Hey, Man, It's Bonnaroo!

For the last two years, while either heading out or coming home, we've run into the Bonnaroo traffic in Tennessee. The long line of VW vans and beat up cars filled with youth and burned out Deadhead types puzzled us at first until we realized what it was all about. The roadblocks on the exits made us laugh - poor festival-goers who insisted on saving a few bucks by bringing their own dope with them rather than scoring on site were paying for their frugality with hassle from the Man, man! Heading out late this year means we missed all the fun.

Looks like they got along just fine without us:

Once the province of jam bands and their second-generation hippie fans, Bonnaroo has evolved into a four-day event that echoes rock's happily chaotic, postcorporate world. Beginning last Thursday on a 700-acre farm here some 65 miles from Nashville, close to 80,000 fans gathered to enjoy all sorts of popular music, ignoring the artificial boundaries of genre in favor of singers who can sing, players who can play and composers who can write and arrange. Recordings are OK, these fans seemed to say, but the proving ground is the stage. Gaggles of blissed-out friends flocked from venue to venue -- eight in all -- seeking a shared experience with musicians and their music. Their code: Make magic or we're gone; there's something happening not too far away. . .

. . .With so many festivals in the U.S. and Canada, musicians are often booked to play the same events. Perhaps a new community is forming. The common link, as displayed at Bonnaroo '09: These performers understand how to capture today's rock audience and have the talent to do so. No wonder the four-day festival seemed such a joyous event.