Founders and organizers of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival spoke to MTSU students on Wednesday about what it takes to plan the world-renowned annual event.
The morning session of “Bonnaroo: The Making of a Music Festival” focused on the business aspects of running “‘Roo,” which has drawn more than 80,000 people to Manchester, Tennessee every summer for 13 years. Afternoon sessions centered on choosing acts to perform and the use of social media to promote the event.
Bonnaroo founders Ashley Capps of AC Entertainment and Jon Mayers of Superfly Presents recounted Bonnaroo’s 2002 arrival in Middle Tennessee and how they overcame the negative stigma of music festivals gone bad, such as Woodstock. They also discussed at length how they plan each year’s lineup.
“Every festival has its core vibe,” Capps said. “In the case of Bonnaroo, its about plenty. There are 180 some-odd bands out there and diversity and the richness of that diversity at every level of the booking is, for us, the thing that characterizes Bonnaroo.”
They also stressed that Bonnaroo is more about the “complete experience” than just the music.
“It’s not just about the bands, which is obviously a very big part of it, but all of the other attractions, how our attendees are treated, [and] the community,” Mayers said. “That’s really something that we’re very focused on continuing developing.”
The organizers said turning the pastures into a temporary city of 80,000 offers a number of logistical problems. A panel of Bonnaroo supervisors responsible for overseeing thousands of employees broke down various aspects of the festival including campground layout, security, shopping areas, concessions and ticketing.
The day’s second session focused on the community facets of the festival. Topics included the importance of volunteers, how students can get involved with working behind the scenes and the various ways to work in the music business outside of working for a record label. Panelists also informed students on Bonnaroo’s community involvement through economic impacts, environmental offsets and charitable aspects of the Bonnaroo Works Fund, which grants funding to various Middle Tennessee organizations including Murfreesboro’s Center for the Arts, The Land Trust For Tennessee and several Manchester schools.
“They’re really about the sense of community and not just about making money off tickets,” said Jamie Martin, sophomore audio production major and Bonnaroo attendee. “They really care about the people that attend their [festival].”
Sessions continued throughout the afternoon on the music, programming and the marketing of Bonnaroo.
“This is a world class festival and to have them on our campus to provide that kind of experience is absolutely fantastic,” university President Sydney McPhee said. “That’s what MTSU’s all about. It separates up from other universities.”
To see our past Bonnaroo coverage, click here.
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Given the opportunity for students to participate in business attributes within the Bonnaroo events is tremendously helpful for the music business majors. Founders of Bonnarroo are very smart and kind in both senses when thinking of how they can benefit from students working for them and also contributing to the growth of the Bonnarro events that’ll come within the future. Ideas of how the shows can be performed differently, more involvement with fans during shows, and additional stage props, can all be given by young ambitious students who are learning about the constantly evolving music industry that is present in America today.
This event allowing employment for hundreds of individuals young and old helps the best of both worlds. Furthermore, since the founders are allowing students to work the event, with physical labor, and to have their artists perform, is a double whammy for opportunities. Me being able to experience the event personally,I can say that there are plenty of jobs for people to perform who are in need of employment. Jobs such as taking tickets, cleaning urinals, cleaning trailers, monitoring shop areas, supervising water areas, and cell phone booths.
Negative aspects of the music festival has been brought down to little to none, and I think that is very important, as the founder adds in his article, because this is an event for excitement and fun. This event is to help individuals experience the time of their lives and I think Bonarroo is successful at doing so.