Right now someone in Manchester, Tennessee is desperately searching for their car keys. Or their friends. Or their favorite pair of sunglasses. Or their minds. It’s amazing the things one can lose over a four-day period on a 700-acre farm jam packed with close to 80,000 people and over 100 bands scheduled to perform. That was the scene at Bonnaroo 2008 as tens of thousands of music fans descended on central Tennessee for what has become America’s biggest music festival as well as one of the biggest money-making music festivals in the world.
Now I don’t know how many C’ville folks made it down to Bonnaroo ‘08, but if you did go, braving the crowds, the weather, and the late nights, we’ll be asking you for your first hand accounts in just a few moments. As you may have guessed I did not attend. I won’t say that I’ve personally given up on the mega-music festival (I attended San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival last October which drew an estimated 500,000 festival goers) but in recent years I’ve been drawn to the smaller, lesser known, and more intimate music gatherings. Ultimately I have yet to attend Bonnaroo and unless the Fates set me up with backstage passes and a paid assignment to cover the precedings, I can’t really imagine ever seeing the festival first hand.
In preparation for writing this post, I’ve scanned the inter-web for reports from the blogosphere and media outlets and I’ve gathered some of the highlights after the jump. But before all that…
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What I really want to know is: Did you head to Bonnaroo this year? If so, let’s hear your thoughts. If you didn’t go, is there a reason why you decided to pass on the summer’s biggest music festival? Or maybe you’ve attended in years past and the experience has left a bad taste in your mouth. Whatever the case, I want to know if Bonnaroo is the hippest festival around or is it simply over-hyped, becoming a victim of its own success? Fire away!
And for a collection of highlights and stories from the frontlines…
- Pearl Jam: Three hour set on Saturday night received a number of glowing reviews. This was the band’s first appearance at a general admission music festival since 2000. Here’s Rolling Stone’s take.
- My Morning Jacket: Making their 5th appearance at Bonnaroo, these guys have almost become the “unofficial Bonnaroo house band”. The band’s three hour set featured a torrential downpour as well as an interesting array of covers songs from the likes of James Brown, Erykah Badu, and Motley Crue?!?. That makes MMJ’s upcoming September show in C’ville even more intriguing. Stereogum swoons for Jim James and crew.
- Kanye West: Rapper delays his original scheduled performance in order to perform late night, then he doesn’t take the stage until 4:25am. The next day Robert Randolph criticizes Kanye for disappointing his fans by starting so late. Bonnaroo crowd responds with a chant of “Kanye sucks”. The Village Voice calls it The Kanye Debacle.
- Phil Lesh, Levon Helm, and Cat Power: All three garner praise from a number of media outlets for outstanding performances. Billboard.com reports.
- Paste magazine: Loves the everybodyfields (I can’t argue with them either)
- M.I.A.: Rapper “retires” from live concerts after her Bonnaroo performance. NME reports.
- B.B. King: Blues legend was awarded the key to the city at Bonnaroo by Manchester, Tennessee Mayor Betty Superstein. Yahoo News! has the details.
- Politics: A big stage, a big crowd, and big issues. The AP reports on Tunes and politics mix at Bonnaroo.
- Drugs: While PopMatters’ Friday review highlights the music of Metallica, Jose Gonzalez, and The Swell Season, it also notes the abundance of coke in attendance. But as Nashville’s NewsChannel 5 reports, there were at least 637 hits of LSD that did not make it to Bonnaroo as one man is arrested during a traffic stop by Murfreesboro police.
What did we miss? Any personal highlights for anyone who attended?
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Tagged as: Bonnaroo, headlines, live music, music festival, news
Poor Kanye West. This is a very interesting post Shaun. Not to sound dumb, I only had heard of Bonnaroo but never asked what it was about. Thanks to you now, I’m MUSED up.
Well now you know…as I understand it there used to be a crowd of C’ville folks that went to Bonnaroo during the first couple of years but that the size and cost of the event has kept a number of folks from going back. It almost seems like going to Mardi Gras or New Years Eve in Times Square. Do it once to say you did it and then move on. Although I’m sure the first couple years were probably pretty damn cool.
M.I.A. retired? damn. I’m sure she’ll play again someday, but still. That’s sad.
@3 I also could have sworn that I read somewhere that she wasn’t even going to play at Bonnaroo…that is until she heard that the Olsen twins (you know Mary-Kate and Ashley) had flown in for their birthdays to see her perform. I really hope I read this somewhere and that this wasn’t a dream…and if this was a dream I actually had…then I too am going to retire.
Poor Kanye West? Please, tell me that’s a joke.
That prima donna insisted on playing the main state without any competition (only major headliners seem to get that accommodation), which requires Phil Lesh to play through his setbreak and end early (Phil actually made mention of this). Then, Kanye delays the start time of his 2:15 AM show at 15 minute intervals for two hours because he simply MUST perform with his gimmicky glow-stick set up.
Poor Kanye my foot! What a brat!
Anyway, Bonnaroo and I parted ways a while ago, but plenty of Cville folks are still going to work under the Starr Hill, Red Light, and MusicToday banners. I imagine they are sleeping/showering/re-hydrating and will chime in soon. For now, music message boards are full of reviews from the audience perspective.
thanks upstart, i was about to post a very similar response but i think you covered it pretty nicely. it’ll have to be mighty tragic for me to shed tears on kanye’s behalf.
i know for a fact that at least one act was bumped from the main stage due to Kanye…and then he pulled that sh*t. how lame. he’s only done/said 2 respectable things in his career: 1) “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” 2) working with Jon Brion. otherwise - total douchebag. and you could make a case for how #1 was presented being quite douchebagish.
Just to put my two cents to this topic, I think his choice to make that crack during a Katrina fundraiser was pretty horrible. Instead of keeping attention on the tragedy in NOLA, he made borderline nonsensical statements that wound up pulling the spotlight away from the Red Cross and onto himself.
agreed. that’s why i said “you could make a case for how #1 was presented being quite douchebagish”. truth of the comment aside, it should have been put forward in a different forum.
i was at the first bonnaroo, and I don’t really remember much. I know it was hot and the toilets were overflowing after the first day. Drugs were everywhere, and ruthlessly enterprizing wookies were getting in fights with themselves.
The music was good. I was disappointed by Trey, but delighted by WSP. I decided that Keller Williams is only interesting for 10 minutes unless he’s playing with the cheeze. I think I would only go back if I could stay in an airconditioned trailer and carry around a tazer. Kids, you can have this one.
I was in VIP with air conditioning and that doesn’t save a fest when the scene turns. When people started dying (I believe the first deaths were in 2005) and other festivals began offering a comparable experience, I decided that I wasn’t going back to Bonnaroo.