Among the best, however, were soon-to-be ex-Mrs. Jack White (also known as the ethereal Karen Elson), Australian garage rock trio Band of Skulls, and the always enjoyable, festival staples of Mumford & Sons and Florence + the Machine. Crowd favorites? Definitely all of the electronic bands: Bassnectar, Girl Talk,Ratatat, Pretty Lights, and STS9 had me and everyone still functioning at 4AM dancing until the sun rose, part of a massive multi-colored ocean of glow sticks, illuminated swords, and epileptic hula hoops. My personal favorite? No shame here: Eminem was hands-down the best performance of Bonnaroo 2011. If there is one thing you need to do before you die, it’s seeing this rap god spit fire for an hour and a half with a heavy dose of old material mixed with new, jumping around the stage in a manner that belies his sobriety. In short, he was incredible.
While the compilation of talented performers was completely worth every hardship, there are a few reasons while I will likely not be returning to Bonnaroo next year. Not counting the unbearable amount of frat boys and sororstitutes that comes with any entity going “mainstream,” I, as a true music fan and avid concert-goer, could not deal with the set-up of the stages. The main stages were fine, but the medium-sized stages, the “tents,” were not set up for the 90,000+ fans in attendance. The stages were too low to the ground and were set at the bottom of land with such a small decline that many of the audience members could not see the bands they paid $315 plus transportation fees to see.
However, I know I’ll be hightailing it right back to Manchester, Tennessee, bandana tied around my face to keep from developing smoker’s lung in the span of a single day, if I was assured that I would have a reasonable view. Or, you know, if the line-up is really great.
