Hope you all enjoyed your weekends! Here we are for the final day of Bonnaroo recaps. After this I promise we’ll get back to regular posts about lactic thresholds and fartleks and all that other fun stuff. OK! So when I last left you I had just danced my pants off at Skrillex well into the night. It was probably after 5 am by the time I went to bed (UNHEARD OF for me for those who know me well). Everyone was so beat from Saturday, the whole camp slept until 10:30 am (also UNHEARD OF for me). When people started emerging from their tents there definitely looked to be some fallen soldiers. It has also rained over night so everything was wet and damp and markedly more dreary than the previous morning. We started off with coffee and then Ben made everyone a hot breakfast of eggs and corned beef hash (which I am told you can find in the “canned meats” section of the supermarket. I had no idea such a section even existed but I might brave it to go after corned beef hash. Unfortunately, I glanced at the nutrition facts and almost cried so we’ll see). We lazed around camp well into the afternoon. The on and off rain wasn’t inspiring anyone to run into Centeroo any earlier than necessary. We had planned to go in early and do Splash-a-Roo (the giant waterslide) but it was too cold for that now.

Mike and I finally got our butts in gear to head into Centeroo to see Ben Folds Five. I was pretty excited to see them playing together (I kind of thought they broke up… did I imagine that? Maybe I did). They played a really fun set and we did a fair amount of singing along.

After Ben Folds Five we wandered over to the What Stage to see Bon Iver. My charming story about Bon Iver is that I was pronouncing it TOTALLY wrong for a while (think like the most American way you can pronounce it) and Mike never corrected me. When I finally learned that it was French I was pretty embarrassed! None the less, excellent show. I may have dozed for a bit on the lawn. It’s perfect music to have a feist.

The rest of the group was hoping to make it in for Bon Iver, but it didn’t happen for them. They decided to save us a spot for Phish while Mike and I went to a couple other shows we wanted to see. Unfortunately, two shows we really wanted to see were playing at the EXACT same time slot so we had to split our time. We headed over to the That Tent to see Fun.(. It’s really hard to punctuate my writing when the band’s name include punctuation!) Amy hadn’t gotten a chance to see them in Santa Fe the previous week because the show was cancelled so I took a video of “All Alone” for her. I wanted to take one of “Some Nights” (which apparently is her fav) but they didn’t play it in the time we were there. They were so good. I am loving them right now. Listening to their albums over and over and over.

After seeing the first half of Fun. we went over to catch the second half of The Shins on the Which Stage. I, like many people I am sure, was pretty interested in The Shins once Natalie Portman said they would change your life in Garden State (I grew up in New Jersey so this movie was like my autobiography… well not really. But I really liked it a lot).

After the Shins we reunited with the group back at What Stage for Phish. The rain was coming down pretty steadily now and luckily the others had gotten a picnic table under a tent to watch the show. I’ve never seen Phish before and had been hearing pretty much all weekend how if I’ve never seen them live I “just don’t get it”. I was hoping to get it after this show. I enjoyed their show a lot. They even brought out Kenny Rogers at one point (though I did see one guy having a freaking out saying “He’s trying to be Jerry!!! You just don’t DO THAT!!!!”… omg, hippie meltdown). The rain put a slight damper on the show and I wasn’t able to get any clear pictures (sorry… I tried but they’re all super blurry). So instead here’s pictures of Mike and I in our rain gear.

Jam bands are definitely really entertaining though, so I’m glad I got to see them! After Phish, we headed back to camp and I called it a Bonnaroo.

Final Lessons Learned:

1. It’s possible to do Bonnaroo on a tight budget. I decided to consider this my “vacation” for the summer and even though tickets are expensive (I ended up paying a little under $300), I was able to swing a really fun vacation on a pretty small budget. In addition to the ticket, I spent about $100 on other supplies we needed and about $70 while I was there. This was doable because I ate most meals at the campsite (I only bought maybe 1 meal per day in Centeroo) and I don’t really drink much. I imagine if you wanted to be drinking a lot in Centeroo, it would be harder to maintain a budget.
2. Prepare for all kinds of weather, not just excessive heat. Yes, it is normally really hot at Bonnaroo. So all of us brought minimal clothing. But this year, it was unseasonably cool and I spent most nights wishing I had brought a pair of pants. THANKFULLY I did bring a sweatshirt and a blanket for our tent.
3. Rain didn’t ruin Bonnaroo quite like I thought it would. It’s amazing how you roll with stuff in these kinds of situations. I just swapped my flip flops for the junky slip ons I bought (which might actually be my new favorite pair of shoes… unclear), threw on my rain jacket and I was good to go.

