Bonnaroo provides more than music

If you’ve never experienced Bonnaroo, maybe you shouldn’t.

Or maybe you should.

It’s not your noon-to-midnight, one day pass sort of affair. The best you can hope to return to at the end of an 18-hour day is a soggy, lumpy tent (lest you shill out serious cash for an RV) among the ripe, smelly bodies of your friends. But it is something else — something so primal, so communal, so spontaneous that it merits giving it a shot. You don’t have to like it.

But you probably will.

Spawned in 2002, Bonnaroo has exploded into a colossus so grand, it took Paul McCartney to sell out the plentiful four-day passes. Lollapalooza, which entertains more than 160,000 fans during its three-day duration, sold out in just a few weeks.

Larger than its beloved peers, Bonnaroo trumps other festivals in scale, longevity and required spirit. Lollapalooza entails the evacuation of the festival’s site at the end of an early night to another location, be it a friend’s couch or a cozy hotel. Coachella and Lolla span just three days compared to Bonnaroo’s four, and both are situated in populous towns (Lolla’s being Chicago). The sleepy strip of U.S. 41 in Bonnaroo’s Manchester, Tenn., boasts little more than a few hotels, a Goodwill and a Wal-Mart.

Reaching your destination requires hours of line-waiting on single-lane roads past cows and fields, but once you reach what is endearingly referred to as “The Farm,” you enter a reality not different, but adjacent to the one you just left. The coming days will consist of heat, lines, expenses and exhaustion, but they’ll also include insight, laughter, joy and perspective.

A CamelBak becomes your umbilical cord, tethering you to a constant, much-needed stream of water. Clothing is optional. It’s not uncommon to see a bare-breasted woman, but unlike the streets of NYC where there is usually an accompanying political statement, the choice to go topless is usually born out of necessity.  

Glow sticks, hula hoops, costumes, drugs and lasers are not in short supply. When you wake up at 7 a.m. (because of the heat, not by choice), there’s a 50-50 chance as to whether you’ll be greeted with a “good morning” or a “good night” by passers-by.

Sincerity is plentiful. Sharing is expected and welcome. Conversations with strangers can seem more earnest and profound than conversations with your oldest friends. The sound of music is constant, and the scent of food is enthralling. Between Björk and R. Kelly, a patch of grass and a rolled up sweater are all that’s needed for the perfect nap. If you pace yourself and have a loaded schedule, there’s not even a need to leave Centeroo because the musical hub of Bonnaroo is open 24 hours.

Bonnaroo is renowned for its musical smorgasbord, but it highlights film and comedy, and it fosters political and spiritual insight among its patrons. Since cell phone service is spotty at best, isolation breeds self-reliance that spills over into the return to normalcy.

Bonnaroo is more than a musical retreat — it’s a confrontation in the best way by the elements, the uncomfortable and by you. And it’s not for everyone. But if freedom from schedules and selfishness and a whole lot of musical moving and shaking sounds good to you, then we’ll see you next year.