So You Want to Go to a Concert: Festival

            Sometimes, it’s fun to see a band inside. If it’s a band you love and they have some devoted fans, it’s fun to be able to get close and dance and jump. But, seeing a band outside is a different experience.

            Take the Bonnaroo Music Festival, for instance. Bonnaroo is a four-day music festival that takes place in Manchester, Tennessee.
            People will roll their eyes and complain, saying things like, “I don’t want to be a football field away from the band,” or “I don’t want to have to deal with the hippies.”

            As a Roo’er myself, I can tell you that getting close is not difficult. And the rule for the hippies is similar to one that my mother told me about bumblebees, “If you don’t bother them, they won’t bother you.”

The crowd at Bonnaroo

            Festivals, like Bonnaroo, are quite the experience. Being as the concerts are outside, you have more room to move around and you are free to move about the different concerts.

            The distance isn’t even that bad. When I saw Mumford & Sons last year at Bonnaroo, I was very far back. I could barely see the band. However, I could hear them just fine. And while you could argue that since I couldn’t see the band, I had might as well just stayed home and listened to the album, to that I say “incorrect.” Seeing a band live, especially one as hauntingly spectacular as Mumford & Sons, is much better than listening to them on the album. And even if I couldn’t literally see them live, I could hear them live, and that was just as good.
            A regular Bonnaroo attendee Cody Gay said about the festival, "It was the greatest experience of my life. It was other-worldly. I would advise anyone and everyone to go at least once."

            The music surrounds you at Bonnaroo. You have sound coming from every direction, but not in a way that makes it conflict. If you like good people, good music, good food, and a good time, Bonnaroo is an ideal vacation for your early summer. If you don't like all these things, go anyway. You'll still probably have fun.

The Flaming Lips, live at Bonnaroo