In this, my ninth year covering the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, I've grown used to rumors about Bonnaroo having been "bought."
I can't tell you how many times people have asked me, "Has Bonnaroo changed since MTV bought it?" As far as I know, MTV doesn't own a share in Bonnaroo. I'm not sure if MTV owns MTV. Last year another rumor I heard was that Kanye West was only able to take the main stage after his dramatic "Squidbrains" flameout in 2008 by purchasing a share in Bonnaroo.
That's why when another writer asked me this year what I thought about Live Nation buying Bonnaroo, I shrugged it off.
This time it turns out the rumor is true.
Bonnaroo was founded in 2002 through a partnership between AC Entertainment and Superfly and has since shaped itself into the primary mover and shaker in the world of festival entertainment. This purchase by Live Nation adds a powerful tent pole to the already impressive array of festivals they have a stake in.
There are hundreds of festivals in the United States, but Bonnaroo is by far the most comprehensive and immersive. Many of the countries larger festivals (like Riverbend), are day festivals. Bonnaroo is a camping festivals that runs 24 hours a day for four days straight with an unlimited variety of entertainment including a theatre, comedy tent, workshops, non-profit booths and workshops, hundreds of vendors, and a huge number of bands playing concurrently across multiple stages.
Rolling Stone magazine called Bonnaroo "One of the 50 Moments that changed the History of Rock and Roll."
In a joint press release dated April 28, Superfly, AC Entertainment and Live nation announced that Live Nation had bought a "controlling interest" in Bonnaroo.
What does this mean for Bonnaroo, our "local" beloved music festival? It's hard to tell. The mantra among the dispossessed among Bonnaroo fans is that its grown "too commercial." I've been attending Bonnaroo since 2006, and as far as I can tell, itís more or less the same festival now as it was then.
It seems like most of the real changes happened in the first 3 years when the powers that be were still forming the literal groundwork for what would become the most successful music festival on the planet.
Sure, Bonnaroo is commercial, but is it growing ìmoreî commercial or does it seem to be commercializing in a calculated way? Not yet. Not that Iíve seen.
One slant I can clearly see though is that the lineup in past years has drifted more toward EDM. Itís easy to see why. EDM is favored by younger festival goers and I think the nod toward hiring more EDM talent is a reflection of that. By my count, a much larger portion of the music this year was EDM, and for me and a lot of my friends, this is a drawback and could be seen as a move in more commercial direction. Itís a definite grab for ticket sales in the younger demographic, and generally speaking, I think an EDM show requires less ground support than a full band.
Either way, Bonnaroo is commercial by definition. Its purpose is to generate income which it does with admirable dexterity.
With an undeniably large economic footprint, Bonnaroo sold 70,000 tickets in its first year with the backing of the Dave Matthews organization as a guaranteed headliner. In the past couple of years, ticket sales have been bumped to 80,000, and the festival is said to gross around 25 million dollars per year.
A study by Greyhill Advisors showed that the 2012 Bonnaroo brought in approximately $51 million to the economy of Tennessee.
Since then, it's grown to be not only a music provider, but a music maker. When a band hits one of the big stages at ëRoo, it's an undeniable sign of growth. This year, My Morning Jacket and Mumford and Sons, both relative unknowns ten years ago, took the main stage as headliners.
I first saw those two bands in past years further down the roster at Bonnaroo on a smaller stage.
The benefit of being exposed to a captive audience of close to a hundred thousand is obvious. It helps up and coming bands in an era when they make very little from record sales.
In an interview with Billboard magazine, Ashley Capps, founder of AC Entertainment said of the Live Nation purchase;
ìThe conversations built organically from discussions about partnering with Live Nation on some other festival concepts that might take place on The Farm. We started talking about potential infrastructure development and, really, one conversation led to another. As these discussions went forward, internally we felt like this was a strategic alliance that could really help us take Bonnaroo to the next level and strengthen the festival for years to comeî
When asked what the next level for Bonnaroo is, Capps replied, "The key words are 'enhance' and 'evolve.' It's not like there's going to be any sudden transformation, at all. The team that has been working on The Farm and producing the Bonnaroo experience from the very first year to the present day is the same team, it's going to remain the same team. This will simply give us the access to resources and knowledge that will enable us to evolve the festival experience in a really compelling way."
