Bonnaroo !!

[lornaschinske]

We used to live near there (Whitwell, TN) for about 10 years. You couldn't pay me to go. Every year someone either died or came close to it. We liked http://www.riverbendfestival.com much better. We thought it was a better deal (10 days for $30 if pin is bought in advance), safer (they did have one incident about 8 years ago where someone tried to bring a gun into the festival), especially since we took the kids there. We would stay in Chester Frost County Park and drive up to Coolidge Park on the Hixson Pike side of the River. I bought my pins for the 2007 Riverbend we attended last online. They had one of my favourite bands... Alan Parsons Project and they do not tour. It was well worth the trip from south GA.

 

[josetann]

Never been, didn't know it was so close to home. Wouldn't mind seeing Team Coco, but doesn't look like a place I'd take my kids to.

 

[lornaschinske]

...doesn't look like a place I'd take my kids to.

I would never take my kids to Bonaroo. I wouldn't want my kids to go NOW and they are 23 yo! I kid you not... Any conversation with folks who lived in the areas would be along the lines of (before) "wonder how many folks are going to die or come close to it this year at Bonaroo?" or "Did you hear about the guy who got killed at Bonaroo?" Usually OD, stabbed or gun. And I think the price it terrible! But I'm "Frugal"!! Things may have changed and probaly have since it's still going. Now this is all Whitwell/Jasper gossip (which was often right)... Back when we were living up on Whitwell Mtn, Bonaroo had gotten so bad that the Manchester/Coffee County residents were calling for it to be stopped. The local crime skyrocketed during Bonaroo and they were tired of the violence. The folks who put on the event wouldn't do anything to rein it in. They were talking about getting a motorcycle gang to do "security" (yeah right). Well, when they came up with the brilliant motorcycle gang/security patrol idea, most of Coffee county and several of the surrounding counties (our county was one of them) had a fit. They said clean it up or we shut it down. I do know that the Marion County campground ended up locking their dump station due to the Bonaroo RVers being unable to use the dump without making a mess of the place by not using sewer hoses when dumping their tanks (non-campers had to pay extra to dump). The Nickajack/Shellmound TVA park locked their dump station gates for the Bonaroo Rvers the summer we packed up the house and got rid of it (we stayed in the campground while we packed up). I had to get the campground hosts to unlock the dump station so I would dump my blue tote. That was the only time I had seen the dump station ever locked. They said it was because for 3 years in a row (including the previous year), the Bonaroo Rvers tore up the dump station and put it out of service. They also were dumping without paying (big sign on dump station said to pay for dumping). As for how they could tell that the people had been to Bonaroo... Their RV's had "Bonaroo" written all over them. As few bad ones can ruin everything for the majority. But Bonaroo had a very bad reputation.