Our First Bonnaroo Music Festival Experience- Day 2 & 3

Day 2 Friday at Bonnaroo 

Continued from Day 1 at Bonnaroo Music Festival

We were able to get a nice spot in the VIP Section of the “Which Stage” to see Royal Blood. Their set was solid, they were energetic, fun and improvisational, playing most songs off their “Royal Blood” album. They truly rocked our asses off but it was unbearably hot. Bonnaroo needs to create a VIP section for watching bands that is covered, similar to a veranda like they have at other festivals like Coachella and Ultra. Like that you can catch sets under cover without having to endure the extreme heat. For instance, just move the VIP tent closer to the stage, make it bigger and take the sides off, voila you’ve got a covered viewing area with bar service and bathrooms.

View of Royal Blood from Which VIP Area

View of Royal Blood from Which VIP Area

VIP Section at Which Stage

We were so hot we had to go lay down at base camp. I had to change clothes and realized that well, you can actually wear two outfits a day at Bonnaroo, a daytime and a nighttime. That’s if you’re in VIP since you’re close to the main grounds making it easy to walk back and forth to change. Bonus!

Sylvan Esso at Bonnaroo

Sylvan Esso at Bonnaroo

We headed back out to check out Sylvan Esso, one of the best sets of the fest. There was a large crowd but there was plenty of space for dancing freely. Meath is a crowd pleaser and can dance un-like any white girl I’ve ever seen. Next was Alabama Shakes, which we caught on the comfortable VIP mound. There weren’t any chairs available on the mound but a nice lady offered us her blanket. And… that’s what’s different at Bonnaroo, the people really try to embody the positive high five vibes. It’s like another world, it own little planet, really.

Watching Alabama Shakes from the VIP mound at Bonnaroo

We quickly rushed to Tears for Fears in the “This Ten” and that was really packed, they were already 10 minutes into their set but we made it close to standing under the tent. They sang all their hits, we left after Mad World; the vibe was communal and retro. People were dancing and embracing the throwback.

We went back to the “What Stage” for Kendrick Lamar and caught his whole set, once more on the mound. It was quite the energetic set full of old and new tunes from “Butterfly”. We really didn’t have the energy to walk back to the “Which” for Earth, Wind and Fire, one of my biggest regrets of the festival. I heard they rocked and brought out several guests. We stayed at the “What” for Deadmau5, who I’ve never seen, despite living in Miami for most of my life where he spins often. The set was surreal, the crowd was equipped with all the spoils of any 90’s rave that I’ve ever been to. Next was Odesza which we got to late catching just a few tracks. We had our kid, it was late and it was getting weird so back to camp!

Deadmau5 at Bonnaroo

Day 3 Saturday

I barely slept on Friday night. You see you can hear errrrthing from the VIP camp. So I was up all night hearing the DJ at the Kaliope MC-ing his whole set. I didn’t know if to go postal or join in because the music sounded quite sweet. I had to pull myself together for Saturday, having only slept a few good hours. The morning was hot as hell. I threw on a loose dress and went for breakfast and then off to see Phox!

We were at “The Other Tent” early getting a nice spot towards the front for Phox.  The Wisconsin band was amazing, their vocalist Monica Martin doesn’t disappoint either. They sound just as good live or maybe even better.  We wanted to stay up late that day so we decided to go back to camp to rest. We came back out while Hozier was singing on the “What Stage”, my daughter really wanted to check him out but it was packed plus we were going to see Jamie XX (and my husband doesn’t dig Hozier at all). When we got there Jamie XX had already started but we were able to make our way through the crowd and stay for a few tracks.

Watching Jamie XX from the Crowd

I really wanted to get to the front of Belle and Sebastian at 6pm at “This Tent”. I later found out, although we were there, that Zac Galifinakis announced the bands entrance. I didn’t even realize it was him. B and S were really good although a bit awkward at times. When they played “Sukie in the Graveyard” the lead singer insisted Suki was in the crowd and it looked like he was trying to get a girl to come up from the audience. I don’t think it worked because he came back onstage sans said girl. After, my husband wanted to check out Atomic Bomb, a band that I knew nothing about but was pleasantly surprised to hear and dance quite a bit to.

Up close for Belle and Sebastian at Bonnaroo

Tycho’s soothing downtempo electronic should have been featured a little earlier in the day, at this point it made me sleepy. But hey, Bassnectar on the other hand totally delivered a stellar, banging performance. He always does! A Bassnectar set at Ultra a few years ago was one of the best EDM performances I’ve ever seen. We were lucky to get a good spot in the VIP section of the “Which Stage’ where we could see the show well. We left a bit early to use the portos, yes the VIP section was already closed, I think it was like 1:30am. The grounds around the bathrooms were extremely muddy at this point. This is why I always wear boots to festivals regardless of VIP access or not.

View of Bassnectar from the “Which Stage” at Bonnaroo

We made it to Flume with just some Redbull to keep us going to this point. At 2 am, the festival pretty much turns into a rave and that’s fine but we had our daughter with us. Let’s just say we had to explain a guy “taking a nap” on the ground, no blanket and not looking too well. I guess he had no friends to watch him, my husband called over security to wake him after someone else tried to no success. Thank god he woke up, those are the casualties of war I guess, this wasn’t the first person we would see face down in the dirt.

We didn’t get showers in this night since they were closed by the time we got back to camp, ugh. Showers 1, Camp O’Neil 2, we planned to shower in the morning on Sunday. Took my Tylenol pm without any hesitation, it was Saturday and things were going to go into the weee hours. Ugh no sleep again and one more day to go but lots to look forward to.

Check back for day 4 at Bonnaroo