Bonnaroo Day 1.5: Wednesday Night/Thursday

Ah, Bonnaroo, Bonnaroo...where to start....

I guess I'll begin by saying that this year's Bonnaroo was my first major music festival. I've been to the Detroit Electronic Music Festival and Warped Tour a few times but that's about it. So this was my "test run" before Rothbury and Lollapalooza. Those of you with more festival experience will have to bear with me here...

I was lucky enough to go with a group of people in a Minivan...and luckier still that one of the guys in our group volunteered to drive for 8 hours through the night.

At sunrise we stopped to stock up the cooler with $300 worth of food and camping supplies (way way too much for the record). We drove another few hours to Manchester, Tenn. As we neared the area, traffic began getting thicker and thicker along the highway. We soon discovered that it was backed up over 17 miles...and I had to go to the bathroom. I'll spare you those details however.

Finally, two or so hours of bumper to bumper traffic later, we were inside the campgrounds. We hit the ground running in the thick of the Tennessee heat and began setting up camp. Oh, a bit of tent advice: make sure your tent works BEFORE arriving. A group of my friends ended up with a makeshift tarp-and-stick style shelter after realizing that all of the tent's poles were broken. Sounds okay? Try it in the rain.

In the refugee-like campsite, space is extremely limited. We ended up having plenty of space, but rumors were spreading about girls literally beating each other up over camp space. I'll chalk it up to the heat.

There weren't many shows to be seen on the first day when we arrived (Thursday) but we headed down to the main festival area, Centeroo, to check it out anyway. The border of Centeroo is made of plywood walls which is basically a graffiti free-for-all. The walls become more and more decorated as the weekend wears on.

We checked out some of the stages (whoever named the stages "Which", "What", "This", "That "and "The Other" is a sadistic, chaos inducing jerk) and watched people at the Silent Disco. The Silent Disco, for those who don't know, is a dance/club style tent where all participants wear noise canceling headphones--including the DJ. Its quite a sight to see--everyone dancing to the same music that no one else can hear. Actually, my biggest Bonnaroo regret is not participating.

We saw the Centeroo market, which is essentially hippie venders selling various hemp-made clothes, tie-dye t-shirts and organic goods.

We then left, hoping to get some sleep in before Bonnaroo kicked into high gear.