MANCHESTER, Tenn. - For friends Tim Watson and Michael White of Atlanta, this weekend's Exit 111 festival in Manchester, Tennessee, is the perfect combination of adventure and music.
While waiting for the music to start at Great Stage Park, the same place where the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival takes place in June, Watson and White were enjoying a giant burrito from one of the food trucks on site and taking in the landscape, and they couldn't help but notice how different the festival is from others.
"We came as much for the camping," Watson said.
"We've done Shaking Knees and other festivals, and we said let's have an adventure."
They also came for the music, of course, with White pointing out that it is an opportunity to see nearly 50 bands all in one weekend.
"It's an insane amount of music," Watson said.
"And," White added, "they've got older bands that you won't ever get to see again, and some really cool new, younger bands. It's a really good mix of bands. But, I'm here to see Slayer."
The new festival features headliners Lynyrd Skynyrd, Def Leppard and Guns N Roses, plus ZZ Top, Deftones, Slayer, Seether, Anthrax, Ghost, Mastodon, Coheed and Cambria, Lamb of God and Skillet. It's a slice of heaven for hard rock and metal fans. In fact, the stages are called Heaven, Hell and Rise Above Stage.
For Bonnaroo fans wondering how "The Farm," as it is affectionately called, is being used for this event, think small. Much smaller. While Bonnaroo has 10 stages, Exit 111 has three. The two largest, The What and The Which, are being utilized, while the Rise Above stage now sits where That Tent would be.
Though AC Entertainment does not release ticket sales numbers, the crowd for the weekend is estimated to be around 20,000-25,000, which is far smaller than the more than 80,000 that attended last year's Bonnaroo. The smaller crowds mean that far less of the nearly 700-acre farm is being utilized.
For example, the iconic Bonnaroo fountain, which people use as a cooling off place and a landmark for meeting up with friends, sits on the other side of fencing in an unused part of the Exit 111 event.
For White and Watson, the crowd size "is perfect."
They did take issue with some of the vending prices, with a beer costing around $10 and food a dollar or two more than that.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.