Bonnaroo

Friday at work, I'm minding my own business, going about the day like it was any other Friday, and I get a message from my friend Lillian (who has been mentioned on this blog many times.) She's like, "question. are you doing anything other than babysitting my kids this weekend?" and I don't think I am, so I tell her that, and she's all, "so do you want to go to Bonnaroo for free?" And I had a very large party with balloons and streamers and matching paper cups and napkins and I invited a clown to do magic and even bought a pinata, and then I had a heart attack and came back to life just so I could have another heart attack.

JUST SO YOU KNOW the extent of this... the following has been "tweeted" by me in the past several months, starting in February when they announced this year's lineup.

• #Bonnaroo is getting me so pumped. Already I'm excited about the Avett Brothers! I may HAVE to go. 11:27 AM Feb 9th
• hey @davemhagen forget that whole buying a running car or a house thing that we were talking about. I want #Bonnaroo tickets instead. :) 12:37 PM Feb 9th
• As if I needed another reason to envy the @Bonnarroo attendees - Conan is headlining the comedy stage. Thursday, March 11, 2010 10:53:02 AM
• I can't afford tickets to @bonnaroo but I got the app anyway... so my phone doesn't know how lame I am. Thursday, June 03, 2010 3:22:41 PM

And then I entered about 8 contests to win free tickets. And I said things like, "I hate everyone at Bonnaroo this year. Out of principle." And then on Friday June 11th at 10:37 AM, I tweeted,

• freaking out freaking out freaking out... FREE BONNAROO TICKETS FOR ME! freaking out freaking out freaking out Friday, June 11, 2010 10:37:16 AM

And thus began my journey. Turns out Lillian knows a guy who knows a band who had 2 extra guest passes. The guest passes meant, not only free Bonnaroo tickets, but it also meant probably a top 5 parking and camping spot out of all 80,000 people who attended, NICE bathrooms and free showers (though we had no soap or shampoo,) a special seating area w/ bleachers for two of the stages, a behind the stage pass to a lounge area w/ phone charging stations, much shade, semi-comfortable seats, hammocks (which we didn't get to use because of their popularity), and an up close view of some dreamy musicians. So So SO cool. This is who we saw, in order of appearance:

1. Heard Tenacious D while setting up the tent, didn't actually see them.
2. Steve Martin (who I love dearly) and the Steep Canyon Rangers
3. Tori Amos
4. Michael Franti and Spearhead
5. Kings of Leon
6. Langhorne Slim
7. Brandi Carlile
8. Circa Survive
9. Norah Jones
10. The Avett Brothers
11. Mumford and Sons
12. The Dead Weather
13. Weezer w/ a special guest performance by Julia Nunes
14. Stevie Wonder, you guys..... Stevie.Wonder.
15. We listened to a little Jay-Z, but didn't see him perform because I'm an old lady and I was too sleepy.
16. Ingrid Michaelson
17. Cross Canadian Ragweed
18. Regina Spektor
19. Against Me
20. And a tiny bit of Blues Traveler while walking back to the car. Enough to hear a couple, "and the HOOOOOK brings you baa-aaack"s. So glad I heard that. It was a great cap to a great weekend.

Here are some phone pictures from the festival. Dave had the real camera at the studio when I left on Friday afternoon, so you're all stuck with iPhone snaps. Because they're phone pictures and that's boring, I've used several apps to take these pictures. That's why they're not cohesive at all. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of STEVIE FLIPPING WONDER or Ingrid Michaelson.

That glowing angel in the middle of the stage is my good friend Steve Martin. I'm pretty sure I was smiling like a goober through the whole set.


I got the closest to the stage for the Brandi Carlile set. She's kind of a big deal to my family. She's all kinds of talented. Even though it was 97 degrees outside and the head index was approximately face melting surface of the sun, she gave me goosebumps. She seemed so kind and cheerful during her show. I totally want to be her friend.
This is Kings of Leon. They had quite a production. Fire, lights, etc. Much rock was brought to the stage.

You may notice in this picture that my feet are much pinker than the rest of me... sunburn, friends. They are also blistered, sore, swollen so very very much, muddy, covered in heat rash, and happy as can be. These feet hobbled me around to some really awesome stuff this weekend. Thanks feet. You really have put up with a lot in the past couple of months. And thanks to Lillian for thinking of me when she heard of the free tickets. And thank you to Lillian's connections for being my new favorite people in the whole wide world. And thanks to Bonnaroo for being so stinkin' cool.