RILEY J ROAMS

Bonnaroo always begins with a ten hour road trip followed by a never-ending wait in line. I caravanned with three other cars filled with friends down to Tennessee. We left Michigan around 4 p.m. on Wednesday, June 8. After driving through the country all night, we pulled into the long line for the campsite entrance at four in the morning and waited for three more hours.

We finally found our groop campsite around 7 a.m. as the sun was rising, so we set up our tents and canopies in the small space that was available for us. My roommate Luc and I tie dyed a bunch of sheets to hang on the canopies to protect us from the southern sun. The first show we wanted to see wasn’t until later that night, so we had a lot of time to kill after we finished setting up camp.

I was a little surprised when walking into the Centeroo—the main venue with stages—around 6 p.m. because it did not feel as hot as it has been in the past. Every year a multi-colored arch welcomed me into Centeroo, but because it was broken, there was a big screen that projected the rainbow arch on it. While waiting in line everyone high fives each other with beaming smiles on their faces. The energy everyone projects at Bonnaroo is amazing and something I have never experienced elsewhere. Everyone is so kind, positive, and always looking out for one another. 

Seeing the farm for the first time is always a breath of fresh air. As my third time attending Bonnaroo, I understood the confusion of the stages with names like What Stage, This Tent, That Tent, and Which Stage. We ran through the rainbow fountain, visited The Academy where you can learn new skills, and saw a bit of Grand Ole Opry.

The real party begins when the sun goes down. Our group headed in around nine to see The Nude Party, but right when we got there I had to go to the bathroom. Out of the various music festivals I’ve attended, Bonnaroo has the cleanest bathrooms/port-a-pottys with some of the most ridiculous lines. The line ended up taking so long that Antonio and I lost everyone, so we ran to The Other, a stage which always has DJs spinning. Eprom was excellent, so we gravitated into the dense crowd.

Eventually we headed back to That Tent to see Magic City Hippies who put on a groovy show. My feet became very cold while at the funky Sunsquabi show with vibrant visuals. I shouldn’t have worn sandals. I tried to stay for the whole show, but I was so cold that I decided to head back to my tent where I could fall asleep in my warm sleeping bag. I wasn’t too excited about any of the acts on the first night, so it was a good night to go to bed a bit early after pulling an all-nighter on the way here.

I went to bed wearing socks and a sweater, but I woke up covered in sweat. I crawled out trying to escape the heat and collapsed on the ground right outside my tent. Barely getting any sleep, I decided to set up a hammock in the grove and doze off. After waking up from an early morning nap, I walked over to Pod Three in search of breakfast tots. Breakfast tots are one of my favorite meals at Bonnaroo because I get a heaping pile of tots covered with egg, cheese, and secret spicy sauce. When I came back to the grove with my tots, most of my group had joined in their hammocks.  

After resting all day we headed into centeroo around 6:30 to catch GRiZ at the Which Stage. We danced with the crowd to his poppy beats and saxophone shredding. Everyone was passing around blow-up saxophones and aliens to dance with during the set. The crowd was so welcoming and carefree.

After enjoying the beauty that is Solange, we went to Snake & Jake’s Christmas Club Barn, a small club in Centeroo where soap bubbles blast out of the roof while DJs bump tines. We all danced the night away in this barn until we raced over to The Other for NGHTMRE. At this point I was beginning to feel a bit exhausted from the day and maybe a little hungry. When the bass hit just right I had to vomit while standing in the crowd. The show was that amazing that his beats literally made me sick. The lazers, bass drops, and head banging at this set made it one to remember. While leaving this set I ran into one of my roommates from my freshman year at Michigan State. Every year Bonnaroo has around 80,000 attendees, but for some reason it’s never hard to run into people I know.

We ended the night by dancing at the Kalliope Stage. Fire shoots out of the top of this stage while DJs spin until the sunrise. The crowd was filled with people dancing that weren’t ready for bed yet. We dragged ourselves back to our campsite around 4 a.m.in the early morning light.

Once again the sun forced me out of my tent around 7 a.m. I dragged my half-awake body to The Grove where I slept in the hammock until noon. I went into the farm around 3:30 p.m. to see Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Their show was a big dance party. The first time I listened to them I was roadtripping through California, so Multi-Love always reminds me of that trip through the Golden State. While heading back to the campsite, we stopped to get food. I found a Mexican stand by the Which Stage that put mac n cheese on my burrito.

I hung out with Bailey and Antonio at the campsite before heading back into Centeroo for ODESZA. By the time we got there they had already started performing and the What Stage was packed. We searched for our two totems—a Western flag and a pole with lights and a blow up saxophone—in the huge crowd. All of the sudden Patrick saw the totems stage-left and close to the front. We pushed our way through the crowd until we finally arrived at our group where we were greeted with excited screams. ODESZA sounded incredible and had a full drum line performing on stage with them. Towards the end of the set a small plane flew down right above the crowd. It was one of the weirdest things I have ever experienced during a concert performance. I’m still wondering if it was part of the set or not because it seemed to fit in perfectly with the music.

Once ODESZA ended we booked it to the Christmas Barn for more dancing while we waited for The Lonely Island. The Lonely Island’s set was like an episode of Saturday Night Live. They began their set with shouting “WE’RE ON STAGE” into the mic when we couldn’t see them yet. Once they were actually on stage, they broke into “Jizz in my Pants.” They sang every Lonely Island song I’ve heard like “I’m On A Boat,” “D**k In A Box,” and “I Just Had Sex.” It was crazy to witness their first-ever U.S. tour, and it was definitely one of my favorite sets of the weekend. 

Bailey woke me up around six in the morning on Monday to start packing up, but I couldn’t bring myself to get up. When I came out of the tent, a few others in our group were already packing. Once we broke down our campsite and filled the car with our dirt-covered belongings, we headed back home. My body was covered in dirt and glitter as we drove back north to Michigan. Showering never felt so amazing. Bonnaroo always has an amazing lineup, but something I’ve learned from this music festival is that it’s not always about the music you hear on the farm, but the experience and the people you surround yourself with.