Bonnaroo Music Festival

Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an annual four day music festival created and produced by Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment, held at Great Stage Park on a 700-acre (2.8 km²) farm in Manchester, Tennessee, and will host its tenth annual event June 9-12, 2011. The main attractions of the festival are the multiple stages of live music, featuring a diverse array of musical styles including indie rock, world music, hip hop, jazz, americana, bluegrass, country music, folk, gospel, reggae, electronica, and other alternative music. The festival began with a primary focus on jam bands, but has diversified greatly in recent years. Past notable acts include Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Phish, Tool, Radiohead, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, Dave Matthews Band, The Dead, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Kanye West, The Flaming Lips, Widespread Panic, Nine Inch Nails, The White Stripes, and My Morning Jacket. The festival features craftsmen and artisans selling unique products, food and drink vendors, a comedy tent, silent disco, cinema tent, and ferris wheel. The festival was named one of the 50 moments that changed the history of rock and roll. Sponsors of the festival are required to provide free activities for attendees.

Activities

Available to the Bonnaroo public throughout the week are various activity tents. These tents become most popular with the night crowd, with such activities set up as The Silent Disco tent and several other club or bar-themed venues. The Silent Disco allows for participants to enjoy the excitement and fun of a dance club but without disturbing nearby campers. Each person upon entering the tent is given a set of headphones that syncs with the DJ and the music, so everyone is listening to the same song through the headphones while appearing from the outside to be dancing to no music at all. Other activities include the Comedy Tent where comedians from Mike Birbiglia to Flight of the Concords have performed. The Cinema tent, showing a variety of mainstream and independent movies, is also popular as it is one of the air conditioned tents, and the Broo’ers Festival tent is a popular attraction featuring a variety of breweries from all over the United States. Outside the big tents, Planet Roo hosts a variety of non-profit organizations sharing information on healthy lifestyles and resource conservation, and Splash-a-Roo (a giant slip-n-slide area) and a giant mushroom fountain provide a practical way to beat the heat. Bonnaroo creators designated the wall surrounding Centeroo, colloquially called "the Graffiti Wall", as a place for street artists to paint whatever they feel like painting.

Activities like these,along with great food vendors and unique shopping, provide an easy and fun way to hang around the Centeroo in between music performances. In 2009, Bonnaroo debuted the Bungaloo, a community art project which consisted of all festival-goers being invited to paint a small tile which was then affixed to 10 foot water droplets which were suspended between The Other Tent and This Tent. For each tile painted, the festival-goer was allowed to vote for the charity of their choice, upon which Bungaloo, a new online paint company, would make a $1000 donation.

Economy

On January 10, 2007, Bonnaroo organizers Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment purchased a major portion of the site where the annual music festival is held. The purchase of 530 acres (2.1 km2) encompassed all of the performance areas and much of the camping and parking area used for the annual festival; the festival will continue to lease another 250 acres (1.0 km2) that currently serve as additional parking and camping. Since its inception, Bonnaroo has contributed more than $1 million directly to Coffee County organizations. In addition to annual charitable contributions, the festival's activities provide annual revenue to the county. Measured in a 2005 study, the economic impact of the event on Coffee County was more than $14 million in business revenues and more than $4 million in personal income.The Bonnaroo music festival makes most of its income from the fans.

Environmentalism

Since its inception, Bonnaroo has invested an incredible amount of time and resources to become the leader in creating a sustainable festival. From day one, the festival strived to make the most sustainable choices while maintaining the ultimate experience for the fan; setting the standard in sustainability and greening practices for North American festivals. The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is committed to partnering with the fans, other festivals, musicians, and artists to affect change. For example, as a reward for sending a letter to a legislator in support of climate change legislation the Natural Resources Defense Council gave 17 free downloads from various Bonnaroo artists.

A Greener Festival has recognized Bonnaroo's efforts for the past three years. There is a rigorous process, which includes a self-evaluation and an audit from Greener Festival auditors during Bonnaroo. For more information on A Greener Festival: www.agreenerfestival.com, For more information: http://bonnaroo.com/festival/greening-activism.as

Accolades

In 2008, it was named "Best Festival" by Rolling Stone magazine, calling it "the ultimate over-the-top summer festival.

One of “50 moments that changed rock & roll” – Rolling Stone

“Bonnaroo has revolutionized the modern rock festival” – The New York Times

“Festival of the Year” –Pollstar

“Best festival of the summer” – SPIN

“The culmination of a musical movement” – USA Today

“The concert event of the summer” – USA Today

"A place for real music lovers" BehindTheRoo.com

“Music and subculture melted together into a pot of creative bubbling energy” – CNN

“Bonnaroo: Three days of musical history in the making” - AP

History

The word Bonnaroo, popularized by New Orleans R&B giant Dr. John with his 1974 album Desitively Bonnaroo, means "a really good time." It is a Ninth Ward slang construction taken from the French "bon" meaning "good," and "rue" from the French "street," translating to "the best on the streets. The name was chosen both for its literal meaning and to honor the rich Louisiana music tradition that inspired the organizers' desire to provide many styles of quality live music for appreciative fans.

The first Bonnaroo took place in 2002 and took inspiration from music festivals like Glastonbury. With no traditional advertising, the festival sold out in nearly two weeks. By 2003, the festival had been named by Rolling Stone as one of the top 50 moments in rock & roll. Comedy acts like Jim Breuer were first added in 2005. In 2007, Bonnaroo purchased the land for the festival, creating Great Stage Park with all of its iconic features. A permanent main stage was installed in 2010.

Venues

Centeroo - The Central area of Bonnaroo. Serviced by two main entrances, nearly all of the festival activity is enclosed in this area. Various merchants and activities supplement the plethora of music related activities located within Centeroo. While Centeroo is open 24 hours a day, musical artists generally only play from noon until the evening, followed by the unopposed headlining act. Afterwards, there are late-night sets, usually running from midnight until the early morning, sometimes as late as 5 or 6 AM.

What Stage - The main stage of the festival, with a capacity of 100,000, is also the largest. What Stage is open from approximately noon until midnight (late night sets usually over by 3am). Traditionally, the headlining act each day will play on the What Stage with no other acts performing on any other stages.

Which Stage - The second stage, with a capacity of 30,000. Which Stage is generally one of the last stages to finish before the headlining act each night. After the headlining act performs, a late night show generally follows here.

This Tent, That Tent, and The Other Tent - These three tents serve as a combined tertiary tier for musical performances. Late night shows also generally occur in all three of these venues, along with the yearly Superjam, a one-off combination of various musicians performing at the festival.

Comedy Tent - This tent is reserved strictly for comedy acts, such as stand up comedians.

Various other small tents and stages also exist, such as the Solar Stage, Lunar Stage, Sonic Stage, and the Cinema tent. See the Bonnaroo website for further details on these venues.