270 Miles From Graceland

January 22, 2005 3:16 AM

Music for the Kind : A half-completed tentative lineup for the fourth annual Bonnaroo Music Festival has been announced. With no advertising budget, the festival draws 90,000 fans to the pastures of Manchester, Tennessee for some of the best that live music has to offer. Smaller local festivals, like Langerado and Wanee Festival in Florida, have popped up featuring many of the same artists. Phish may be phried, but the music jams on and there could be a brighter future for selling music than more MTV.
posted by trinarian (12 comments total)

Woohoo!

I'm liking the lineup so far. Went last year and it was fantastic.
posted by panoptican at 3:24 AM on January 22, 2005

Modest Mouse preforming with Dave Matthews, Widespread Panic and the Allman Brothers??? Well, that just confirms what I've been saying since the released their latest album - Modest Mouse now officially sucks.
posted by spicynuts at 6:45 AM on January 22, 2005

I wonder what happen if a hippie were to hook up with an indie kid? they could conceivably birth the next doug martsch.
posted by mcsweetie at 8:07 AM on January 22, 2005

Bonnaroo was great last year, but for some reason this year's artist lineup just doesn't hit me quite the same way. I am in love with the lineup for the Wanee Festival, though, and I might do that this year instead of standing in a field with 90,000 people shoulder-to-shoulder.
posted by thejoshu at 9:06 AM on January 22, 2005

I have to give the organizers of Bonnaroo credit for mixing Rilo Kiley, Brazilian Girls and the Dave Matthews Band. Not exactly your typical lineup.
posted by amandaudoff at 9:24 AM on January 22, 2005

I'm not a big fan of jam bands, went in '03, and had more fun than I could have imagined. People weighing out ounces of weed in public was interesting, but the lineup was quite diverse, and the two smallest stages had great night shows. The Flaming Lips blew my mind.

Personally, I don't think I'll go back until they put together something more like '03: James Brown, The Flaming Lips, The Roots, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Medeski Martin & Wood, Sonic Youth, Leo Kottke & Mike Gordon, Joshua Redman, G. Love and Special Sauce, Tortoise, Liz Phair, Ben Kweller, Mix Master Mike, Polyphonic Spree, Kid Koala, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, DJ Spooky, RJD2, Kaki King, The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 9:57 AM on January 22, 2005

Oh, and if you're a Bonaroo fan, the Bonnaroo site has a pretty comprehensive archive of photos for previous years, with some video of press interviews and whatnot thrown in.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 10:05 AM on January 22, 2005

You're saying this lineup isn't diverse enough? Huh? You've got bluegrass deities like Alison Krauss and Bela Fleck and Earl Scruggs at the same festival as indie faves Iron And Wine and Modest Mouse. Madeleine Peyroux and Joss Stone and John Prine and Citizen Cope and the mighty Drive-By Truckers and the Gourds....

They could do with more rap and hip-hop, at it does seem like 1/5th of the lineup is jam or reggae, but you're looking at 60K people getting a level of diversity you're not going to find even on your indie stations. The only festival I can think of with this level of diversity is Bumbershoot, and with that people really pick and choose... and no one is weighing pot out in public.
posted by dw at 10:50 AM on January 22, 2005

Well, they have Ozomatli, and if that isn't enough to get both your hip-hop and Latino blood pumping, I don't know what is. If you have seen them live, you know what I mean. If you haven't, you need to.
posted by LondonYank at 11:11 AM on January 22, 2005

I went last year. The shows were awesome, the people less so, but it was good fun. I might go this year, but it looks like I'll be in Japan at that time.
posted by 235w103 at 11:21 AM on January 22, 2005

I loved the crowds last year... everyone was friendly and helpful. People camping next to one another never thought twice about lending a hand setting up, sharing party supplies, and just had a fun time together. I didn't see one fight break out, even though there was very lax security and lots of drugs and alcohol. I left a laptop in an unlocked car all weekend and never really worried about it. Dirty crowd, yes, but very pleasant.
posted by trinarian at 7:32 PM on January 22, 2005

dw, you pegged me perfectly. I used to wear out a pair of shoes, and a pair of knees each year at Bumbershoot. Oy, I miss it.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 2:38 AM on January 23, 2005