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 have a GREAT time every year at bonnaroo. Is the lineup perfect? nope, but that doesn't stop me from going and having a great time. Things change, deal with it and move on. If you can't move on then at least stop bitching on a website claiming to be the premiere source of info for said festival.
No one is bitching. Just discussing. And I’m not concerned with the fact that some people can have a great time regardless of the line up. There’s a few super small festivals I go to just to have a good time. Bonnaroo wasn’t and shouldn’t be one of those.
I was wondering the same thing. The festival moving towards kids that get tickets as graduation gifts. Does that mean that less people are going to be the big spenders? Is that why they implemented the camping charge? To make up for the VIP losses?
Doubtful. They were making some of that up with increases in Groop camping the last couple years. I'd think the main reasons are it adds revenue and gives people an incentive to carpool, which makes the logistics a little easier on them. We could also choose to believe Live Nation cares about the environment and wants to lower it's carbon footprint but we probably shouldn't.
I keep forgetting about groop camping. And I don’t believe that LN cares about the environment for one minute.
Post by 3post1jack1 on Jan 11, 2018 10:23:37 GMT -5
I'm not angry at Bonnaroo.
The United States came late to music festivals. With a couple of exceptions (jazzfest, newport folk maybe?), there were not any USA music festivals of note until the 90s. We had the Woodstock reboot in 1994, which one could argue was relevant culturally, and then Woodstock again in 1999, which was a logistical disaster. You had Phish quietly throwing 60-70k person festivals throughout the 90s, proving a festival could be thrown in the USA that was successful both logistically and profitably. You had the touring version of Lollapalooza, not sure exactly when that got started. But the festival that marked the beginning of the development of music festival culture in the United States was Coachella in 1999.
Coachella 1999 lineup:
Anyone with a general understanding of what music was popular in the US 1999 can see Coachella 1999 was not indicative of what was popular at that time. It marked the beginning of festival culture as the alternative to the mainstream. Come get weird with your friends and catch a bunch of acts you wouldn't normally be able to catch elsewhere. See some older seminal acts that never achieved the popularity they deserved, see some acts that are "popular" on alternative/college radio, see some genres that don't get their due in the mainstream.
Of course we then have Bonnaroo 2002, which was more genre specific than Coachella 1999, or at least more "scene" specific:
It gave the Phish kids something to do that summer since Phish was on hiatus. Mostly jambands, but also some acts that weren't jambands per se, but fit in with that aesthetic. But again, an alternative to the mainstream. A chance to come together with tens of thousands of like minded music fans and catch a ton of acts. Proof of concept that just because the music wasn't at the top of the sales charts, that there was enough demand to consume the supply.
Bonnaroo 2003 was my first major music festival. I was in my early twenties and it definitely changed the course of my life. Similar to my first Phish shows, it felt amazing to go from listening to this weird under the radar music with a small group of friends to being in a venue with tens of thousands of like-minded people, most of whom shared my passion for this off-kilter music. But unlike my first Phish shows, Bonnaroo 2003 also exposed me to new music that I was unaware of or only a little familiar with before. Also you could just sit down under a tree and smoke weed and nobody would mess with you which early twenties me thought was the greatest thing in the world.
I experienced my first logistical music festival disaster at Coventry in 2004, which to this date remains the worst weekend of my life, personally and musically. That weekend marked the beginning of a lot of changes for me, but for the purposes of this post it was the beginning of my obsession with music festival logistics, instilling a deep appreciation for music festival organizers who manage to foresee and abate errors which could impact attendees enjoyment or safety.
All the above to say that, subjectively, a handful of music festivals had a significant impact on my life during my early formative years, and objectively, these early music festivals, and apologies for continuing to hammer down this point, offered an alternative to what was popular amongst not only the US population at large, but even an alternative to what was popular amongst twenty-somethings. I'd venture to say that in US colleges 1999-2002, most people weren't bumping Bjork, Chemical Brothers, or Widespread Panic. But enough were to make those early Coachellas and Bonnaroos worthwhile.
