For the first 16 years of the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, which begins Thursday in Manchester, Tennessee, the only reason to stick around in the general admission camping areas was because the walk to Centeroo, where the vending and main stages are, was long and not appealing.
Organizers of the festival decided to do something about that and place an emphasis on turning the nearly 500-acre campground into a place for community, special events like yoga, cooking classes and even surprise concerts by some of the artists playing the festival.
Workers put the finishing touches on the main What Stage at Bonnaroo on Wednesday.“Bonnaroo has always been about community coming together, and we have been talking for years really about how do we enhance that experience for people camping in [general admission],” said Ashley Capps, founder of AC Entertainment, the Knoxville-based music and arts presenter that co-founded Bonnaroo with Superfly in 2002.
Capps, along with Superfly’s Rick Farman and Jeff Cuellar, vice president of strategic partnerships with AC Entertainment, led members of the media on a tour of the festival site on Wednesday before the gates opening to the general public. Such tours in the past have focused on enhancement to the VIP areas, the addition of flushable toilets and running water for showers, and drink stations.
This year, it was all about the enhancement in general admission.