Rave Bonnaroo (trip report)

Well, i'm back from bonnaroo ya'll. what a long strange trip.

We got there early at 6 am to wait in line since this has gotten us the baddest campsites in bonnaroo in the past. a few hours passed and we began to wonder what the fuck was going on. we were still 15 miles out from the entrance gate! a few of our friends were tuned into the bonnaroo radio and told us to listen in there for updates about the taffic. on the radio they were saying that since it had rained the night before the mud was impeding the flow of cars into the festival grounds and that they had opened several alternate routes into the festival grounds. but since we were already 3 hours deep in the line there was no way we were getting out, especially with our caravan that had so many cars it was hard to get everyone together in line in the first place. after a gruesome 8 hours of waiting in the blistering heat we finally made it inside.

we set up camp and toked up to celebrate our entrance to the festival and relax from the frustrating line. shortly after i went and found some doses and we went into centeroo to check out the first day of music since it was already starting since we had waiting 8 freakin hours in line~!!!! UGHH!!!! when i was heading into centeroo some doses and a little bit of bud hidden on my person. while i was walking up to the checkpoint -- before i had even reached the chechpoint -- i was pulled aside by a very large dude and then surrounded by another 10 older guys that did not look like they were just younger festival workers/goers. i'm pretty sure they were cops. they told me the saw me hide my stuff and to pull it out. i complied and threw down my doses and weed onto the cart they had pulled me to. then they began discussing what they were going to do with me. so i interupted and said 'look guys, this isn't my first bonnaroo' and showed them my wrist with my bonnaroo bands on it(i had more than just the 2010 wrist band on -- which is really what saved me) and they let me go.

at this point, i began to wonder. WHAT THE FUCK BONNAROO!

so we went into shows and now i had lost my acid i was going to take on the first day. although i was so frustrated i wasn't even in the right state of mind to be tripping so i just let it go. i do have to admit some of the first day shows were some of the best thursday shows bonnaroo has seen. the late night show with lotus was absolutely amazing that day.

the next morning i woke up and dosed up. after a short walk around i realised that there was still massive traffic and lots of people entering the festival grounds. wow. we saw some great shows in the afternoon and went back to get a little rest when the good shows let up in the evening at which time i redosed. after this we went out to go see kings of leon play the main stage which was a really amazing show. the band kept talking about how they had come from right down the road from bonnaroo and how they had started out on the little stage and now they were playing on the big stage. you could tell that they loved bonnaroo. after a few compliments about how they had the best fans in the world, they blasted out one for the ages.

after kings we were off to go see flaming lips play dark side of the moon. man was this show crowded -- especially since we had stayed for all of kings of leon. there was some powerful energy at this stage. they were on. but since it was so crowded after they had played a few flaming lips songs ??? we went to go to bassnectar since it was on at the same time. bassnectar was great, as always. after having our minds blasted away by techno we went to go see more techno at the new lunar stage -- the crystal method.

the next morning i woked up and took my morning acid(which began to become a routine) except this time i took some mushrooms as well. i didn't know any of the bands playing that afternoon so i followed a few of my friends and saw circa survive for the first time. this wasn't exactly the kind of musc i wanted to go see, but i was tripping out of my mind and i needed to be near people i knew. i sat there through an hour of intense alternative psychedelia. what a fucking mindblowing show. i can't even put this one into words. the lead singer was in my head. the mushrooms were in my head. issues from several past mushroom trips surfaced and apexed during this set. the music become more and more powerful. this dude knew perfectly well what he was doing. until finally he let up at the end of the set and rounded it off very nicely. it was as if to say 'haha, well just kidding, sorry, and i love you' afterwards we went to go see some regea at the main stage, but i was still very intense i could hardly calm down. luckily one of my very good friends was there to talk me down :thanks:

next we were off to see the avett brothers which are totally amazing by the way. very chill music and by far my favorite show of the day. these guys are just fantastic. afterwards i went back to camp and rested up and redosed for the night time. this time deadmau5 was playing. we got up to the front row for deadmau5, but it was so incredibly packed it was unbelievable. it was impossible to even move or dance without your body rubbing on everyone around you, and i was soooo tired from the past few days. after about half way through their set i went back and crashed.

