I’ve been to 5 out of the 8(?) Bonnaroos, including the first 3. Here are some tips I wish someone had told me:
They do have family camping but I think it’s just for families with small children. I don’t know who in thier right mind would bring a child to Bonnaroo.
If you can afford go in an RV, do it. That’ll probably be the only way to get any good sleep. At least for me, when I was tent camping, when the sun came up I was up; it didn’t matter what time I went to sleep. Those tents become ovens.
If you do go in an RV, you’ll have to walk about 20 mins from your RV to Centaroo.
If you go tent camping, forego the tent and just use a canopy and an air mattress. You’ll want as much airflow as you can and a canopy can provide this.
As others have said, getting there early does not equal a good camping spot.
Bring as much ice as possible. In you coolers with the ice, put a good layer of dry ice at the bottom to keep the ice frozen.
Bring a bucket, soap, and rags for your daily bath. You’ll feel like a million bucks after this each day.
Buy/bring one of those backpack chairs. The kind that sits low to the ground. This is probably the most useful thing in centeroo.
Except for the mist tents, there is no shade in centeroo. If there is, it’s usually filled with passed out people.
Bring a rain jacket and some sort of shoes you don’t mind ruining if it rains.
There will be people selling drugs, but honestly, in the last few times I’ve been this has dwindled down to nothing. I don’t think I heard one “got your heady nugs” or “choclates” or “doses” the last time I went (2008).
Don’t buy the VIP tickets. It’s just not worth the money.
Hope you don’t get parked next to a generator used to power the street lamps. THAT will drive you crazy at night.
There are a lot of food vendors but none of them are really that good.
Baby wipes are good thing to have.
Take advantage of just-cleaned porta potties, if you know what I mean. Thankfully they are cleaned pretty often.
You’ll probably see some sights (especially late at night) that you just can’t unsee and will be seared into your mind forever. Be prepared for that. I’m looking at you naked, 7’ tall, screaming, bleeding, freak running head first into a solid wall repeatedly.
Most, yeah. The Farm’s just a field right off the interstate, though, so be prepared for a miles long line in the breakdown lane if you get there around that time.
So how long does it take to get in the gate on Thurs night? I really hate waiting in long lines on foot or in a car. I could arrive from the north or south but I guess the line is probably just as long from both directions? I have driven by that spot in 2004 but I didn’t know that was where Bonnaroo was.
I come from Chattanooga, so I only have experience from the south end. My first year, 2007, was probably an hour or two wait, but I was a heel the next year and just drove to near the front of the line and cut in front of someone asleep at the wheel.
Showers are $8 to $10, depending on where you are. (I think they’re run by independent vendors. I know it was different from one place to another last year.) I tend to use them because I don’t want to look like a total skank in the press tent, not that it helps much after a few hours in the heat.
I waited about two hours last year, late on Thursday afternoon. It’s probably about the same no matter when you show up on Thursday, unless it’s really late.
I don’t think it makes a difference which side you come in in terms of time, but it makes a difference when you leave. I came from the north last year but I had to go into Manchester to get my tickets and somehow ended up going through the south gate. When I came out I was pointed south, and the way they had the roads blocked I had to go about an hour out of my way just to get northbound again. Just come in whichever side will be easier for you to get back out.
I’ve been to Bonaroo once a few years ago and I’ve been to dozens of Dead shows. Believe it or not, the drug use is much more conspicuous and prevalent at Bonaroo. When camping at Dead shows, it always seemed like there was plenty of personal space; at Bonaroo, you’re crammed in and right on top of the other campers. The hike from the camping location to the actual venue takes a while, and in the summer Tennessee heat, can be quite exhausting. I don’t remember ever having to walk that far at a Dead show.
What someone said upthread about baking in your tent after about 7 in the morning is true. You probably won’t be able to get to sleep very early due to the partying, and you won’t sleep very long in the morning because of the heat. Bring earplugs and lots of water.
