Until last weekend, my only music festival experience was at Austin City Limits (ACL). And so I assumed that most festivals were pretty much just like that one. FALSE. Bonnaroo has an entirely different feel than ACL. Many describe it as a modern day Woodstock.
For those of you who dont know, Bonnaroo is a 4-day music festival held in Manchester, Tennessee. This was the eight annual festival and attracted at least 75,000 people. I heard a number that was closer to 90,000, but this has not been verified. Held at Great Stage Park (700 acres), people camp out for the entire weekend o and walk to the stage area (Centeroo) for the shows. I got lucky enough to be about one minute away from the main entrance.
But I thought a lot about my two festival experiences and the following are just a few of the differences I noticed:
ACL: There are some food vendors outside the festival gates, but they have real booths and their main purpose for being in the area is to sell food, drink, clothing, etc…
Bonnaroo: The unofficial vendors that are outside the gates at ACL are a part of Bonnaroo. Many of them are festival goers attempting to make back some of the money they spent on the ticket and travel. These people sit on the roads of Outeroo selling everything from water to cigarettes, from food to alcohol and much more. Some even make their way into Centeroo offering water and such at lower prices than the boothed vendors.
ACL: You are forced to fight festival traffic on Lamar every day. And if you are not attending ACL, you stay as far away from the area as you can!
Bonnaroo: You fight traffic on the way into the Outeroo camp grounds. Once you are in, all that you must do is walk to an entrance (which can take up to an hour from some campgrounds), wait in line to enter Centeroo. Sometimes this can take 30 seconds, other times longer. The longest I waited was probably 20 minutes.
(Another difference from ACL is that at ACL, if you yell and riot in the line, you may be denied access to the festival grounds. But at Bonnaroo, if there was a big line to enter Centeroo and we started yelling and “rioting” in line enough, they would just let the whole crowd enter. This happened to me 3 times!)
One HUGE difference i noticed was the lack of corporate sponsorships at Bonnaroo which was amazing.
ACL: The stages are named/sponsored by AT&T, DELL, WaMu, Austin Ventures, etc…
Bonnaroo: The stages are named: What Stage, Which Stage, This Tent, That Tent, The Other Tent. There are also smaller stage venues with names such as Cafe Where, Solar Stage, Sonic Stage and Troo Music Lounge.
The sponsorship fact also holds true with vendors.
ACL: I can get my chicken-avocado cone from the Hudson on the Bend booth. (Which I LOVE by the way. It is absolutely delicious. If you go to ACL this year, I suggest you get one.)
Bonnaroo: The only brand name I remember was Whole Foods. But their organic and natural goal matches with the festival culture. So no one felt it was and impeding factor. Rather everyone enjoyed the fresh granola and hummus they provided.
These are just a few of the many differences I saw. But I will say that I do have love for both festivals. I already have my ACL tickets for October and can’t wait to see next year’s Bonnaroo lineup.
Anyone else out there attend both festivals? What do you think of them in comparison to each other?
