Hi Friends!

I wanted to give everyone an update on the carpool/driving situation. The gods of all that is Roo have blessed us this year with an extra groop camping pass! Originally we thought we were getting ten, but instead OURS GOES UP TO ELEVEN!

Huzzah! With that said, based on your responses to the survey sent out a couple of weeks ago, here are the car groups for Bonnaroo. 

ATTENTION DRIVERS - please email me your address so I can mail you the parking pass! Thanks!

Car #1 - Paige, Emma, Abby, Rita

Car #2 - Erin S., Casey, Erin C., Lindsey

Car #3 - Alicia, Will

Car #4 - Maria, Raffy, Justin

Car #5 - Ryan, Trevor

Car #6 - Lev, Ari, Jeremy

Car #7 - Shana, Elora, Zach

Car #8 - Brian, Andrew

Car #9 - Maitreya, Kevin, Shaun, Kartik

Car #10 - Steve, Chelsea, Meg, Sean

Car #11 - Evan, Matt P., Matt M.

If you feel like any of the above is incorrect or have any questions, go ahead and post in the comments below, or message me on the book of face, or email me. 

Can't wait to boogie with everyone on the farm!!

Some props for the photobooth!

 Some stuff for our groop contribution -- the photo booth. The tribal box is one of those fabric boxes that folds down into a flat surface -- so perfect for packing but a great place to hold all the props at the photo booth! the flower is pretty big. i'm going to spray paint the frame gold and the sign gold. i figured we could tape the 3 neon innertube together to make a massive bonnaroo symbol once we're on the farm. i have a hand pump to blow them up & gold masking tape (or we could use clear).

more photobooth props! huge ass inflatable tube that looks like a donut with a bite taken out of it. two neckties (one is pizza printed and the other is of intergalactic kittens riding a rocket). freaky ass sunglasses. some standard photo booth props (spectacles, slice that may be a pizza slice or pie slice, round circle that i may make into a lollipop or large E pill). sticks for additional signs / items / props. wolverine mask.

Everything is either from Five And Below or Michaels!

Comment your contributions!

A list of things to avoid doing so you don't get pulled over!

From the friendlies on Reddit: 

I'd love it if others added to this as well. Cops will be looking for reasons to pull you over! Avoid the following easy to remember things:

• Obstructed view: make sure you can see out your back window!
• Riding too close on someone: make sure the person in front of you has plenty of room.
• Not using turning signals to shift lanes: use them blinkers!
• Littering!: We're supposed to be green anyway, right? Don't throw stuff out of your window! Keep a bag in your car.

  ALSO KNOW THAT THROWING A CIGARETTE BUTT OUT OF THE WINDOW IS CONSIDERED LITTERING IN TN, AND THROWING A LIT CIGARETTE BUTT OUT OF THE WINDOW CAN BE CONSIDERED THROWING A DANGEROUS OBJECT OUT OF A MOVING VEHICLE. (consulted with a police officer on this one, he said if he's really searching for something to pull someone over for, that's usually an easy one)

• SEATBELTS!: Buckle up.
• Make sure all blinkers, headlights & taillights are working.
• KEEP YOUR SPEED DOWN!: Theyre lowering speeds all through TN! Keep an eye on your speed and don't go over!
• If you pass a car (especially a semi), don't merge until there's plenty of room between you and the car.
• Avoid passing too many people altogether: Just goooo with the floooow man.
• WRITING ON YOUR WINDOWS: Bonnaroo bound all over your windows is just asking to get pulled over!
• Have your co-pilot man your cell phone!: Avoid having it in your hand at all. The naughty texts can wait, and your copilot can handle the rest! No copilot? Use hands free options on your phone or leave it alone.
• Wear some plain clothes on the way up: Your awesome, colourful, spiffy, scant festival wear is awesome at roo, but try to wear some normal garb on the way up. The loud clothing is a cop magnet.
• Keep your eye on the road!: Have a passenger grab the next CD or the cell phone you dropped in the floor. Taking your eyes off the road for one moment can cause you to swerve.

Also remember to keep an updated insurance card and registration in your car. Don't forget your ID! MAKE SURE YOUR VEHICLE REGISTRATION IS UP TO DATE. If it's not, stop by your DMV. If you can't, take another car. This is a freebie for the cops to pull you over.

Know your rights. You don't have to consent to a search, unless they have probable cause to search you. The magic words "Am I free to go?" are your best way out. If you get pulled over & have to do this, DOUBLE WATCH YOURSELF THE REST OF THE WAY TO ROO. You'll have a giant target on your back as you'll look suspicious, even if all you wanted was to get on your way to get in line for roo.

