Get those hippies!

Hola, pumkins.

Yesterday was a good day. We got into Bonnaroo grounds lickety split and frustration free. We opted to park in amongst the campers waayyyy in the back of the compound and then hoofed it up to the entrance, instead of waiting half an hour to park closer. Dumb. I swear we walked for 45 minutes before we even saw a concert tent or state. O, and it was 93 degrees or something stupid like that. It was fine once we got in; the actual "centeroo" setup (the big ring where all the stages, tents and vendors are) is compact enough to run from one stage to another in 10 minutes. Not bad.

We cought some Devendra Banhart, Ben Folds, Donovan Frankenwhatever from the back of the crowd, but then we completely stumbled on World Party at this little stage, flanked with 20-30 people, tops. It was great! We found two seats a picnic table, got some wilted greek salad, and watched a good show.




Today, Gomez plays from this little stage at 2:00. That will be the start of our day! I hope to hear some of the older stuff, but they do have some great new music out, so that would be fine too. They play again later at one of the big stages, but we'll never get this close to them. Not all, but many of the acts play 30 min- 1 hr shows, mini/teaser shows, at this Sonic stage. I like it.

After we grabbed some beer (at Broo'ers Corner, a tent housing little local brews from all around the country. Very cool) we settled in for the Bright Eyes show. We sat on the ground, in the shade, and decided we had figured out how best to do Bonnaroo - don't worry about getting up to the stage, have a seat, find some shade, grab a beer - just listen and chill.





Bright Eyes played a great set and some of my favorites. Gillian Welsh made a cameo, singing very lovely with young Conor. I was enthralled with this group of hippie kids in front of us who, I am not kidding you, smoked more weed than I thought was possible in one sitting. One of the kids kept popping his head up and just staring at Shorty & me. Sometimes he would smile that slow stoned smile, but mostly he would just look at us like 'hey, what are you guys doing here... hey, what are all these people doing here?'



Wake up, Shorty, the cops are here!

So, today is going to rule hard! We see Gomez (twice), Elvis Costello, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Beck, Les Claypool, and.... WOOEFFINGHOO, Radiohead. As fun as it's been so far, and as great as I know today will be, nothing will touch Radiohead. I know this. I almost keep forgetting that we get to see them. It seems like these should be separate events; great music festival with super cool bands and music for a couple of days, and then a Radiohead show later. It's too much that it is all the same thing. Momma likes it.




For me?

Ciao, buddies.
-Nina

P.S. I would like everyone to know that, although I will be making fun of the hippies a lot, I really do enjoy them. I like what their whole hippie thing and am glad they do what they do. I just also like to make fun of them.

P.S.S Best sign of the day: see above.