The crowd at Bonaroo is similar to that at a Dead show, despite the wide range of genres that play there. Everyone’s there to have a good time, and my girlfriend and I didn’t really encounter anybody that seemed assholish. I’m glad I went, but I don’t think I’d go back, or if I did, it would be in an RV or pop-up camper or something. It’s cool to be among the crowd and all, but at some point, I like to have a little personal space to chill. I attend a couple of camping type multi-day music festivals every summer and always have plenty of room to set up my pop-up, an EZ Up or two, table and chairs, etc… Call me spoiled, but being able to just hang out and chill at your campsite is important to me, especially at a multi-day event. You won’t be able to do that at Bonaroo.
As a reference, I’m in my mid 40’s. Younger folks can probably hang a little easier under the above circumstances, and I probably would have been a little better with it 15-20 years ago or so. YMMV.
A bit of commentary about the heat - I used to camp the serenghetti at Pennsic, which can get to seriously roasting in the day at the same time it freezes at night. I found the best combination is to get a screen tent, and put a tarp fly over, making an air space between the top of the tent and the fly. With the screen tent, you can drop the walls in the day and have a bug free screened in area, and put the walls up for privacy to wipe down and change clothing, and you can lift the bottoms of the walls for partial privacy and airflow at night if you dont want to just leave the walls partly down.
The screen tent looked like this, it wasnt a wenzel but I cant remember the brand offhand and I am not going out to the abrn to rummage at 4 in the morning, though I think it was the coleman version. The fly was a generic tarp with the 4 legs that you can get at any odd lots type store. We made walls for the screen tent out of some of the backpack type nylon we had gotten a roll of off craigslist, in that strange silvery backpack color. We installed grommets so that we could tie the walls along the tops at the grommets the official factory made walls were to secure to. We used a cheap faux oriental rug over a blue poly tarp as the flooring, and it was quite comfortable in the heat. Not having to deal with flies doing touch and goes on hot sweaty skin when trying to relax is also a plus =)
Since they seem to control your tent space along with the parking space, perhaps going with another friend and setting the tentage up between 2 or 3 cars would work? If you do the sleeping bag on the ground thing, you can easily sleep 4 or 5 people in the tent, or if you do the army cot thing, easily 3 people on cots.
Although I would seriously consider renting a pickup truck with a full sized bed and going with a truck tent as you can put a real mattress in the back of a full sized PU, and lock your belongings into the cab. I can remember road tripping in my international harvester scout with the back seat removed, and a futon mattress in the back. You roll up the futon and put the luggage and camp gear in the rack on top in a snailshell, and the dog flakes out in the back end without getting onto the futon, and at night you tie the dog to the hitch and she sleeps under the truck =)
When one mentions “drugs”, what kind? I would think mostly marijuana, mushrooms and LSD. I have no problem with any of those drugs, but I don’t want to be around strangers tripping on ecstacy or acid. I would not want people there doing cocaine, meth, or heroin. I doubt too many smack, meth or crackheads have the money to attend these concerts.
I’m from Tennessee, and it gets hot and muggy there in early June and I would think would be hard to sleep outside. If I was there, I would mainly be up the whole time. However, I am over 40 now and would not do that. Love to see Steely Dan or Moody Blues with a cigar sized joint in my mouth and a glass of wine.
I got back from Bonnaroo late Sunday night. Decided to skip Dave Matthews and save about 12 hours, which was worth every bit. The thing that stood out to me about the people going was, wow, that’s a lot of uncomfortable white people. Not many people were smiling, everyone was on guard in some way, and nobody wanted you to come near their “bubble.” Lots of passive-aggressive, loud whining to anyone around when you came near their precious towel, even if it was the front row of a headline act.
Fortunately, the festival kids and true hippies always have a smile and a good attitude, and they really make the festival worthwhile. I learned that the best strategy is to stay around the campsite until 3-4pm, come back from 10:30-12:00, then go back out to party all night. Most people miss the party atmosphere at night because of the intense heat of the day.
Not that it’s terribly important, but it just so happens that I am really damned good at playing with these interlocking glowstick rings I created. I drew a small crowd for a few minutes, which was really neat.
I did hear one tent yelling out for anyone to come get free, clean needles, but never heard of anyone doing heroin, and it would certainly never be openly sold.