When you get to Roo, make sure you pull off to the side of the road in the line. Don't block the right lane.Cops were apparently being really strict about this last year!

Download the app WAZE! It's a social GPS where lots of Roogoers (including my crew) will be reporting cops & speed traps in real time! Make sure your copilot handles this as well. ;)

If you like to, ahem, smooooke in your car, try to avoid it on the way to roo. If you DO get pulled over, the second they smell anything, they'll have probable cause to search your vehicle. No bueno.

Festivals 101: Who played the worst Bonnaroo set ever?

Reposted from the Examiner, for those who don't know why it's contreversal that Kanye is playing this year's Bonnaroo. I was in the pit for this show back in 2008 and it did suck. Especially after a full day of Roo'ing. Seeing a 'glow in the dark' in the morning makes for maybe the weakest show ever.

My article a few days ago about the best Bonnaroo set ever has certainly sparked its share of controversy. Radiohead detractors and defenders of other Bonnaroo acts have weighed in with opinions of their own about what is the best set in the history of Bonnaroo.

While the best show at Bonnaroo might still be up for debate, the worst show in the history of Bonnaroo is, if not universally accepted, at least supported by a strong majority of members of the Bonnaroo fan community. The very mention of this artist is enough to elicit boos, anger, and vitriol from Bonnaroo fans everywhere. This artist is a textbook example of everything you shouldn’t do if you want to impress a Bonnaroo crowd. The artist? Kanye West.

Bonnaroo has long been friendly to rap and hip hop artists so many were anticipating that Kanye West’s 2008 performance might be one of the best of the weekend. West had drawn good reviews for his “Glow in the Dark” tour and Bonnaroo often brings out the best in larger than life performers.

The trouble started before the festival even began. Originally slotted for a Saturday night pre-headliner slot on the Which Stage, Bonnaroo’s second largest, West insisted that he couldn’t play at 8 PM and couldn’t fit his giant “glow in the dark” set onto the Which Stage. Bonnaroo accommodated his requests by moving him to an unprecedented What Stage late night performance at 2:30 AM. For most bands, the problem would have been solved. For Kanye West, it was just the beginning.

After an epic Pearl Jam set ran 45 minutes long, crews came out to begin the turnaround, breaking down Pearl Jam’s show and setting up for Kanye West’s anticipated 2:30 AM slot. Many of the 70,000 people who were watching Pearl Jam wandered off to see other artists, particularly Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, who was playing a midnight to 4 AM set on the Which Stage, but a respectable crowd had gathered by the 2:30 AM start time for West’s performance.

Around that time, a sign flashed up that West’s show would begin at 3. Later there was a sign that said 3:15, then 3:30, then “Coming Up Next.” By 3:45, many in the crowd were wandering away, disappointed and choosing to check out other shows or get some sleep for Sunday’s shows. As the crowd thinned at the What Stage, another group coming from the Which Stage began to join them and word began to surface that Phil Lesh, who usually runs long, had ended his set early with some cryptic comments about Kanye’s set.

West finally appeared on stage around 4:30 to a chorus of boos and thrown water bottles. His “Glow in the Dark” show, which had become an impromptu “Glow in the Dawn” set, was shortened by the rising sun, and West’s performance was less than stellar. Worse yet, rumors began to float through the festival grounds that West’s lateness and Phil Lesh’s shortened set were both a result of a Kanye West diva fit where he refused to go on stage if anyone else was playing.

The results were immediate. Graffiti appeared on the walls saying “Kanye Sucks.” Several Sunday artists, including Robert Randolph and Yonder Mountain String band made commentary on the incident during their sets, to the delight of the crowd. The incident even warranted a caps-locked and virtually unintelligible blog post from West himself.

While the incident has died down, the hatred has not. The 2009 Bonnaroo Festival saw plenty of “Kanye Sucks” signs, graffiti, and calls. West has become such a negative figure in the Bonnaroo fan community that one fan message board uses an automated profanity filter to insert “Kanye” in place of a particular naughty word.

Were you at the Kanye West show at Bonnaroo 2008? Have you seen a Bonnaroo show that you think is even worse than Kanye? Let me know in the comments section.

Read Kanye's entire response here.

A RooMoo&BiddieBoos Contribution to Groop Camp Activites: Roo-booth

You may have seen an email from Groop Camping highlight some cool perks of being part of this year's groop camping contingent -- one of which is the option to contribute a community building event / activity to help ignite connections (& let's be real -- social drinking) among groops.

