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've been to roo 5 times and the most I've had happen was last year. They made us get out the car and poked around in there. They poked around the bed of the truck and opened the cooler.
Most times they open the cooler or ask us "Got anything you shouldn't have?"
Do I think the county is using more muscle, yeah. Right or wrong they have the law on their side. Most of the folks in roo are cool I have a pic of one of the mounted police with their horse covered in glow sticks. She was nice and let me talk to the horse. The police are looking for large amounts of drugs. Do I think it will get to the point of Wakarusa? No, Wakarusa is on public land. I do see them cracking down more. The deaths at roo have them spooked and the fact that folks know people smoke grass there will naturally bring the police, it is their job afterall. Like most folks you get the good with the bad. Some police don't want to deal with us, they do because it's overtime, doesn't make them happy to be there. I'm just glad that most are calm about it. I know of some officers that will ticket the crap out of you for a small amount. Like I said you take the good with the bad.
That's why we, the mods, try and cut down the drug talk. I'm sure members of the police go looking for boards like this to try and find out how people are getting them in. RV's are usually the way to do it. More places to hide large amounts. I understand your reasons but I'm sure if the people that head up Roo had their way it would be police free, but it's not.
Legalize it - don't criticize it Legalize it and i will advertise it
Some call it tampee Some call it the weed Some call it Marijuana Some of them call it Ganja
Legalize it - don't criticize it Legalize it and i will advertise it
Singer smoke it And players of instruments too Legalize it, yeah, yeah That's the best thing you can do Doctors smoke it Nurses smoke it Judges smoke it Even the lawyers too
Legalize it - don't criticize it Legalize it and i will advertise it
It's good for the flu It's good for asthma Good for tuberculosis Even umara composis
Legalize it - don't criticize it Legalize it and i will advertise it
Bird eat it And they leave it Fowls eat it Goats love to play with it
I am so sorry that happened to you stuckinutero. I saw tons of people pulled over on the way to and from Bonnaroo, and I did see cops once inside (and a few I thought could have been attempting to be undercover).
We took a very clean and well-maintained truck, no stickers and it was two men, two women in clean street clothes inside. We had nothing in our truck that could have gotten us in trouble in case we did get pulled over. We also didn't speed, made sure all lights were working, etc.
I find the punishments for carrying that sort of stuff ridiculous and am very glad that you were not fined or arrested, but do not judge Bonnaroo on that experience. I also think you just had really bad luck that weekend, and hope a return will prove it was coincidental and not the festival.
Personally for me, Bonnaroo is not about being able to do that which is illegal, but having an environment of friendly people who are all passionate about music. Extracurricular activities are just that... an extra. If I were a cop at such a festival, I would look for those who are there just for said activities and look for the stereotypical people in the stereotypical places at the stereotypical times. Don't be anything stereotypical, and you very well may have the experiences you had at previous Roos.
I hope you don't take that as me judging you, I think Bonnaroo is a great place that draws great people. I just think that when people partake in certain activities no matter where - a festival or even your own home... knowing it is currently illegal it's good to be smart about how you act, look, etc.
Post by drbrainfreeze on Feb 22, 2008 15:14:47 GMT -5
Karma for the situation Stuckinroo
I agree with you that '07 had A LOT of police presence...it wasn't just you. The "vibe" was a little different...it may have been the displacement of Shake Down Street, but things weren't as chill as in years past.
I'm not even sure how to quantify my oberservations...I didn't have anyone bother me personally, but I feel like I saw a lot more police and people were all being a lot more careful, reserved and cautious. In '06 I remember walking down shakedown and people holding handfuls of stuff out in the open (let along tucked into an RV) and no one even blinked at them
All I can say to make you try it again is ...do it. Realize that things may change but we still have the power to have a good time no matter what happens.
this year was the worst ive seen at any fest ive been to. but i have seen cops on shakedown grabbing random people and searching them and harrassing vendors as early as 2005. they have always been there. what else would ya expect in the land of the free?
Post by bamadancer on Feb 22, 2008 15:53:57 GMT -5
I saw more police in 07. However, I still did not see very many. Did I see any busts? No. Did I see people walking around with stuff in the open? Yes.
Don't be stupid. Don't wave something illegal in their face. Be smart and we can all have a good time. Despite what a lot of people want to think, even a utopia needs rules.
I think the police should be there, because they are there to protect us, not be assholes. They are looking for LARGE AMOUNTS, which has been stated by the cops several times over. Like that sheriff said when they didn't ticket you - "we have bigger fish to fry".