It was this willingness to take a risk, this willingness to book acts that aren't wildly popular, that inspired the sense of community that Bonnaroo and other festivals now attempt to artificially inspire via marketing.
Years pass and the general makeup of Bonnaroo begins to shift, but it is for the better for several years. Die hard jamband fans cried foul at the changes, but by opening up the booking to other acts Bonnaroo challenged their fanbase to open their minds and enjoy something different, and brought in new fans. Many old fans came along for the ride, others I guess went and sat in a dark room and smoked weed until facebook came along, at which point they emerge from their rooms once a year to make vaguely racist and/or misogynistic comments on lineup release day.
Bonnaroo (and Coachella) inspired a sense of community by providing excellent music that you couldn't hear all over the place. They identified a market and took a huge financial risk on it, which long-term paid off. They gave younger and less recognized acts a chance to promote themselves, they gave older acts a chance to show the younger generation what they were capable of. They managed to do all this in environments that were remarkably safe and comfortable.
Music festivals today are the mainstream. Maybe not top 40 exactly, but certainly many of the larger music festivals are making a concerted effort to appeal to "the youths" at large. Unfortunately looking at Spotify streaming numbers to book your acts instantly eliminates a significant number of worthy acts, acts with fanbases (or potential fanbases) that could inspire that sense of community, and inspire that community to open their wallets and travel long distances. It eliminates older "legacy" acts that perhaps aren't quantifiably currently popular, but would cause music fans to go "oh shit they booked XYZ" and buy a ticket.
We can certainly blame Bonnaroo for not taking risks anymore. We can certainly attribute some of this risk-averse booking to music festival saturation, desire for profits, etc. But whatever the reasons are, it doesn't change the fact that music festivals generally aren't for "us" anymore. And by "us" I don't mean 36 year olds like me, I mean passionate music fans of all ages who crave something different then what they hear everywhere they go, something unique, something that says "the music most of the people you know listen to sucks". Something that, when you are in the crowd at the show, you are looking at the people around you and grinning because you can't believe this is happening. You are locked in that moment, happy to be amongst friends that you don't know, happy to be with your people, your community.
Anywho, hope to see more of you at Day For Night 2018.
Post by pondo ROCKS on Jan 11, 2018 14:27:34 GMT -5
I feel like older acts have been abandoned by Roo except a sprinkling here and there. In years past, Billy Idol, Alice Cooper, Loretta Lynn, Snoop Dogg, Zz Top, Elvis Costello, Cake, Tori Amos, Ani DeFranco, Al Green and many others played the farm. That seems like a distant memory now.
Providing an outlet and a voice for music lovers to unite under the common theme of music for all. Join The Pondo Army to show your allegiance to musical freedom! Fighting for no censorship of the arts & music education in schools, The Pondo Army will triumph! The Pondo Army Movement
Follow me on twitter@Pondoknowsbest
The United States came late to music festivals. With a couple of exceptions (jazzfest, newport folk maybe?), there were not any USA music festivals of note until the 90s. We had the Woodstock reboot in 1994, which one could argue was relevant culturally, and then Woodstock again in 1999, which was a logistical disaster. You had Phish quietly throwing 60-70k person festivals throughout the 90s, proving a festival could be thrown in the USA that was successful both logistically and profitably. You had the touring version of Lollapalooza, not sure exactly when that got started. But the festival that marked the beginning of the development of music festival culture in the United States was Coachella in 1999.
Coachella 1999 lineup:
Anyone with a general understanding of what music was popular in the US 1999 can see Coachella 1999 was not indicative of what was popular at that time. It marked the beginning of festival culture as the alternative to the mainstream. Come get weird with your friends and catch a bunch of acts you wouldn't normally be able to catch elsewhere. See some older seminal acts that never achieved the popularity they deserved, see some acts that are "popular" on alternative/college radio, see some genres that don't get their due in the mainstream.