the next day i ate my morning acid and a few of us that had gotten rest the night before went out to the afternoon shows. john butler trio was playing his main show at 1:45 in the afternoon at the main stage. we went up and got some stellar seats not 10 rows back from the front and even managed to set down several tapestries to sit on. we had plenty of space. there was something different about bonnaroo this year. we all knew it, john butler knew it, and it showed in his music. he played one for peace, love, and respect. i was smiling ear to ear. i couldn't stop smiling it was so great. all the things that i look for in a concert, were here. this was my 5 minutes of heaven. john butler then began to talk about how this amazing afternoon was just not going to last -- which honestly is something that needs to be said at a whole lot more concerts. and hew continued to say how if we don't want to go back to our lives that we shouldn't --

There'll come a time
When you may want just a little more
Societies and luxuries are not
what you had in store.
They offer no security for your soul.
So Mother Earth is what you need
Maybe this is what you be looking for.

he was humble, down to earth, and the energy from his show was very appropriate to what had been going on at bonnaroo. his show was truly great. towards the end of his show he says 'well, i guess i'm going to have to go soon, since aparently i only have so much time to play here. what the fuck, right?' after which we all yelled 'SUPERJAM THIS SHIT!!!'

afterwards we wandered from regina specter to the blues travelers to john fogerty, and back to john butler trio for his small stage performace. i laughed when john butler said 'well, i think that a few people from the last show wanted to hear betterman, so here you go.' then after he played that a bunch of people were chanting for a song and he says 'oh, you guys want to that song? hmmm.... NO!... just chill out ya'll.. i'm going to play..." after getting some rest that evening i redosed and we went out to go see phoenix and dave matthews. phoenix was great, but we left early to get up close for dave. the first half of the set was very appropriate, but dave matthews was totally wasted when he came on stage. it was reflected in his performance -- it was just lacking a little bit of energy.

all in all it was a great experience, but a few things are going to make me think twice before i go back there. there was unbelievable amounts of techno there, which made the whole festival feel like a rave for a fair amount of the time -- which is kind of out of my element. i like techno, but i'm a jam band freak.

hope you all didn't mind listening to my rambling, and thanks for reading. much peace, love, and respect to everyone!

 

I skimmed through it.

Let me ask you this. How much acid did you eat per day? I tried tripping 2 day in a row on cid and the second day the effects where GREATLY diminished even though I doubled the dose.

 

So the police let you go because you said you had been there before...?

 

At roo '08 a friend of mine was taking blotter all day, every day of the fest. By sat night he was taking like 10-12 hits (or more, who knows he lost track of how many that day) of decent acid and not feeling much besides his pupils being big. At first we thought we had some bunk shit, but then the people that weren't tripping all day everyday had some and it was legit doses.

So long story short, tolerance develops fast with cid when large quantities are taken throughout most of the day/night.

 

alot of the doses there were weak to begin with. i basically redosed up as much as i could afford. by the end of the fest no matter how many hits i took i still didn't really blast off. it was something like 1-1-4-3-3-6-2. it didn't really feel like trippin balls for 3 days. it felt like taking moderate doses that make you happy and give you energy for 3 days -- although some of the more powerful psychedelic effects definitely began to become noticeable with time and sleep deprivation. the trip really blended over between the days. i'd wake up with an acidy feeling in the morning and take some doses to 'release' the acid energy from the day before. i'd describe it as taking therapeutic sized doses for a few days. it was kinda nice, actually.

things could have been different, if i had some steller doses though.

police don't have any business at bonnaroo to begin with. infact, i'm pretty sure that bonnaroo is totally out of police jurisdiction. those canadians have it covered, eh? i'm not entirely sure that those guys were cops, but they were pretty intense for festival workers.

