Friends Hannah Burnet, Gabrielle Vzarowski, Anna Pallilo, Jill Dibble and Sarah Webster made the trip from Brooklyn, New York, to see Cardi B.MANCHESTER, Tenn. – You never know what you might see inside Centeroo, the main gathering area for the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. People dressed as pirates, dragons, fairies, clowns, cowboys, and sometimes not dressed at all are commonplace.
What is not often seen are members of the K9 police force, but there they were on Thursday, presumably to search for bombs rather than drugs, which is more often associated with the giant music festival. An online poster made threatening comments two weeks ago about blowing people up in Centeroo.
Police in Clarksville, Tennessee, dealt with the situation, but two pipe bombs were found in Manchester just days before the festival began.
“There is definitely a heightened sense of security,” said Ken Weinstein, festival spokesman with Big Hassle Media.
Officials announced late Wednesday that the festival had sold out, which meant that with the added security, getting all 80,000 ticketholders into the 700-acre farm took a little longer than usual. Capt. Billy Butler with the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department, said the department had made four arrests and written 41 citations as of Thursday morning.