Groops are encouraged to submit their contributions to this shared Google spreadsheet, which will later feed into a groop calendar that will be displayed at the farm. You can check out the living doc here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13f98HO0QYBd229EFJDpaMkDBY_fa12cY4wSR3upETEM/edit#gid=0

There's a lot of great ideas already up there (e.g. Step 13 Roobot's Moon Howl, FARMily's Roo-Vibes Karma Trading Post, Bonnaroo Make Me Do It's Local Beer Exchange), so I was trying to brainstorm some cool, yet cheap, and potential something that could happen all the time without a lot of commitment on our end.

So I thought of reinventing the "photobooth" idea you see a lot of people DIYing for weddings, but making it way bigger & Bonnaroo-theme; thus, I give you the "Roo-booth" (potentially a placeholder name that will eventually replace with something way cooler -- so comment your ideas!!). I figure we'd need only the following cheap items:

• king sized sheet, which we'd be able to attach to one of the sides our EZ-tents that would double as a shade barrier, that would have a dope Bonnaroo-related mural
• props related to Bonnaroo that we'd make from repurposed materials, bring from home or buy from a dollar store (think 'Fuck Kanye' sign, big hand for "high-fives," Elton John glasses, etc.); Abby thought of some old ping pong paddles as potentially materials for making signs or 'thought bubbles', etc.). Items don't have to be specifically Bonnaroo related. I think we should have a grumpy cat in there, etc.
• bucket or box to hold all props; could be a cardboard box that we pop up -- cool if we could find a dollar store treasure trove cardboard box.

I figure this would be a cool way to have groopies come by to snap pictures with friends using their phones, digital cameras, etc. I thought we could also have a few disposable cameras on hand so people can leave some candid pics, which I could develop later and post online for tagging by groopies.

From our groop, are there any artists out there that would love to let their creative juices run wild and create the proposed mural? I don't have anything really in mind, so you can do whateverrrr you want. (Update: Elora said she is gonna hit up a Walmart for a cheap sheet and get some dye to create a dope tie-dyed backdrop. Feel free to connect with her via Facebook if you have additional ideas for the sheet.)

If anyone has items for props, I encourage people bring them with them! If every person brings at least 2, we could have 60 props for people to choose from!!! Which would be dope. I'd make sure they're not your most prized possessions -- there's always a chance someone might love it so much that they want to take it and wear it all Bonnaroo.. we won't really be policing the 'booth' -- which is the beauty of it!!

We can totally do other events / activities, but I wanted to get something on the board for our groop. Let me know if you have other ideas or enhancements.

PS -- This is the description currently posted to the Groop Camp spreadsheet (feel free to comment adds or edits):

We're creating a dope backdrop and supplying many fun bonnaroo-inspired props for use in our "photo booth." Stop by, dress up, get down & snap a pic with your own digital device of choice. We'll also have a few disposable cameras available that we'll later develop & publish online for post-roo reminiscing. Feel free to bring other odd props to contribute to our treasure trove of disguises, signs & items.

Welcome welcome

Hi friends!! 

I am starting this so we can communicate updates and pertinent informations. I recently sent out a survey for your travels plans. If you did not get it, you can access it here:

Groop Camping Survey

The reason this survey was sent out is this:

"A minimum of 24 people... gets you 8 vehicle passes to park in the Groop Camping area. The Groop Leader will assign them as needed. Remember, fewer vehicles in your groop will mean more space to camp within your area, so make plans to carpool if you can and keep the extra passes as souvenirs. What if you have more than 24 people? Bigger party! Additional Groopies can be added easily. For every 3 additional people, you’ll get one more vehicle pass. You don’t need a special wristband or anything to enter the Groop Camping area. Anyone with a festival wristband can visit you, but vehicles are limited to those with Groop Camping passes. And remember, everyone must fit within the assigned group space given and not block other groups or emergency access. blablabla"

Our groop total is: 32 - which means we will get 10 passes to be handed out. The survey will help us identify people's travel plans...and try to sort this whole mess out so everyone gets to the farm when they want, how they want. 

I promise that I will do my best to accommodate each of your travel plans and/or requests as best as I can. Promise.

Paige and I will be posting updates and things here, so come back here and if you have any questions or want to point out how anal retentive I am about tracking/coordinating/organizing this, please feel free to add that in the comments below. For now, I leave you with this: