Bonnaroo ready for campers to hit the Farm
Attendance figures are anticipated to be down significantly from the nearly 80,000 people that typically attend the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, each summer, but even if only half that number show up this week as some online sites predict, it still will be a lot of people.
Brad Parker, C3 Presents project manager for U.S. festivals, said organizers are ready and happy to get fans back on The Bonnaroo Farm for almost a week of camping, live music, camaraderie and fun. C3 Presents is owned by Live Nation, which also owns Bonnaroo. Things start Tuesday and end Sunday night.
Bonnaroo 2020 was canceled due to the pandemic, and the event in 2021 was moved to the fall and then called off because of flooding on the farm caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida just a day before it was to begin in September.
Site improvement work has continued throughout that time, and Parker said The Farm, as it is referred to, is ready for people to return.
“I got here on Monday, and honestly, as a team and after what our industry has been through, we are super excited to be back,” Parker said in a telephone interview Saturday.
He said in addition to just being able to gather for live music, he is ready for people to see the improvements that have been made to the site. A working farm when it was chosen in 2002 by Superfly and AC Entertainment as the place to have more than 70,000 people camp for four days while music and other entertainment is presented essentially around the clock, it has undergone quite a transformation over the years.
Attendance grew to almost 100,000 early on but has since been capped at 80,000. C3 doesn’t release attendance numbers, but the festival reportedly saw its lowest numbers in 2016, when fewer than 60,000 attended. Many attendees that year remember it was one of their favorites with shorter lines and a roomier festival.
It rebounded in 2018 with improved sales and a year later with a sold-out festival and was on its way to sold-out events in 2020 and 2021 when they were canceled.
A map of the layout was posted on the Bonnaroo website, and it clearly shows a much smaller footprint with fewer plazas or campgrounds.
Each year, improvements to the location have been made to control things like flooding and water runoff when it rains and dust storms when it doesn’t. A tougher blend of grass was sewn, and trees have been planted to provide shade. Also, electricity and plumbing have been installed to provide power and flushable, permanent bathrooms.
Some of the improvements have been infrastructure that most fans don’t see or notice right away, but some are more obvious. Parker said some roads have been paved to make getting equipment and people where they need to be easier, but also that a heavy emphasis has been put on improving the comfort level of campers in the general admission and VIP areas.
To help alleviate long waits and lines of campers trying to get into the grounds, gates will open Tuesday with the featured lineup of musical acts set to begin in the main Centeroo area Thursday afternoon.
Headlining this year are Tool, Stevie Nicks and J. Cole with The Chicks, Illenium, Flume and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss also on the lineup of nearly 100 artists. Parker said organizers make changes every year, and since there hasn’t been a Bonnaroo since 2019, regular attendees should see a big change this year.
Parker said not only should campers find their campsites more comfortable with more shade, more bathrooms and more food options, entertainment, including some surprise musical acts, have been planned throughout the week beginning Tuesday in the camping areas.
“It’s a going to be a night-and-day difference in the best way,” he said. “We put money out into the campgrounds so that people can come live with us on The Farm and be comfortable beginning on … Tuesday
“We’ve added a ton of cooling solutions, whether in Centeroo or in the campgrounds.
“I think even for people who have visited us only a few times before, they will see a very drastic improvement. Like, maybe not inside Centeroo, but in the quality of living.”
Among the people providing entertainment will be Bonnaroo veterans Sharla and Daniel Horton of Huntsville, Alabama. The couple owns The Roo Bus, a converted school bus, and they co-host The Real Roo Bus podcast, a show where people get together year-round to talk Bonnaroo and carry on the sense of community they feel there.
They will be hosting a gathering of campers Tuesday and Wednesday nights with DJs, live music and other special guests.
They said via text that the Bonnaroo community is what makes the event special to people. They noted that when the event was canceled the past two years, people still gathered for “mini Roos.” Like others, the Hortons said they have seen the internet chatter about attendance numbers and changes, such as the loss of one main entrance, but they said Bonnaroo has become more than just a music event.
“The last three years were tough, but it feels like the community is stronger than ever,” the Hortons said.
“When everyone had Roo in their own way with tons of friends on private farms or in backyards, it proved that it doesn’t matter which company owns or operates the big event. Maybe Live Nation has the trademark, but the community has shown that spiritually it owns Bonnaroo.
“Some of the changes we’re hearing about are certainly eyebrow-raising, but the people that make the event aren’t changing at all. For every reason that matters, we are Bonnaroo, and it’s the crowd that goes that makes it what it is.”
Parker said he believes patrons old and new will like the changes, including the new and free transportation system called JamTrak that will circle the campgrounds, taking patrons from their campsites to the entry gates. Parker said improvements have been made to some of the stages, as well. The sound system has been improved at the larger Which Stage, and everything about the Who Stage, which is home to up-and-coming acts, has been tweaked.
“I think that is one of the things Bonnaroo has always done really well and that is to find those acts that will be the next big names in music,” Parker said.
Because of the camping nature of Bonnaroo, it is a unique product that has developed a loyal fan base, Parker said.
“Our biggest marketing tool is our fans,” he said. “It’s a double-edged sword because there is nothing else like it. Word of mouth is our best marketing tool.
“The lineup is important, but there are so many singular moments that people have, and they talk about those when they leave here and go home.”
He said those moments might occur during a headlining act or they might occur back at someone’s campsite.
“Our goal is to create multiple singular moments for people,” he said. “We know that some people will stay around the campsites at certain times, so we’ve tried to make it where every square inch of the Farm is part of the Bonnaroo experience.”