Of course we then have Bonnaroo 2002, which was more genre specific than Coachella 1999, or at least more "scene" specific:
It gave the Phish kids something to do that summer since Phish was on hiatus. Mostly jambands, but also some acts that weren't jambands per se, but fit in with that aesthetic. But again, an alternative to the mainstream. A chance to come together with tens of thousands of like minded music fans and catch a ton of acts. Proof of concept that just because the music wasn't at the top of the sales charts, that there was enough demand to consume the supply.
Bonnaroo 2003 was my first major music festival. I was in my early twenties and it definitely changed the course of my life. Similar to my first Phish shows, it felt amazing to go from listening to this weird under the radar music with a small group of friends to being in a venue with tens of thousands of like-minded people, most of whom shared my passion for this off-kilter music. But unlike my first Phish shows, Bonnaroo 2003 also exposed me to new music that I was unaware of or only a little familiar with before. Also you could just sit down under a tree and smoke weed and nobody would mess with you which early twenties me thought was the greatest thing in the world.
I experienced my first logistical music festival disaster at Coventry in 2004, which to this date remains the worst weekend of my life, personally and musically. That weekend marked the beginning of a lot of changes for me, but for the purposes of this post it was the beginning of my obsession with music festival logistics, instilling a deep appreciation for music festival organizers who manage to foresee and abate errors which could impact attendees enjoyment or safety.
All the above to say that, subjectively, a handful of music festivals had a significant impact on my life during my early formative years, and objectively, these early music festivals, and apologies for continuing to hammer down this point, offered an alternative to what was popular amongst not only the US population at large, but even an alternative to what was popular amongst twenty-somethings. I'd venture to say that in US colleges 1999-2002, most people weren't bumping Bjork, Chemical Brothers, or Widespread Panic. But enough were to make those early Coachellas and Bonnaroos worthwhile.
It was this willingness to take a risk, this willingness to book acts that aren't wildly popular, that inspired the sense of community that Bonnaroo and other festivals now attempt to artificially inspire via marketing.
Years pass and the general makeup of Bonnaroo begins to shift, but it is for the better for several years. Die hard jamband fans cried foul at the changes, but by opening up the booking to other acts Bonnaroo challenged their fanbase to open their minds and enjoy something different, and brought in new fans. Many old fans came along for the ride, others I guess went and sat in a dark room and smoked weed until facebook came along, at which point they emerge from their rooms once a year to make vaguely racist and/or misogynistic comments on lineup release day.
Bonnaroo (and Coachella) inspired a sense of community by providing excellent music that you couldn't hear all over the place. They identified a market and took a huge financial risk on it, which long-term paid off. They gave younger and less recognized acts a chance to promote themselves, they gave older acts a chance to show the younger generation what they were capable of. They managed to do all this in environments that were remarkably safe and comfortable.
Music festivals today are the mainstream. Maybe not top 40 exactly, but certainly many of the larger music festivals are making a concerted effort to appeal to "the youths" at large. Unfortunately looking at Spotify streaming numbers to book your acts instantly eliminates a significant number of worthy acts, acts with fanbases (or potential fanbases) that could inspire that sense of community, and inspire that community to open their wallets and travel long distances. It eliminates older "legacy" acts that perhaps aren't quantifiably currently popular, but would cause music fans to go "oh shit they booked XYZ" and buy a ticket.
We can certainly blame Bonnaroo for not taking risks anymore. We can certainly attribute some of this risk-averse booking to music festival saturation, desire for profits, etc. But whatever the reasons are, it doesn't change the fact that music festivals generally aren't for "us" anymore. And by "us" I don't mean 36 year olds like me, I mean passionate music fans of all ages who crave something different then what they hear everywhere they go, something unique, something that says "the music most of the people you know listen to sucks". Something that, when you are in the crowd at the show, you are looking at the people around you and grinning because you can't believe this is happening. You are locked in that moment, happy to be amongst friends that you don't know, happy to be with your people, your community.
