Here are a few tidbits from Bonnaroo while I'm trying to get the whole writeup done. I realized that so very much happened in those few days that trying to write it all up in one entry is going to make for a MAMMOTH, wall-of-text type entry that no one is going to read. That would make me sad, so instead I will break it all down into easy to manage chunks that maybe highlight what it was like to be at such a crazy event.
A few stories:
I pretty much hated camping, to the immense surprise of no one at all. Does it surprise you? No. It was hot, sticky, humid & awful. The only air conditioning we got was in the early morning when the heat drove us out of the tent & into the car to get dressed for the day & charge our iPhones. We bathed with baby wipes and brushed our teeth with bottled water. The hike from camp into Centeroo (the name of the actual venue where everything happened) was LONG, and even if I did feel reasonably clean after a baby wipe bath & bottled water hair washing, I didn't by the time we got there. The coolest we might be all day is when we sat in the Sonic Cafe in the morning. I just felt…filthy. Gross and filthy all the time. Next time I do a festival (and make no mistake there will be a next time!), it will involve an RV for certain. In fact, I've always wanted to own one. Maybe we can one day in the not-too-distant future. <3 I'd love that. It would make festivals a breeze.
Bryan & I tended to get up & go immediately into Centeroo because it was too hot & boring to stay at camp. Music usually ended around 6am, but didn't start again until noon, so Centeroo was sorta deserted, in a way. Not entirely, but it was definitely sparse compared to afternoon, when all 100,000 attendees seemed to be packed into the same small space. We wandered about on Friday morning, seeing what was open & looking at whatever caught our fancy. It was pretty quiet as we walked around the Twix/Fuse Barn and wandered to the back entrance to Planet Roo…where we were suddenly face to face with about 487 yoga practitioners in mountain pose. I literally jumped and Bryan goes "WHOA!" They were SO QUIET! My original number there was just me being silly, but truthfully I know there were about 90 people standing there in mountain pose, not talking, just waiting to scare the devil out of me & Bryan. I took a picture.
The food was great. There were all kinds of normal festival foods, but there were also a million other things. Mine & Bryan's favorite were the African (not Indian-style) samosas. They had potato curry, chicken curry, ground beef with cheese, apple, turkey, or broccoli varieties. Sweet potato fries, giant pieces of brick oven pizza (think of a large pizza from your favorite place, now cut it in quarters. That's a slice from Pie for the People), crepes, smoked turkey legs, Chinese, Cajun, waffles, ice cream, burritos of all kinds, coffee, beer, cocktails. You name it, it was there. If you could deep fry it, it was there in more than one stall. :) Greek food was REALLY popular: gyros, spanikopita, and Greek salad especially. Several of the food vendors were vegan, several were local, and all the coffee was fair trade. It was Hillary Food Heaven in so many ways, except that it was too bloody hot to eat half of it. We didn't eat nearly what we thought we would because the heat makes you so sick you don't want to eat much. Ben & Jerry's was on site with their Bonnaroo Buzz flavor; it was coffee+malt ice creams with Heath bar pieces & a whiskey caramel swirl. It was delicious; even Bryan thought so. Said the coffee note was much like that in tiramisu; supporting & not overwhelming.
Sunday morning at 6am when we woke up with one more blessed hour to sleep before the heat set in, we couldn't sleep. Why? BECAUSE OF THE RAVE. Somewhere in the camp (it had to be in Pod 9 because I can't imagine how loud it would have to be to extend all the way back where we were if it wasn't in our pod) someone was throwing the loudest techno rave I have ever heard. We could hear not only the bass but most of the music. It throbbed and hummed and whistled and beeped. At 6am! That meant people had been up all night dancing; you don't get up at 6am and go to a rave. When did these people SLEEP? Bryan & I decided we wanted to find their tents when they were sleeping & blast music into them. This led to a conversation about what music would be most irritating to someone who dances to electronica till 6am. We eventually settled on Toby Keith songs. :D
A girl fell down next to me during the Weezer show. She had a fast, thready pulse and a really high respiration rate. She was sunburned to PIECES and I could tell it was heat exhaustion & dehydration. I explained I was an RN and told her what to do in order to feel a bit better (which was all common sense but they acted like I was the Goddess of Healing). In thanks, one of her friends offered me one of the cookies they'd all been sharing during the show. Hand-made cookies that I was pretty sure had some extra special ingredients! I politely declined. :)
After the Avett Brothers and before Weezer, Bryan & I both went to the port-a-potties. It was raining. He was still inside and I was waiting on him when a series of 4 golf carts drove past…and on the back of each one was a member of GWAR in full costume. *blinkblink* And I had my camera & both iPhones packed away in baggies in the backpack because of the rain. GWAR! On golf carts! Bonnaroo makes your life weird!
No comments:
Post a Comment