When Billboard asked Rick Farman, co-founder of Superfly, what changes were coming, he said,
"I don't think you'll see anything this year. The major change people will notice over the coming years is in how we improve the Farm and the things weíre able to do in that regard. Otherwise, it's kind of business as usual for Superfly and AC. We're the operators going forward, and the team that has been producing it is going to continue producing it, and that's what we're empowered to do here, use the resources and support that the Live Nation network provides and to go on and do that great job we've been doing for many years. Ultimately, if you're a fan of Bonnaroo, you're going to see us be able to do things that the community has always asked for. Other than that, I don't think there will be any significant or meaningful impact that fans of Bonnaroo, people that are part of our community, the people in the local community, will see. The only adjunct to that is we're going to put a greater emphasis on bringing some other events to the Farm, which I think will be beneficial to everyone involved, the Bonnaroo community and the local and regional community, as well."
When asked how Capps would respond to fansí concern about how Bonnaroo would change, he replied, "The experience of the festival itself will address the fans' concerns. The values of Bonnaroo, the vibe of Bonnaroo, no one wants to see that change, itís not going to change. This alliance with Live Nation is only going to give us the resources to continue to improve that experience perhaps a little more quickly than we've been able to do before, in terms of just basic infrastructure that enables us to do what we do better."
I guess we'll see. In my experience, the only thing you can count on other than death and taxes is change, and Bonnaroo was bound to change eventually, although it has been remarkably solid over the past nine years.
Some insight into the future of Bonnaroo might be gleaned from the state of Live Nation and their recent acquisitions. Theyíve been busily acquiring festivals across the country, most recently having bought a controlling interest in C3 Presents, an Austin, Texas organization that produces Austin City Limits and Lollapalooza.
It's no secret that Live Nation has a vivid interest in buying real estate in the live show business, and they're busily about it.
What this means for the future of Bonnaroo is uncertain, but as with all things Bonnaroo, it's bound to be interesting.
I think that one of the drawbacks in building a conglomerate is the "Wal-Mart" mentality or the trimming and cutting which seems to go hand in hand with a desire to maximize profits. Maybe Live Nation will turn out to be the exception that disproves the rule. Here's hoping.
The 2015 Bonnaroo Lineup Was:
Billy Joel, Mumford & Sons, Deadmau5, Earth Wind & Fire, Kendrick Lamar, Florence and The Machine, Robert Plant and The Sensational Space Shifters, My Morning Jacket, Bassnectar, Alabama Shakes, Childish Gambino, Flume,
Hozier, Slayer, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Belle and Sebastian, Spoon, The War On Drugs, STS9, Ben Folds, SuperJam, Atmosphere, Atomic Bomb!, Who Is William Onyeabor?, Tears for Fears, Brandi Carlile, Twenty|One Pilots, The Bluegrass Situation SuperJam featuring Ed Helms & Special Guests, Flying Lotus, Earth Wind & Fire, Caribou, Gary Clark Jr., SBTRKT, Punch Brothers, Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood, Tove Lo, Run the Jewels, Dawes,
G-Eazy, Trampled By Turtles, Sturgill Simpson, Moon Taxi, AWOLNATION, Sylvan, Esso, Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn, Guster, Jamie XX, Against Me!, Odesza, SOJA, Jerry Douglas Presents Earls of Leicester, Bleachers, Rudimental, Mac DeMarco, Tycho, The Very Best, Freddie Gibbs & Madlib, Shakey Graves, Shabazz Palaces, Gramatik, Mø, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Jungle, Benjamin Booker, Houndmouth, The Growlers, Glass Animals, Ana Tijoux, SZA, Courtney Barnett, Rhiannon Giddens, Royal Blood, Tanya Tagaq, Woods, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Iceage, Temples, Between The Buried & Me, Rustie, Ryn Weaver, Dopapod, Pokey LaFarge, Priory, Bahamas, Strand of Oaks, Phox, Gregory Alan Isakov, Brownout Presents BROWN SABBATH, The Districts, Madisen Ward & Mama Bear, DMA’s, Catfish & The Bottlemen, Jon Cleary & The Absolute Monster Gentlemen, Pallbearer, Dej Loaf, Christopher Denny, Hiss Golden Messenger, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas, Unlocking the Truth
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Fil Manley
filmanley@gmail.com
“When you again start hoping, with your arms wide open, dance with me into the colors of the dusk”
~Ben Harper / “In the Colors”