Q: Describe Summer in One Word. A: BONNAROO! Top 3 Tips!
Spring has officially sprung with the official drop of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival schedule last week. With that drop, it is officially time to start getting ready for one of the summer’s biggest and baddest festivals. Below are just a handful of the infinite world of ‘Roo tips you can find!
1. Hydrate Early and Often
Seriously, it does not matter where you live, what you do for a living, or when you plan to play. Bonnaroo is hot and humid and will suck every drop of water from your body, even before you start getting out in the sun, adding alcohol and other party favors, and dancing your faces off. The best time to hydrate is BEFORE you get to the farm. Big tip for making staying hydrated at the farm more enjoyable: freeze about half of your water bottles SOLID. This helps with the need for ice on the farm as well as ensures that you’re still drinking nice cold waters on Sunday. Nothing worse than drinking hot water when you are already hot.
2. Consider some alternate sleeping arrangements!
Of the 80,000+ people likely to be present on The Farm this year, the vast majority of them will probably be sleeping in a standard tent on an air mattress. Through years of research and suffering it has been determined that in most cases there are far more comfortable ways to sleep at Bonnaroo, and you should consider them to maximize your party energy! First of all, make sure you have an adequate shelter. Standard tents are just hotboxes beyond 7 AM. In this writer’s opinion, you should ditch the tent altogether and go for a canopy surrounded by tapestries for privacy and maximum wind flow. Just be sure to secure valuables, including bags, in your car before you go to sleep or head out to Centeroo. For those unable to dream of not being completely enclosed, at least consider a dark room tent.
As for what to sleep ON, air flow is the name of the game. The two main options are a cot and a hammock/stand combination. Personally, I’ve never slept better at a festival than last year with a simple EZ-up and hammock/stand setup. If you need a little more support, though, a cot is also wonderful. These options both let air flow under your body, keeping you infinitely cooler. Just be sure to actually bring some decent blankets that can wrap around you for 3 a.m. when it gets cool out. They can always be thrown to the ground around 7!
3. Let The Farm be your guide!
Stick with us for a second; we are going to get a little existential here. Do not make too many plans, or if you do, be flexible to changing them. If you go into the weekend with a strict itinerary, you are going to have a bad time. There are so many factors out of your control, as well as so many things you do not even know you want to do yet, that spending too much time making plans is effort inevitably wasted. Instead, make a loose goals list and be prepared to accomplish half of it. Sometimes you are going to NEED to miss that mid-afternoon set to catch a nap. Other times you are going to WANT to follow that random couple prancing across the field to go to a random Roo wedding. Most of the best stories we have ever heard are those where folks just let The Farm take over and lead them to the coolest events they have ever seen!
