Keith Novak

I think I’ll keep this nice and short.

Bonnaroo, which I attended this year, was awesome because everyone is there for the same reason. This sounds pretty obvious, but if you think about it, anyone can just go to a concert. However, Bonnaroo is more than a concert, it’s an experience. Four days of camping out in the hot Tennessee sun (and the harsh Tennessee rain), getting close to no sleep, going to the bathroom in shitty (no pun intended) port-a-potties. I think there’s more of a community feeling there as opposed to at other concerts, if only because of the time factor. You also get more of a diversity, since many people come from great distances to attend.

My experience was pretty much sans-assholes who tried to ruin other peoples’ fun. There were a few people here and there (though I believe they were drunk or strung out on some kind of drug) who got in our faces about not “feeling” the music (I guess sitting and enjoying the music just isn’t acceptable when you’re tripping on acid or something), but overall people were nice. I mean, one day I was wearing one of my Woot.com T-shirts and someone commented that he had the same shirt at home and I was awesome for wearing it. That in itself is just plain awesome.

So for the last week I was either in Tennessee or in Virginia, on my way to Tennessee. I went to the most bitchin’ music festival of the year (well, in my opinion), Bonnaroo. And I got to see some awesome bands, including, but not limited to:

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Phish (2 shows), Nine Inch Nails, Animal Collective, Beastie Boys, Ben Harper and the Relentless 7, The Mars Volta, Erykah Badu, Kaki King, Portugal. The Man, Bela Fleck, Girl Talk, and MGMT.

I have a good collection of pictures from the ordeal on my hard drive and on Facebook, and I’m considering finding my Photobucket/Flickr account credentials again and uploading them for the general public (though I’m fairly certain you can view them on my Facebook Profile here).