Mason Joyner and Lauren Baldwin are from North Myrtle Beach, Fla., and are attending their first Bonnaroo.MANCHESTER, Tenn. – Brent Weber is attending either his fifth or sixth Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. He’s not sure, because the details of one or two of them are so fuzzy he simply can’t remember if he was there or not.
This is his first festival sober, and he is volunteering in the Soberoo tent along with a dozen or so other folks. They’re spreading the word that attending an event known for the partying that goes on is not only OK, it can be enjoyable.
“It’s almost spiritual for me,” said Nathan Payne, who is attending his third festival. He was more of a single-concert guy before, but freely admits he was there more to get drunk or high than to listen to the music. Now he not only enjoys the performances, he remembers them, he said.
Soberoo is manned by volunteers with Harmonium, an organization started in 2002 that blends “music and recovery in harmony.”
It mans such tents at festivals in San Bernardino, Calif., Las Vegas, Louisville, Ky., New York City, Bradley, Calif., Arrington, Va., Chicago and San Francisco. In addition to having people at the tents throughout the festivals, Harmonium holds daily sobriety gatherings at regular intervals. There are four each day at Bonnaroo.