More Q&A

[...]do you have advice for slightly older folks?
We are staying at the family campground (no kids, except a guitarist we adopted)[...]

As far as advice for "older" folks... The one thing that I'd be cognizant of is how hot and sunny it can get. Drink plenty of water (there are free water stations all over the place, just bring containers), wear sunscreen, stay in the shade when you can. The two big stages don't have much in the way of shade but the 3 smaller ones are under tents.

My question is My friend and myself are attending this year and we are trying to figure out transportation we could drive but it is far and we are worried about driving from Maine to
Tennessee the other option is the Bus. I know the bus station is close to the festival like a mile is that an issue? My other worry is we would be departing Sunday afternoon at 3:30pm will we be missing out on a lot?

The only problem I see w/ the bus station is whether you are willing/able to haul you gear to 'roo. If you are walking in, figure about 0.5-0.75 mi to walk to tent only once you get into 'roo + whatever the distance is from the bus station. Being from Maine, keep in mind that it will likely be 95+F and sunny in good ole TN. If that doesn't faze you, then I don't see any other problems. As far as missing anything,
the last set ends midnight-ish Sunday night, so you'll miss most of that day, not a problem unless the one band you really wanted to see is playing then.

Hi..this will be my first bonnaroo. [...]  I use a suv/tent for camping. I'm a little confused if I need a GA ticket or GA and RV pass? Where does the car tent fit...camping at bonnaroo?

You should be fine w/ a regular pass, the RV passes are really for the
bigger real RVs. If your SUV tent extends out the back of the truck,
you might want to talk to the people parking you and make sure your
camping spot is behind rather then in front of your vehicle. They
park the cars front to back so 1/2 of the people wind up camping in
front of their vehicle and 1/2 in back.

Bonnaroo maps

Madeline from the Inforoo forums (you really should check them out if you haven't yet) posted scans of last years full Bonnaroo map and Centeroo map.  There could be differences this year, but there have generally been small changes from year to year.  The maps came from this forum post.

Annotated schedule

I generally don't decide who I'm going to see ahead of time so I like to put together a schedule w/ a quick description of the general type of music each band is playing so I can choose based upon what I'm in the mood for at the moment. I've put them online and people have liked them, here's the first draft of this year's;

Google docs
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?....M0E&output=html

or the pdfs;
Landscape, larger font, 2 pages per day


Portrait, smaller font, 1 page per day

I've just finished it, consider this an alpha or early beta version. I did it by hand so there are likely to be a few errors in set times or even band names. If you see any, let me know, I'll fix them. There are sure to be mistakes in the genre that I've assigned bands to as I'm not an expert reviewer for the Rolling Stone. This year in particular there are too many "?" for acts. Let me know, I'll fix them. As always, any comments are welcome.

What to bring lists

Just a quick note, Reema mentioned that the link to the "what to bring" list that is on the Guide is broken.  It went to an outside site that seems to be gone, luckily the Wayback Machine has a copy!  I'll try to post copies locally on my server so that the link on the Guide works but in the meantime that link will get you the info.

Schedule is out

'roo just released the band schedule. I haven't looked it over closely yet, but Alice Cooper is playing a midnight set, I can't think of a better slot.  It is right after the Chili Peppers too, sweet.  Let me know in the comments what you think of the schedule.

Getting Close

Hey, it's getting close to 'roo, I thought I'd post some more questions and answers.

...I got a vip ticket from my company to go to Bonnaroo, I will be traveling with a non vip guest. But I was wondering, Is bonnaroo a strictly camping festival? Is my car parking included with the ticket? Or do I have to purchase a place to camp seperately?

Your ticket includes car parking and camping, almost everyone camps on site.

I am a long time Lollapalooza veteran and x2 Coachella Veteran but I am embarking to the Roo' for my first time this year. About how big are your camp sites?

Glad you are coming to 'roo, if you've handled Coachella, you shouldn't have a problem w/ 'roo, just keep in mind it can be HOT. Anyways, if you drive in you camp in front or in back of your ride. So you generally have an area about the width of your vehicle and ~13-16 ft deep. You can make friends w/ your neighbors and combine campsites. It's a little more relaxed from how I've heard Coachela is.

I saw your blog post on "Bonnaroo survival" and I was wondering: 1. How old the post is, because I was first wondering 2. if you are allowed to just bring your own tents? I'm wondering this because I don't have $700 to rent one of theirs, and I am content with the one I already have. If so, where do you set up such tents? Do you have to get a "campsite" pass to bring your own tent, and if so how much would that cost?

The Survival Guide was first written around 2006 but I've kept it pretty well updated with current info. I know it looks a little old but I still code my html (mostly) by hand. You absolutely do not have to rent one of their tents, very few people do. There isn't a special campsite pass, the regular pass covers camping. The way it works, if you are driving in, is they tell you where to park and then you have a camping space (just a piece of field) either in front or behind your vehicle where you can pitch your tent. If you want to (most people don't, I do) you can haul your gear to the tent only area which will probably be closer to the stage area and camp there.

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I was AWOL from my email for a while, I'm trying to get caught back up, if I didn't get back to you and you still have a question, shoot me another email and it will go to the top of the pile.