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Libby and I survived Bonnaroo!!

6/21/2013

It's hard to believe Its over!

The anticipation of kicking off the summer with one of the largest music festivals in the country drove me crazy over the last two months. Vending was not an option for us this year, so the plan was to focus on marketing and introduce the festival scene to WOLI; The Wheel of Lights and Inspirations!

Here is the Recap...

The music at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival AMAZING!!! I didn't get to see as much of it as I wanted but the shows I made it to, such as Of Monsters and Men, NAS, and Matt and kim were awesome!! The entire experience is based on where you stand at the show. If you didn't really care about the artist, then it was cool to sit back and listen from the outskirts of the crowd, but for sets like The xx, I had to be up close!!! Even though I couldn't see anything, I could hear them perfectly and it was an incredible experience!! The set was at night and the lazer light show was ridiculous! So intense... No drugs necessary!!! I expected Rkelly to be wack because the website said he was testing out "new music." Obviously I was just tryin to hear "Bump and Grind"! hahaha Good thing he played that and more!! Seriously KILLLLEEEEDDD it. It was a really great show!!! I got to see Wu-Tang with my girls, and that was fun! I missed Jack Johnson, Pretty Lights, and ASAP Rockey which really sucked, but they will be around. All in all.. A+ for music.

I spent a lot of time talking to people about what we are hoping to accomplish this summer with the Ferris Wheel. We passed out stickers that said "I got high on WOLI" and asked people to connect with us online. Although we didn't get a flood of fans like I hoped, each social network grew enough to set the stage for the next event. The more people that know about us, the better because we want to grow quickly and make a big impact with a positive message.

FINALLY I got to paint at the end of the weekend. I had most of my supplies but not everything I needed. I painted a forest bc it was quick and easy, and I really just wanted to be able to say I got live paint at Bonnaroo. Next year will be a different story

The festival itself was super organized and did a great job of pulling off a huge event, minus one factor that really bothered me. On their website and in the media they focused on their efforts to minimize the "trace left behind" from all of those people, but you should have seen the MILES AND MILES AND MILES of trash everywhere after everyone left. Even throughout the event there was a DISGUSTING... like SERIOUSLY GROSS amount of trash left on the ground. The cleaning crews would come in after the show, but by that time, thousands of people had already trampled through trash to get to the next show and drug addicts had scoured the floor for "ground scores." It was an incredible amount of waste left after the event was over. Everything from brand new tents to bags of food, left out with garbage. I am not sure what happens to it all. Maybe it does get sorted and donated, but it seems like most of it would already be destroyed by the time enough people hit the scene to salvage it. It was as if 80,000 cleared out this local Walmart over the course of 4 days and left everything in the grass.... disturbing...

Thats about it.... my dog, Libby, aka Libby-Roo survived the heat and overall I am thankful for the experience. I have no idea where this whole thing will end up, but I hope to continue learning more about music festivals and the people that go there so I can tighten up my marketing game, and get my work seen!! If it ends up being a bust...Oh well.. at least I went all in. Next stop is Wavefront Music Festival!

One last thing...I was really let down by Matt and kim. I LOVEEE their music and they are both really talented performers, but the commentary in between songs was really disappointing. Matt encouraged people to share water and look out for eachother, which was good, but Kim was raunchy and gross. She had a filthy mouth and encouraged people to be DTF whereever with whoever. Bonnaroo painted "Don't be THAT girl or THAT guy" painted in huge letters on the wall, and here comes this slutbag encouraging people to blackout and bang anyone. I get the whole "rockstar" approach, but people were already raging. Why not use a window of opportunity like that to talk to thousands of people to tell them to at least use protection, or focus on something else, like enjoying great music. It really took away from the show... and not because I am prude. I really just didn't understand why it was necessary. They could have said "Love Life!" and people would have gone just as crazy, but instead she chose "Bring baby wipes so you can wipe down after f-king someone you don't know!" Ewwww.....

*I found the pictures of the shows on google. I did no not own the rights to those images, or the ariel shots of the crowds.