Bonnaroo 2014June 12-15 • Manchester, TNView in depth coverage
Sir Elton John, Kanye West, Jack White, Lionel Richie, Vampire Weekend and The Avett Brothers will spend a little time in Manchester, Tenn., this weekend.
If the Coffee County seat seems an unlikely place for this particular constellation of stars, then you must be new to Bonnaroo. The 13-year-old music and arts festival has put the town of 10,000 residents on the map and typically swells its population eight-fold for four days each summer.
This year's festival starts midday today, June 12, and wraps up late Sunday, June 15. In between are dozens of musical performances, comedy shows, NBA finals broadcasts, disco dancing and out-of-the ordinary movie screenings, such as a quote-along to "Pulp Fiction" and a sing-along to R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet."
General-admission tickets were still available at press time at a cost of $284.50 plus service fees. To purchase, visit www.bonnaroo.com.
Here's a quick guide to how the event plays out in numbers.
700
Acreage of the farm where the festival is held.
80,000
Campers who crowd into the space.
3
General-admission entrances.
10
Stages, some with names befitting the Bonnaroo vibe: What Stage, Which Stage, This Tent, That Tent, The Other Tent.
150
Events in these venues.
8
Hours late Kanye West was in starting his 2008 Bonnaroo show.
53
Percentage of festivalgoers, in a Bonnaroo census, who indicated they were first-timers at last year's festival.
88
Percentage who said they stopped at a Waffle House on the way.