxis / festicabs and you can hop on one of those and go grab all your stuff. It may cost a few bucks but it's cheaper than the wagon/cart option.
Furthermore, security would not let us leave BFE to setup on Wednesday afternoon. They told us that we could leave Thursday at 8 AM so all 6 of us ended up sleeping in the car that night. We arrived at tent city Thursday morning only to find it completely filled up.
This is something that I really dislike. It's lame that they keep people in "bonnajail". We had some people who could leave by going through some different routes but we also had people who were stuck. The only advice I have for this is: In the future....don't line up early. I assume you got in line early on Wednesday and were one of the first groups in the gate. These are the people they direct to BFE. Some of us believe that they do this because they know you have a car and will have a camp site while the Tent Only stuff is hopefully for people taking a shuttle/flying in without a car to camp at.
Also, a big reason for this problem is them cutting Tent Only's size down. That's something that we all should be vocal about changing.
Bonnaroo pitches a green planet but next year our solution to this is to take 3 cars in instead of 1. So we are in the "tweener" group caught in the black hole that exists on one end with the Groop camping and RV crowd and on the other with the one car - one tent crowd.
I'm pretty sure that if you came in at the same time you did this year but had 3 cars instead of 1 you would still be put in the same campgrounds and still have all the same exact problems. They don't really decide where to put people based on how many cars in their party. If you got put in BFE this year then the amount of cars you had doesn't really change that.
Sorry you had problems. Bonnaroo just released a survey to ask how they did this year. I'd definitely voice my concerns there. That may help in the future.
They may be parked just as far away, but bringing 3 cars would give them more camping space. It does suck that Bonnaroo encourages carpooling, but you really are punished for it space wise.
They may be parked just as far away, but bringing 3 cars would give them more camping space. It does suck that Bonnaroo encourages carpooling, but you really are punished for it space wise.
Oh good point....I wasn't thinking of it that way. Yea more cars = bigger camp space for sure.
Post by itrainmonkeys on Jun 22, 2012 22:55:34 GMT -5
This is the E-mail I got about the Survey:
2012 rocked and we're already looking forward to 2013. We'd love to hear about your experience this year, and things we can make even better for next year. Please click on the link below to take a quick 10-15 minute survey. If you qualify and complete the survey by 11:59pm EST on June 24, we'll show our appreciation by sending you a 10% off merchandise code to our online store.
Thanks for your time, and we look forward to seeing you at Bonnaroo 2013!
I'm guessing everyone who bought a ticket got that e-mail.
+1 on completing the survey and voicing these complaints. They won't do anything if we don't say anything!
++1 on completing the survey.
Just finished it myself and made it a point to gripe a bit about the tent only situation (otherwise I gave them a glowing review). The only reason I came on Wed was to get a spot in tent only and they wouldn't allow us to leave for tent only until Thursday morning, that was compounded by the fact that tent only seemed smaller this year. Many folks who traveled in on Wed. specifically for the purpose of getting a spot in Tent Only were "punished" because they came on Wed.
I get it. It was a clusterfuck coming in and they didn't want hordes of people hauling their gear through the incoming traffic along the road. The simple solution would have been to not park us in pod 1. Hopefully next year they'll do that.
I get it. It was a clusterquack coming in and they didn't want hordes of people hauling their gear through the incoming traffic along the road. The simple solution would have been to not park us in pod 1. Hopefully next year they'll do that.
I think parking the very first people over in pod 1 is fine but holding them prisoner and not letting people leave is pretty messed up. Especially because they don't tell you ahead of time. If they want to do that they should make it clear "If you come in first, you will be camped here and not be able to leave". Give people a warning of some kind.
2012 rocked and we're already looking forward to 2013. We'd love to hear about your experience this year, and things we can make even better for next year. Please click on the link below to take a quick 10-15 minute survey. If you qualify and complete the survey by 11:59pm EST on June 24, we'll show our appreciation by sending you a 10% off merchandise code to our online store.
Thanks for your time, and we look forward to seeing you at Bonnaroo 2013!
I'm guessing everyone who bought a ticket got that e-mail.
I get it. It was a clusterquack coming in and they didn't want hordes of people hauling their gear through the incoming traffic along the road. The simple solution would have been to not park us in pod 1. Hopefully next year they'll do that.
I think parking the very first people over in pod 1 is fine but holding them prisoner and not letting people leave is pretty messed up. Especially because they don't tell you ahead of time. If they want to do that they should make it clear "If you come in first, you will be camped here and not be able to leave". Give people a warning of some kind.
But it wasn't universal for everyone coming in. I was hanging out with folks who set up camp by the entrance of pod 1 and they were saying that some of their friends were already in TO that had arrived a little earlier and got parked in other pods. Thats why I suggest just not parking Wed arrivals in pod 1.
Post by bonnarouser on Jun 23, 2012 15:29:04 GMT -5
What I learned from this experience is that next year I will come in later so as to avoid BFE. In talking to many in tent only, they came in late Wednesday and drove up to tent only, dropped their stuff off and returned to car-tent parking. How they did that I do not know since the staffers really stay on top of guiding traffic into the campgrounds. I need to know.
Post by plasticpepper on Jun 23, 2012 20:40:57 GMT -5
Seems to me they should have seen the surveys to whoever the wristbands were registered to...wouldn't that have made more sense? I wanted a survey.
But anyway, I do always think it's unfortunate that the way the camping works basically discourages carpooling. Wish there was some good way around that.
TO may be first come first serve but it fills up quite quickly with the locals. We know so many people around here that work the fest and all of the workers take the tents of local people coming in later. I know people that were set up in TO at 2:00 pm on Wednesday. It sucks, but the people that come in even earlier than anyone else get the pick of the litter.
Post by bonnarouser on Jun 24, 2012 10:06:17 GMT -5
All I know is that the campers around us were from Kansas, Canada and Nashville. We were from SC. If the locals are getting these spots by 2 pm on Wednesday before the gates open, then I'm just not sure it's even worth it next year to try this. It's a shame because we loved only having a one minute walk to the main gate of Centeroo.
If the locals are getting these spots by 2 pm on Wednesday before the gates open, then I'm just not sure it's even worth it next year to try this.
lol this is not the case at all. We got in around 10 or 11 p.m. Wednesday night and there was TONS of space in Tent Only and still a decent amount throughout the night and the next morning.
This was my first Roo, and from what I experienced, I'll never carpool if I plan on camping in GA. You get such a small amount of space by your car that bringing anyone else would make it almost impossible to camp, especially if you want any sort of shade structure for those brutal morning suns.
If Bonnaroo wanted to be eco-friendly they'd give you the same space your vehicle would have occupied if you hadn't carpooled with someone else.
Post by blueslikehail on Jun 26, 2012 14:42:15 GMT -5
the camping space situation has always annoyed me. after getting screwed in years past when we tried to cram people and gear into as few a cars as possible, i learned that you can only really be comfortable space-wise if you limit it to two people per vehicle. they really should base it on the number of people in your car, but that would probably complicate/delay the parking process more than they want. damn, add another item to the list of things i forgot to mention in the survey.
Seems to me they should have seen the surveys to whoever the wristbands were registered to...wouldn't that have made more sense? I wanted a survey.
But anyway, I do always think it's unfortunate that the way the camping works basically discourages carpooling. Wish there was some good way around that.
I'm assuming the Bonnaroo surveys, like most, were randomly distributed to a select percentage of ticket buyers.
