Bonnaroo 2016: Wednesday Warriors and Thursday Surprises!
The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is off to an amazing start (as usual)! People started rolling in Wednesday afternoon, and the campgrounds quickly started to fill up, but there was no shortage of action for the early arrivals.
If you paid attention to the awesome playing cards that came with your Bonnaroo wristband (or if you are familiar with a little publication called Rolling Stone…), you are familiar with SooperGroop, and part of the reason they have been voted best camp at Bonnaroo is because of their tradition of throwing a sick welcoming party on Wednesday night, complete with live music and DJs. Marc Cavallo opened with an acoustic set on SooperGroops’s Why Stage, followed by a four-hour DJ set by Jean Sean that had the party pumping well into the night!
For those who didn’t kick off their festival until Thursday, Centeroo opened nice and early to allow people to explore before the music kicked off at 4 pm. While it was hot (it is Tennessee in June, after all), the temperature remained bearable thanks to a nice breeze.
The 7-Up-sponsored Silent Disco was slammed when Full Service Party was on, as he dropped back-to-back bangers. The crowd screams were so loud that they were audible even with headphones on at full blast. Shortly after his set ended, NOLA native Quickie Mart jumped on the decks to take the crowd to the underground with a UK Grime/drum- and bass-heavy set.
With a stage full of instruments, FKJ took to the Who stage to wow festival attendees. He effortlessly switched between every instrument on stage to make music that you’d have thought was created by a full band. The set was all too short, and everyone including FKJ himself wished that he could have played for longer. After the set, he got off the stage to greet and hang out with his fans.
Collaborations also abounded on Thursday (because Bonnaroo!). BØRNS stepped in with Vulfpeck for an awesome rendition of “Back Pocket” before going on to blow up his own killer (and packed!) set. Immediately following, The Floozies kicked off a very funky set that had the whole crowd up and moving. These guys are on the move, and you don’t want to miss them if you have the opportunity!
Over on Kalliope, New York’s NSR (from The Deep) opened the stage up for the weekend with a hard-hitting deep house set. Blending genres to match his deep house sound flawlessly, NSR owned the crowd. Kalliope is known for incredible lights, sound, and surprise sunrise sets. However, Bonnaroovians were not expecting the special treat that they were about to receive opening day. At the end of NSR’s set, he introduced the next act that would be jumping on the decks – the king of electro-funk, GriZ, who played an awesome surprise set! He won’t be the last surprise set of the weekend, either, so make sure you stay tuned!
This is just a small sampling of what happened on as the 15th birthday party for Bonnaroo officially kicked off, including sets from the likes of Papadosio, Hundred Waters, Hermitude, Cashmere Cat and many more. Things have just gotten started!
