Despite stereotypes, Bonnaroo was 'Boss'

From what I could gather from her remarks, she seemed to have the stereotypical belief that anyone who goes to Bonnaroo is considered to be an "undesirable" by polite society.

She even said that if I were going to Bonnaroo, I didn't need to be working at the newspaper. When I asked her why, she said because people who go there are "crazy." (How do you keep a hippie from stealing your money? Hide it under the soap!)

I thought it was an insightful conversation, because I was amazed at the conviction with which she quipped about something she obviously had never experienced herself.

I didn't say anything, because I had never been to Bonnaroo, either. I've found that when I talk about subjects I know nothing about, I'm frequently caught off base.

So Saturday, I got my first taste of Bonnaroo, and now I'll relate my "crazy" experience.

My sister, Laura Sue, drove in from Chattanooga Saturday morning, and we went to the festival together. She's 53, and a marketing executive for a major pharmaceutical firm. She's got an MBA from UT-Knoxville, and is smart and professional. In fact, she's not "crazy" at all.

About a year and a half ago, when she still lived in Atlanta, I visited her, and we drove around the Capital of the New South, visiting all the touristy sites, like Stone Mountain and CNN Center.

Our soundtrack largely consisted of Bruce Springsteen, and I learned at that time just how big of a Springsteen fan she was.

When we found out a few months ago that Springsteen was going to be at Bonnaroo, we immediately began making arrangements, and everything worked out great, culminating in a brother-sister day trip Saturday.

We got to the festival grounds in Manchester at about noon, and started off our experience with a mile-long walk from our parking spot to the festival through the camping area. People were lined up for showers, milling about, or like us, plodding along toward the festival. Some folks were camped in tents. Others had huge RVs.

We got to the festival area just in time to catch Jimmy Buffett singing "A Pirate Looks at Forty" and "Margaritaville" -- a first for me because I had never seen him in concert before, although I grew up with his music.

After that, we got some good food, rode the ferris wheel, bought some T-shirts, painted panels for a community art project, and listened to several bands, including Cherryholmes, which headlined the Wartrace MusicFest the past two years.

During that time, we talked to a lot of people and saw a lot of sights.

We did see people smoking pot, and there were people drinking, but they were by far the minority.

One group we observed was sitting in a circle on the dirty grass, next to a set of trash cans, about twenty yards from about 50 port-a-potties, passing around joints and comparing the merits of Alabama pot versus Tennessee pot. It would have made a great anti-drug commercial: "Smoke pot and you can be just like these guys!"

There was one guy I saw who was dragging two water bottles around the festival, through mud and whatever else, on a string, like they were his pets. Someone had pinned a crude sign on his back, but I wasn't close enough to read what it said. I can only imagine.

There were also some people who, by Saturday, had obviously had a little too much, and they were passed out in the middle of the crowds, many of them on blankets with their friends, some of them alone in the mud.

So, the drugged-out hippie element was certainly present, but it was by no means the majority.

The majority of the people I saw were either college students, blue collar yankees, or young to middle-aged professionals, like my sister and me.

We met one middle-aged couple on the ferris wheel who had driven up from South Padre Island, Texas, and were staying at the Best Western right here in Shelbyville. They were completely normal blue-collar types who like Bruce Springsteen's music. Nothing crazy about them at all.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, I've been to a lot of concerts, but I've never seen Springsteen before. Let me tell you, they don't call him The Boss for nothing.

He took the stage at about 8:15 p.m., and played non-stop for three hours. It was awesome.

He played a lot of songs I didn't really know at first (Laura knew every song), but when the show was about halfway over, he kicked in with his biggest hits, which included "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," "Born to Run," "Rosalita," "Tenth Avenue Freezeout," "Glory Days," and "Dancing in the Dark."

Those of you who remember the video for "Dancing in the Dark" might recall Bruce dragging a young Courtney Cox, before her "Friends" fame, onto the stage and dancing with her.

He re-lived that moment again Saturday night when he pulled a young woman from the crowd and danced with her on stage. She might have been the luckiest girl at Bonnaroo -- he had given her a harmonica earlier on. I guess Bruce liked the "I love New Jersey" shirt she was wearing!

All in all, we had a great time, and I saw the greatest concert I've ever seen, next to Pink Floyd.

I also learned that although there were some people there who might not hold up in polite society, most of us were just normal folks having a great time, and enjoying some great music.

-- John Philleo is editor of the Times-Gazette. He can be reached by e-mail at editor@t-g.com.