Final Summation: Over the course of three days and three nights, I saw nineteen amazing shows. I loved everything about this experience. I would LOVE to go back again next year and I definitely want to try out some other music festivals too. Ok, time to stop basking in my post-Bonnaroo glow and get back to the real world. Later gators 😀

My most sincere apologies to you my blog-o-sphere comrades… I missed my first daily blog post! I could bore you with the details of my insanely busy week and my 24-hour migraine that followed it but I’ll just say that I missed you! Here we are though… Bonnaroo Day 2!!!

Even though the heat wasn’t as oppressive this year as I hear it has been in past years, everyone was pretty much up and around the campsite by about 7:30 am. We bummed around for a little bit, found a place to get iced coffees, cleaned up a bit, and then got down to business for the day. We spent the remainder of the morning hanging around camp, playing cards, and yes, breaking into our beer supply (annnddd a bottle of moonshine that one of the guys brought… gross).

By early afternoon everyone was ready for a feist but I was ready to GO! I wanted to get into Centeroo and explore before our first show of the day. Mike and I decided to break off from the group and go in first. The plan was to meet up with everyone at the Flogging Molly show… but more on that later. Off exploring we went, splashing around in the fountain, watching all the girls with their hula hoops (am I the only one who didn’t know this was a thing??), and perusing the shops.

Then we headed over to the “That Tent” to line up early for Flogging Molly. I really wanted to get up closer and in the crowd for this show. They were unbelievable. The crowd got pretty rowdy too. Not the wildest pitt I’ve ever seen in my life, but it’s been a couple years since I’ve been in a proper mosh pitt.

After the Flogging Molly show we realized we were in a pickle. We hadn’t met up with everyone before the show, Mike’s phone wasn’t working at all so he left it back at the campsite, and I had no one’s phone numbers. We had a general idea of the shows everyone wanted to see that day, but trying to find a group of people in these crowds was almost impossible. We decided to go about our afternoon and hope for the best. We headed over to What Stage for Santigold, who totally rocked. I also had a minor feist in the middle of her show. It was necessary.

After Santigold, we headed into the Where Cafe to catch Jukebox the Ghost. My brother insisted that we check them out since he was friendly with their drummer. They were great. They just released a new album this week too… so check them out!

Then we popped back out to the What Stage for The Roots. We also grabbed a bite to eat and discussed our predicament. The sun was going down soon and the likelihood of finding everyone once it got dark was even worse.

We knew that everyone wanted to see Dispatch at the Which Stage, so we figured this was the best place to find them. We headed over and while scanning the crowd right in front of the stage I saw an excessively tall man in a blue t-shirt and a white bandana. OMG It’s BEN and KRISTYN! I took off running through the crowd (like an idiot). We weren’t able to get all the way up to them, but we caught their attention and arranged a meeting spot for right after the show. They didn’t know where the rest of the guys were either, but at least we had found some part of our group. Woo hoo! We settled back and enjoyed the show from a pretty awesome spot.

Then during Dispatch, a Bonnaroo miracle happened. I happened to turn around to say something to Mike and I caught a glimpse of a group of guys walking out of the crowd. I recognized some pretty unique hats and literally screamed “OMG IT’S THEM!!!”. Before Mike even knew what happened, I tore out of the crowd after them. Hooray the group was reunited!!! We met up with Ben and Kristyn post-Dispatch and all moved over towards What Stage for the Saturday night headliner, The Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was hard to get a good picture at night but I loved RHCP! They were my favorite headliner by far. Plus there were FIREWORKS after (ok so there were fireworks after every headliner)

Finally, tonight was the night we had all been waiting for. Skrillex was playing a set starting at 1:30 am and I had been preparing all day for it. I’ve literally never seen Mike so excited for anything (it may have also been helped by the flask of whiskey the guys were passing around). They were… AMAZING. Mike, DW, and I literally danced our pants off. I gathered one million light sticks (I was finding them in our tent all weekend) and kept sticking them in all my clothing. DW found a sweet light saber on the ground too… ground score!

BEST NIGHT EVER. Ok so this post has now gotten really long so I’m going to save my final lessons learned from Bonnaroo for the Day 3 Recap. Hope you’re all having an amazing weekend 🙂 Tell your dad you love him!!