Our First Bonnaroo Music Festival Experience- Day 1

We’ve been suffering from the Bonna-blues for the last two weeks or is it the Bluesaroo’s? Either way, all the excitement and waiting in anticipation that lead up to Bonnaroo is now over. I cant believe its been over a week since we were there!  The festival is over for 2015 and we’ve just recovered from the travel to, the camping, the partying and the travel back to realize, what is there to look forward to now?

Day 1 Thursday

It was our first year at Bonnaroo after having been to several festivals, for instance Coachella for the last two years, I’ve got so say that it’s like nothing else I’ve ever been to. On Thursday our first night after having traveled from Florida and arriving in Manchester, to my dismay finding it to be a small uneventful town and setting up our campsite in the 90 degree plus temp at 1pm, we descended into the festival. This was also after having the VIP dinner that offered a nice welcome but somewhat bland food.  Anyhow the food is not what you buy VIP tickets for, it’s the air conditioned areas and bathrooms and those were worth their weight in gold.

VIP Tent In VIP Area

Campsite at Bonnaroo

VIP Schedule

The Fountain at Bonnaroo

At first glance the festival grounds weren’t particularly impressive. It was day one and the ground was already dusty and full of gravel. It seemed small but duh, the festival was only half open. This made it hard to see bands like Glass Animals since everyone and their mother was at the stage. We were very exhausted from our travels and setting up camp in the heat. Next time we get there in the morning to avoid the brutal afternoon swelter that encompasses you like a hot wet blanket. Our exhaustion didn’t help us in tolerating the crowds although were able to catch the unlocking the Truth and Rory in a nice relaxed crowd.  Courtney Barnett, who we were really looking forward to seeing, was also super packed. Not to mention the dude already fucked-up on something dancing to Barnett as if he was at Deadmau5 or something, WTF it was the first night. We had to move to the side of the stage to finish watching the set but left shortly after to retreat to our campsite. We made the best decision to shower that night- no line no problems, decent hot water and pressure although a bit gross. I don’t think the showers are cleaned too often during the day.

The amazing Courtney Barnett

Courtney Barnett

Unlocking the Truth

Rory

I think we slept ok Thursday night although I had to take Tylenol PM, you know sleeping in a tent around a bunch of strangers in the heat, these are not my ideal conditions.  We woke up Friday ready to rock, we were delighted to find breakfast for sale in the VIP. They served some good selections we had the Huevos Bonnaroo a mixture of black beans, scrambled eggs and salsa not bad but really needed a bit more of the chorizo that was in the description of the dish.  We packed a lot of alcohol including Jello-shots, 3 six-packs, 2 wine boxes, a bottle of vodka, 4 pack of ciders, and supplies for Sangria.  Needless to say we overdid it since it was just two of us drinking. They only sell beer at the festival for good reason, it’s hard to drink a lot in the 100 degree heat, for every drink you basically need drink a bottled water. When we arrived back home we had two six packs left, a dozen jello-shots, a box of wine, a full bottle of vodka. We barely drank our shit! We drank beer in the Brooers tent those were quite pricey. I think a large one was like $14 bucks or something but kind of worth it for good beer. The rest of the places mostly had Miller or Coors lite, yuck!

Click here for Day 2 and 3 at Bonnaroo