Anywho, hope to see more of you at Day For Night 2018.
Like this post alone is better than most published articles about music festivals
Good post - but in 1999 Bjork and Chemical Brothers were still pretty popular in the mainstream. Bjork less so - but that's still only a few years removed from Post, which was very popular.
Maybe your average college DMB fan with AOL screename AntsMarching_keg wasn't a fan, but those two bands were pretty common currency with anyone who had at least a nominal CD collection.
Frankly, it's somewhat surprising that festivals haven't gone full-on iHeartradio. Bonnaroo is definitely moving in that direction, (thanks, Live Nation!) but other than Dua Lipa they don't have all that much high on the lineup that's straight-up bubblegum pop.
Speaking of not selling out VIP, my wife loves VIP, we have gone several years in a row, RV VIP. But we didn't go at all last year and frankly may never go again.
This year my wife heard the Fleetwood Mac rumors and bought early VIP. When the lineup came out she said I'm not going.
So it's just me and the kids, I sold the VIP tickets and going GA.
The United States came late to music festivals. With a couple of exceptions (jazzfest, newport folk maybe?), there were not any USA music festivals of note until the 90s. We had the Woodstock reboot in 1994, which one could argue was relevant culturally, and then Woodstock again in 1999, which was a logistical disaster. You had Phish quietly throwing 60-70k person festivals throughout the 90s, proving a festival could be thrown in the USA that was successful both logistically and profitably. You had the touring version of Lollapalooza, not sure exactly when that got started. But the festival that marked the beginning of the development of music festival culture in the United States was Coachella in 1999.
Coachella 1999 lineup:
Anyone with a general understanding of what music was popular in the US 1999 can see Coachella 1999 was not indicative of what was popular at that time. It marked the beginning of festival culture as the alternative to the mainstream. Come get weird with your friends and catch a bunch of acts you wouldn't normally be able to catch elsewhere. See some older seminal acts that never achieved the popularity they deserved, see some acts that are "popular" on alternative/college radio, see some genres that don't get their due in the mainstream.
Of course we then have Bonnaroo 2002, which was more genre specific than Coachella 1999, or at least more "scene" specific:
It gave the Phish kids something to do that summer since Phish was on hiatus. Mostly jambands, but also some acts that weren't jambands per se, but fit in with that aesthetic. But again, an alternative to the mainstream. A chance to come together with tens of thousands of like minded music fans and catch a ton of acts. Proof of concept that just because the music wasn't at the top of the sales charts, that there was enough demand to consume the supply.
Bonnaroo 2003 was my first major music festival. I was in my early twenties and it definitely changed the course of my life. Similar to my first Phish shows, it felt amazing to go from listening to this weird under the radar music with a small group of friends to being in a venue with tens of thousands of like-minded people, most of whom shared my passion for this off-kilter music. But unlike my first Phish shows, Bonnaroo 2003 also exposed me to new music that I was unaware of or only a little familiar with before. Also you could just sit down under a tree and smoke weed and nobody would mess with you which early twenties me thought was the greatest thing in the world.
I experienced my first logistical music festival disaster at Coventry in 2004, which to this date remains the worst weekend of my life, personally and musically. That weekend marked the beginning of a lot of changes for me, but for the purposes of this post it was the beginning of my obsession with music festival logistics, instilling a deep appreciation for music festival organizers who manage to foresee and abate errors which could impact attendees enjoyment or safety.
All the above to say that, subjectively, a handful of music festivals had a significant impact on my life during my early formative years, and objectively, these early music festivals, and apologies for continuing to hammer down this point, offered an alternative to what was popular amongst not only the US population at large, but even an alternative to what was popular amongst twenty-somethings. I'd venture to say that in US colleges 1999-2002, most people weren't bumping Bjork, Chemical Brothers, or Widespread Panic. But enough were to make those early Coachellas and Bonnaroos worthwhile.