 

Maybe they were no type of authority or security and just used intimidation to jack people's stash.

 

PB that was the same thing I was thinking

 

Thats messed up man. I dont think ill go back to Bonnaroo ever again. Just to much police presence, there are so many people that got busted this year. And now they have people at the centeroo gates looking for people that are hiding drugs? Im glad I didnt go this year because I would have probably gotten in trouble. Glad to hear you had an awesome time tho!!!!! Oh and Circa Survive kick ass, check out their album "Juturna" usually not my cup of tea either but I love their sound.

 

a few setlists for you music lovers:

lotus -- http://www.archive.org/details/Lotus2010-06-10TheOtherStageBonnarooMusicArtsFestivalManchester

john butler trio -- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127481298

kings of leon -- http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/kings-of-leon/2010/bonnaroo-festival-manchester-tn-3bd4246c.html -- couldn't find a live recording yet

 

i graduate next june n ive been to shows before but i want to go to a fest. what are some of the best jam fests?

 

haha they are pretty kick ass. i just totally wasn't ready for something that mindblowing on a headfull of acid & mushrooms. but hey, it was just what i needed i guess. things like that aren't left up to chance. i've never been ready for such cosmicly shattering events in the past, i don't think that it is ever possible to be ready. i love the new agey sound they have. reminds me of other alternative psychedelic bands.

allgood, gathering of the vibes, and rothbury are all pretty great fests. there's a ton of other smaller jam fests if you'd care to do a little research. and nateva should be pretty good too if it is successful this year.

 

How was Lotus? Ill be seeing them late night at all good for the first time, cant wait. Its going to be an intense Friday night, Umphrey's, Cornmeal, Furthur, Bassnectar, and Lotus. In that order one right after the other!!!!!

 

I'm soo jealous you guys are so close too so many bad ass shows.

 

damn man that's great. i saw cornmeal at moe.'s 20th anniversary show and they were fucking GREAT!

lotus was great man. every time i have seen them they continue to impress me. the reviews on archive about the 'roo show just say 'one of the best lotus shows i've seen' but the other show i saw by them was amazing as well. it was at a small venue so we pretty much got to tell the band members how awsome they were, and they did some funny crowd dives. but there is no doubt, they are on fire for their summer tour. i heard great things about their performance at wakarusa as well.

there is no way all that is on the same night at allgood.. sounds completely stellar.

 

Yea the acid was pretty tame this year at roo. I found some good Molly though. I don't know, i really enjoyed myself, but i just got exhausted as fuck this year. It was probably good for me, but Bonnaroo just lacked the magic that last year entailed. I think i might just hit up Rothbury next year if they end up bringing it back, being from Michigan and all. That Tennessee heat just destroyed me, and i'm usually not one to complain about temperature.

 

I didn't make it to bonaroo but my sister did, she ate a couple hits of L and as a few of you have said, wasn't quite what was called for. I heard about a good bit of DMT and K floating around, wish I could have made it.

 

Yeah the acid at roo has been weak for years, well sans a few good doses Actually the best stuff I ever got was in 07. I was literally about to start my car for the drive home on monday morning when a guy came around saying he needed to sell some doses to have enough cash to get back to Cali and his shit turned out to be da bomb. You will def have better luck getting it from smaller, less commercial fests.

 

Wakarusa was my first fest. It was magical. The people, the music, the energy, the love.. it was just the best time iv had ever. Rothbury is suppose to be real good too but it was cancelled this year. I'd say try Waka or Rothbury

And to the person asking about Lotus. Their live shows are just out of this world. I'm convinced I saw heaven when the played here in Houston. You wont be disappointed!

 

Thanks Desos and Genith those were actually the main two i was looking at. i think rothbury would work best since i live in Northwest Indiana by chicago so close to rothbury. you guys are saying the acid was weak at roo but the cid i got at phish was good but i also had shrooms n molly in me too

 

Go this year. 10 year anniversery should bring some special shit to the table.