Will it become a police state? Probably not. Will there be an influx of metalheads? Probably not.
Will the police presence keep me from Bonnaroo 08? DEFINITELY not.
Oh, and the picture in the original post is an old one, btw. It's not from last year.
Post by SouthGA_Festival Machine on Feb 22, 2008 16:28:54 GMT -5
bamadancer said:
I saw more police in 07. However, I still did not see very many. Did I see any busts? No. Did I see people walking around with stuff in the open? Yes.
Don't be stupid. Don't wave something illegal in their face. Be smart and we can all have a good time. Despite what a lot of people want to think, even a utopia needs rules.
I think the police should be there, because they are there to protect us, not be assholes. They are looking for LARGE AMOUNTS, which has been stated by the cops several times over. Like that sheriff said when they didn't ticket you - "we have bigger fish to fry".
Will it become a police state? Probably not. Will there be an influx of metalheads? Probably not.
[glow=red,2,300]Will the police presence keep me from Bonnaroo 08? DEFINITELY not.[/glow]
Oh, and the picture in the original post is an old one, btw. It's not from last year.
Yeah, I know who else the police won't keep away....................................................................................................................................................................................the mafia
I saw more police in 07. However, I still did not see very many. Did I see any busts? No. Did I see people walking around with stuff in the open? Yes.
Don't be stupid. Don't wave something illegal in their face. Be smart and we can all have a good time. Despite what a lot of people want to think, even a utopia needs rules.
I think the police should be there, because they are there to protect us, not be assholes. They are looking for LARGE AMOUNTS, which has been stated by the cops several times over. Like that sheriff said when they didn't ticket you - "we have bigger fish to fry".
Will it become a police state? Probably not. Will there be an influx of metalheads? Probably not.
[glow=red,2,300]Will the police presence keep me from Bonnaroo 08? DEFINITELY not.[/glow]
Oh, and the picture in the original post is an old one, btw. It's not from last year.
Yeah, I know who else the police won't keep away....................................................................................................................................................................................the mafia
There are no mafia at bonnaroo. It's a ploy to lead you into a false sense of insecuirty
Post by cajuninsaudi on Feb 22, 2008 16:46:03 GMT -5
southgajd said:
Yeah, I know who else the police won't keep away....................................................................................................................................................................................the mafia
It's up to us townspeople to keep Bonnaroo safe and rid the world of mafia.
Post by destination5250 on Feb 22, 2008 16:57:44 GMT -5
ediger said:
Legalize it - don't criticize it Legalize it and i will advertise it
Some call it tampee Some call it the weed Some call it Marijuana Some of them call it Ganja
Legalize it - don't criticize it Legalize it and i will advertise it
Singer smoke it And players of instruments too Legalize it, yeah, yeah That's the best thing you can do Doctors smoke it Nurses smoke it Judges smoke it Even the lawyers too
Legalize it - don't criticize it Legalize it and i will advertise it
It's good for the flu It's good for asthma Good for tuberculosis Even umara composis
Legalize it - don't criticize it Legalize it and i will advertise it
Bird eat it And they leave it Fowls eat it Goats love to play with it
karma....what a great song!!!
Maybe bonnaroo will get a little of that from yonder this year! They didn't bust it out at waka, I was kind of upset.
Post by stuckinutero on Feb 22, 2008 23:45:18 GMT -5
southgajd said:
cajuninsaudi said:
Good point. If in fact there are 50+ rapes there every year I would expect ( and welcome ) a higher police presence.
I suspect the actual number is much closer to zero than fifty. I have never heard of a rape at Bonnaroo.
Every year after the festival all the local papers do stories on it. You can usually find a lot of the statistics within those stories. They always report the amount of deaths. Most time you can find the number of arrests. There where articles from 06 and 07 that said between 30 and 50 rapes were reported.
I know the farm can be like a eutopia, but anyone who's been there knows that there are some very unsavory characters that roam around. There were rapes at the original Woodstock of all places, why would they not be present at Roo?
The strangest memory I have of Bonnaroo is from last year. Saturday night was my marathon night. After a long nights trip, my friend and I were pounding a 12 pack so we could get some sleep around 6AM. This was also the night S&J played until the sun came up. While sitting outside our RV a young girl no older than 20 came and just randomly sat down with us. She was obviously fucked up beyond belief. She had running eyeliner and was wrapped in a blanket. I don't know if it was because of something she "ate" or if she had something terrible happen to her, but she almost couldn't communicate. I asked her if she was ok. She said she had a bad night and couldn't remember where her RV was. I offered to help, but she said she'd rather find it alone.
