Yes, I danced until my feet gave up at 4am and made countless new pals from all across the country. I sang until I sounded like a dehydrated Kermit the frog, and I definitely smiled so hard I'm still rubbing the happy out of my sore cheeks. Everyone sees the chinky-eyed smiles against lit-up stages and fist pumping crowds that float all over social media… but, plenty aspects of music festivals aren't commemorated via snaps, tweets, or statuses. Maybe I'm wack for thinking so, but those moments were just as memorable to me.
When Centeroo is in full swing, it's easy to forget that we're actual human beings with stomachs that get empty and require something a bit more substantial than the occasional free sample of pizza bites or a new flavor of m&ms (samples I would've sold my kidney on the black market for in the moment).
When a burger is $14 ($15 if you want ketchup) You'll become suddenly appreciative of the beautiful simplicity of a pb&j. It's likely you'll also develop the ability to devour it in 2 bites over the course of .5 seconds. It became our afternoon ritual to slather hot, stale bread in gooey melted peanut butter, followed by squirtable jelly of course. Only the best. It would've been a delicacy to even Gordon Ramsey in a similarly famished state of mind. Dessert? Welch's fruit snacks, melted and re-hardened five times over.
We encountered our first man down about 5 hours into the festival… Bonnaroo really is where brain cells come to die. After turning over a barely conscious party-goer, I ran to get some medics. Before they made it over, this dude hit his second wind hard. He shot up like the Sputnik and sprinted off, but not before pulling his pants down. Wack, truly.
Each campground has "pods" or "plazas" where campers can go for some AC, food, and good company. Ours was called the "Well (being)" and had bean bags and ambient music that made is too easy to pass out. We had the bright idea to ditch the tent for a night and crash there. It was a great plan, until I managed to sleep through most of a meditation session. I sat up to at least a hundred eyes looking straight at me, plus super intense "whoosh" noises accompanied by flailing hands. I was too traumatized to sleep outside the tent again.
Four of my most favorite days, Bonnaroo was a time for sure. Who knows what I'll see at the farm next year. ;)
