Bonnaroo looks to bringing people back

So the 2017 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival lineup was announced yesterday, and before we go any further, please understand the deadline for this column was well before I had the list in hand, so this isn’t about who is coming and who is not. Kind of. We did get early word on Monday that U2 was confirmed. I’d heard they were coming weeks earlier along with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chance the Rapper and The Weeknd.

No matter. I’ve contended for years that whether we are talking about the lineup for Bonnaroo, Riverbend, the county fair or whatever, qualifying it as good or bad is mostly subjective. If your favorite acts are included, it’s the best, and if they’re not, it’s terrible. That’s in general, of course.

We can break it down or assign values to the lists then argue over whether it hit those values or not. Are the acts current or mostly oldies, for example? How many original members does the act have; or if current, do they have new material out and are charting well?

These are all fair questions, and they do impact the excitement level of fans, especially given the number of options available.

When Bonnaroo began in 2002, large music festivals in this country were few and far between, and they were not always successful. Multi-day, multi- act events had come and gone in Birmingham, Nashville and Atlanta.

From the beginning, Bonnaroo has modeled itself after the successful and long-running festivals in Europe such as Glastonbury. Organizers have said from Barry Courter the start that they have been thinking longterm, and that has been proven by the improvements done to the 700-acre farm over the years. What was once just a cow pasture is now home to roads, permanent power and water lines, bathrooms and trees that were planted with the idea they would grow and one day provide shade.

Anyone who has been knows how big a deal those trees are. They also planted a variety of grass that would withstand heavy foot traffic and high heat.

But last year was a down year in a lot of ways. Ticket sales were reportedly down about 45 percent. The site was cleverly reconfigured to make everything seem big and full, and it worked. While not my favorite lineup of the previous 11 I’ve attended, it was still plenty good, and overall it was a great festival.

Several things contributed to the low numbers last year, I believe. Among them, a sharp increase in ticket price, a less than stellar top of the lineup and the increased numbers of other festivals. People had choices, and they chose to go elsewhere.

LiveNation needed to go big with this lineup. Ticket buyers will decide if they succeeded.