This sh*t happens because there are f*cked up folks in this world, and they do attend things like this. This situation pretty much cemented in my mind (at the time) that I wasn't returning.
Honestly, I'm just waiting until Vineland '09. Thats supposed to turn into the Bonnaroo of the Northeast.
Thanks for all your support guys. I got worried from the first page of this thread. Now I remember why I love it here.
I was born in the back seat of a Yellow Cab in a hospital loading zone and with the meter still running. I emerged needing a shave and shouted 'Time Square, and step on it!
Eeks. Being a girl, who was alone for a good bit of time last year at Bonnaroo, those stats freak me out a bit. If those rape stories are in newspapers, shouldn't they be online too? I'm going to do a little detective work. Bonnaroodetective, feel free to help me find some info on this.
Post by SouthGA_Festival Machine on Feb 23, 2008 1:28:12 GMT -5
heatheroo said:
Eeks. Being a girl, who was alone for a good bit of time last year at Bonnaroo, those stats freak me out a bit. If those rape stories are in newspapers, shouldn't they be online too? I'm going to do a little detective work. Bonnaroodetective, feel free to help me find some info on this.
If there were fifty rapes a year at Bonnaroo, they would lock the place down, call in the Nat'l. Guard (if they weren't all in Iraq/Afganistan), and institute Operation Gitmo_TN. Bull Quacking doodie! (don't smite me bro)
Thanks southgajd. Makes me feel a bit better I googled rapes at bonnaroo and nothing really camp up, except a link to some random message board in which a person stated "blah blah blah tons of rapes at bonnaroo" and another person responded with "link, please? i'm calling bs on that" then the first person said something about the tennessean having an article about it, which i also tried to find, and couldn't. so hmm... ??
This is a quote from an article dated 23 June 07 in "The Saturday Independent" a local Manchester, TN newspaper.
Coffee County Sheriff Steve Graves reported 47 arrests over the weekend, "ranging from no no word to trespassing to disorderly conduct, but nothing really serious." "Everything was about the same a last year We had one death which is one too many but it happens," said Manchester Chief of Police Ross Simmons. "We confiscated a bunch of fake Bonnaroo shirts.”
50 rapes a year? Not a chance! I follow the news (and I'm a local) and I've never heard of it. I've heard rumors of a few and I'd be surprised if there weren't a few unreported (like any town of 90,000) but I'd let my wife wander Bonnaroo unescorted long before I'd let her roam M'boro alone.
If there's a reliable link to this, I'll personally thank every Policeman at Roo this year.
Post by Darth Boo Boo Kitty @#*& on Feb 23, 2008 10:16:22 GMT -5
Referring to the original post - what are you talking about people in tent-only being detained and not allowed to leave their camp sites? I was in tent-only and that is not the case. We wandered freely from Wed-Mon AM.
You shouldn't make your decision out of fear of police. You just had some bad luck last year.
Post by cajuninsaudi on Feb 23, 2008 10:18:52 GMT -5
Found a similar chart for Coffee County but it only goes to 2005
2000 0 2001 1 2002 1 2003 1 2004 2 2005 1
Again, unless we are led to believe that the last two years are substantial departures from the norm then the 50 rapes call is urban legend and should be put to rest.
Post by SouthGA_Festival Machine on Feb 23, 2008 10:20:59 GMT -5
hjime223 said:
This is a quote from an article dated 23 June 07 in "The Saturday Independent" a local Manchester, TN newspaper.
Coffee County Sheriff Steve Graves reported 47 arrests over the weekend, "ranging from no no word to trespassing to disorderly conduct, but nothing really serious." "Everything was about the same a last year We had one death which is one too many but it happens," said Manchester Chief of Police Ross Simmons. "We confiscated a bunch of fake Bonnaroo shirts.”
They also have a search feature where you can search their article database by date.
OK, I've got to apologize. The problem is much, much worse than I could have ever imagined. The reason there's no source for this is that IT'S NOT EVEN CONSIDERED A SERIOUS CRIME BY THE COFFEE COUNTY SHERIFF, WTF!!!
This is a quote from an article dated 23 June 07 in "The Saturday Independent" a local Manchester, TN newspaper.
Coffee County Sheriff Steve Graves reported 47 arrests over the weekend, "ranging from no no word to trespassing to disorderly conduct, but nothing really serious." "Everything was about the same a last year We had one death which is one too many but it happens," said Manchester Chief of Police Ross Simmons. "We confiscated a bunch of fake Bonnaroo shirts.”