Bonnaroo Wake-Up Call...

Usually Tuesday mornings i get to sleep in, however, today i was awoken by the funny noise my phone makes when i get a text message. At this point it was 7 AM and i had at least another REM cycle in me, but in all fairness the text was sent by my pal from Michigan where those crazies live an hour into the future. The subject of the text was the release of this year's initial Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival line-up.

I must say, this years initial line-up is "pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good!"
For those of you who aren't familiar with this annual festival here is a quick definition i poached from the Urban Dictionary:
Bonnaroo: 1) Referenced from a Dr. John song, "Decidedly Bonnaroo," supposedly is Cajun for "great time" 2) an amazing music festival in the cow fields of Manchester, Tennessee held in mid-June since 2001. It brings the best jam bands, rock, jazz, blues, reggae, bluegrass, hip hop, and blues together with 90000 music fiends for a beautiful amalgamation of substance abuse, mud, and music.

"Bonnaroo is gonna be tight this year! Did you see the line up? Trey's playing!"

Sounds like fun right? This June will be my third Bonnaroo experience. I attended in 2004 and again in 2006. The latter was definitely more enjoyable music wise and in overall atmosphere. While 2004 had amazing acts such as Ween, Primus, Trey, The Dead, My Morning Jacket, David Byrne, Bob Dylan, and Wilco to name a few, i was not properly prepared for the elements. Bonnaroo is not for the weak. It is 4 days of sleeping in tent, waking up at 6 AM even though you went to bed at 4 because its too damn hot to sleep, usually too many adult beverages, and non stop music and entertainment everywhere you go (which is the best part).

The whole trip was on a whim, so we stuffed as much as we could into my friends escort wagon and hit the road at 10PM the night before the gates opened thinking we had a head start. By 8 am the next morning we had made it to the exit ramp with only a few miles to the camp ground. Little to our knowledge, it would take us 5 hrs to get from the exit ramp to the camp site, a mere 5 miles..."that's like a mile an hour!" The sun was hot, we definitely brought more booze than food, and our rain gear was not up to par, but the music was phenomenal. Bonnaroo 2006 you ask? "well, that's a different story all togever...we had to beat them wif they own shoes..."

This is one of the many festivals i look forward to during the summer time...So come this June, for 5 days i will be soaking up the rays and the tunes down in Manchester, TN with a few of my friends (about 100,000 or so)...i suggest you get your freak flag out and join us! I'll meet you at the Silent Disco!

Watch the Bonnaroo 2009 Line-Up Video