It was this willingness to take a risk, this willingness to book acts that aren't wildly popular, that inspired the sense of community that Bonnaroo and other festivals now attempt to artificially inspire via marketing.
Years pass and the general makeup of Bonnaroo begins to shift, but it is for the better for several years. Die hard jamband fans cried foul at the changes, but by opening up the booking to other acts Bonnaroo challenged their fanbase to open their minds and enjoy something different, and brought in new fans. Many old fans came along for the ride, others I guess went and sat in a dark room and smoked weed until facebook came along, at which point they emerge from their rooms once a year to make vaguely racist and/or misogynistic comments on lineup release day.
Bonnaroo (and Coachella) inspired a sense of community by providing excellent music that you couldn't hear all over the place. They identified a market and took a huge financial risk on it, which long-term paid off. They gave younger and less recognized acts a chance to promote themselves, they gave older acts a chance to show the younger generation what they were capable of. They managed to do all this in environments that were remarkably safe and comfortable.
Music festivals today are the mainstream. Maybe not top 40 exactly, but certainly many of the larger music festivals are making a concerted effort to appeal to "the youths" at large. Unfortunately looking at Spotify streaming numbers to book your acts instantly eliminates a significant number of worthy acts, acts with fanbases (or potential fanbases) that could inspire that sense of community, and inspire that community to open their wallets and travel long distances. It eliminates older "legacy" acts that perhaps aren't quantifiably currently popular, but would cause music fans to go "oh shit they booked XYZ" and buy a ticket.
We can certainly blame Bonnaroo for not taking risks anymore. We can certainly attribute some of this risk-averse booking to music festival saturation, desire for profits, etc. But whatever the reasons are, it doesn't change the fact that music festivals generally aren't for "us" anymore. And by "us" I don't mean 36 year olds like me, I mean passionate music fans of all ages who crave something different then what they hear everywhere they go, something unique, something that says "the music most of the people you know listen to sucks". Something that, when you are in the crowd at the show, you are looking at the people around you and grinning because you can't believe this is happening. You are locked in that moment, happy to be amongst friends that you don't know, happy to be with your people, your community.
Anywho, hope to see more of you at Day For Night 2018.
this is the best post i've made on inforoo and it deserves more likes.
I ain't mad! But I just looked at the schedule and it solidified why I don't regret saying good bye to Roo (for now but probably permanently). Previously what was wonderful glorious was that I didn't have to love a majority of the bands on the line up because there would be 4 or 5 I would really want to see. So I could expect to see at least 4 artists I loved play full 90 minute sets of awesome and in between I could check out a bunch of stuff I'd never heard before or artists I would otherwise not have seen because they weren't really my thing. I really felt like I was getting my money's worth and Bonnaroo was worth every penny and logistical hassle it took to Roo successfully and survive the weekend.
As has been the case since 2015 I have no big interest in the headliners this year. Still the undercard has some pretty solid stuff I'd be very interested in seeing that could have made it worth while. But things like Sheryl Crow only playing a 1 hour set at 4 in the afternoon on the What...the fuck? Manchester might be really interesting but again just an hour also bumping up against Crow so probably 40 minutes at best of them. So many examples of this. Just about any artist you might want to see will be playing an abbreviated set. To me that is what really sucks. Bonnaroo had artists playing some of their most amazing sets for the fest and pulling out all their guns making those really special performances. Now they get one hour. Or even less in some cases. You are only getting a taste.
You used to get full shows from artists all over the musical map. Late night meant early morning with FULL sets still starting at 2am. Now it just seems like to much blah and premature ejaculations of otherwise enjoyable shows. Sure I'll get to experience the "festival vibes" but I wont get much of anything regarding the artists and the experience of seeing their amazing live shows.
Providing an outlet and a voice for music lovers to unite under the common theme of music for all. Join The Pondo Army to show your allegiance to musical freedom! Fighting for no censorship of the arts & music education in schools, The Pondo Army will triumph! The Pondo Army Movement
Follow me on twitter@Pondoknowsbest
