How early can you get in?

SEE UPDATE BELOW

Jade writes;

What time does the line start? Does it start at the same time that they open the gates on Thursday morning? What if you get there and it's about 30 minutes or so before they open, do they start the line then with the first car that pulls up? I know a lot of people go to the Wal-Mart close by and wait. How exactly does all that work?

Interesting question (keep in mind this is all based on how things have gone down in past years, YMMV).  So officially Bonnaroo opens up Thursday morning around 8 or 9 (Central time).  It actually opens before that.  People arriving late on Wednesday are let in (I don't know how early), but they are sent to camp in "BFE" which is one of the least desirable campsites (see the "Flying in and camping" post from a few days ago).  Sometime early Thursday morning they start parking people in the regular campsites.  I usually roll into Manchester around 8am Thursday morning and there is always already at least a 2-3 hour wait on the interstate to get in.  This past year was closer to 4 hours if I remember correctly.  My guess would be you'd be fine getting there anytime after 6am Thursday.  I know a lot of people hang out at the local Walmart the night before but I've never checked it out.  If anyone has, please feel free to leave a comment.

Update:  They start letting people in Wed evening to the normal campsites (at least they have the last 2 years).  Last year (2012) I had no wait at all on the interstate getting into Manchester around 8 am on Thurs.