Bonnaroo lineup drops; Cindy Pinion honored

The Bonnaroo lineup dropped on Tuesday and while there might have been a few people out there unhappy with it (there’s always some fish who doesn’t like fun, right?), the majority of the online chatter has been exceedingly positive.

After 19 years, I do wonder if it is time to finally put to bed the notion that the festival has forsaken its mission, roots, purpose, whatever. I still hear people say it’s no longer the jam and hippy festival that it started out as. That is always said with the implication that it was always meant to be that.

Co-founder Ashley Capps said from the beginning, and has told me multiple times over the years, that it was never meant to be any one thing forever, other than a great multiday music festival that featured camping.

Camping being an important component, and because of that, the jam bands were heavily featured in 2002 because Phish had proven with the Clifford Ball that it could work. The first Bonnaroo tailored its lineup to attract people who would camp.

That remains true to this day, but the festival has adapted many times over with the intent of making camping more appealing to fans of all types of music. EDM became a big focus a few years ago, and because of the proximity of the Manchester farm where it is held to Nashville, organizers have slowly looked to introduce country music to the lineup.

This year, the Grand Ole Opry show returns. Much to the surprise, and delight for some, Miley Cyrus is part of the lineup. She’s just one of about three dozen acts I’m really excited to see this year.

But the main thing I find so interesting about this, is how interesting the whole festival scene has become over the last two decades.

› Cindy Pinion has been nominated for Bluegrass

Promoter of the Year by the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America as part of its annual Bluegrass Music Awards.

It is well-earned, to be sure. Pinion and her sisters, Inez Pinion Castleberry and Ruth Pinion, have championed bluegrass music via the Boxcar Pinion Bluegrass Festival named in honor of their late father, Boxcar Pinion, since the early ’90s.

The 46th annual SPBGMA convention will be held at the Sheraton Music City hotel from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2. Awards are given for all kinds of categories honoring everybody from instrumentalists of the year to DJ and radio station of the year.

Barry Courter