Bonnaroo

In June, Jim and I left the kids with my parents and went to Tennessee for the Bonnaroo Music Festival.  It is a 4 day festival (Thursday through Sunday), but we only went for 2 days.  Many people arrive on Wednesday and stay until Monday, which seemed like way too long for us.  We arrived on Thursday and were assigned a parking space.  Then, we set up our tent in front of our car.  It is nothing like real camping, in that we are surrounded by other people in their tents and their cars.

The view from our spot.  Lots of people had pop-up tents that they put over their camping tents.  It was a good idea - giving them some shade.  We met the people on either side of us.  On one side were two girls, just out of college.  When talking with them, one of them said, "Wow!  I didn't know we'd meet any parents here!"  Yep, we felt old.  On the other side were many college-age kids.  As Jim spoke with one of them, he kept adding "Sir" to the end of his sentences as he addressed Jim.  Yep, we are definitely old.

After setting up our tent, we were ready to head to the music.  It was about a 15 minute walk to the venue.

Here is a picture from our wait in line.  You can see some of the typical outfits.  I also wanted to point out that a (very) few people did bring their kids (one is in the stroller and you can't see the other one in the wagon in front of the stroller).  The kids looked miserable.  It's pretty hot and their is very little shade.

The line to get into the music festival:

Here is a video of the line; everyone is excited and giving each other high fives.

One of the first things we did was ride the ferris wheel.  It provided us with excellent views of the festival.

There were several stages at Bonnaroo.  The 2 big, main stages were called "What Stage" and "Which Stage."  The next largest stages were called "This Tent," "That Tent," and "The Other Tent."  There were also several other smaller stages for lesser-known bands.  You can imagine the confusion when discussing which stage/tent you were going to. 
"Which stage is Wilco on?" 
"What Stage." 
"Fine.  What stage is Wilco on?"
"No.  The stage that Wilco is playing on is called What Stage, not Which Stage."
"Um.  Okay."
It could be just as confusing with this, that, and the other tent.

I saw this cute kid dancing and had to capture his moves on film.

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There is a Silent Disco, where everyone is given headphones.  Looking into the disco, without headphones on, it is humorous to watch people dancing without any music.  We joined the fun:

There were a LOT of food vendors.  This is just a small sample (the picture was taken early in the day before it got too busy):

 One of our favorite concerts was Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit.  We were able to get really close, too!

To stay cool, we bought day passes to the 40 foot high "Big A$$ Water Slide."  

 Here is a video of Jim going down the slide.  He started out on his feet (like he was surfing).

 

Paul McCartney was the headliner on Friday night, and he was amazing!  That guy can definitely rock!  He played for almost 3 straight hours!

 A little video from Live and Let Die: