Whether it's your first Bonnaroo or you’re a music festival veteran, we welcome you to Inforoo.
Here you'll find info about artists, rumors, camping tips, and the infamous Roo Clues. Have a look around then create an account and join in the fun. See you at Bonnaroo!!
Post by billypilgrim on Nov 20, 2012 21:19:07 GMT -5
It's simple. There will always be people with way more money and way fewer responsibilities. They're also eating better food, drinking better booze, taking better no no words, and getting oral sex from more beautiful people. Try not to obsess over it.
as a teacher i obviously get summers off, plus 10 "sick" days a year (that roll over if you don't use them). the only reason i'm able to do as much as i can is b/c even though i am almost 30 my mom feels sorry for me and pays for things that would take away from traveling (medical bills, new tires etc.). she bought my plane ticket to bonnaroo for my birthday and also my moog flight just b/c. (also qsaroo helped after my kidney surgery this year!) i am completely debt free thanks to my family, i am a very lucky girl. in addition to that, even though i went to 6 fests this year, 4 of them were < 225 miles from where i live.
Post by spacegrass on Nov 20, 2012 22:19:14 GMT -5
I usually hit up around 5 fests a year and a good bit of shows. Married with a kid. I work in an office mon-thurs and can make up anytime I miss on the weekends. I don't really spend my money on much else but shows. I also know people in most cities I travel to so I always have free stay. I mostly take the summer off and just save throughout the year for festie season. I could make more money doing something else but I love having such an open schedule.
yes, i only took one non-music related vacation this year to comic con in san diego and i stayed on cks's couch for free and used my tax return to buy my plane ticket.
I have 5 weeks of vacation. Soon to get 6. But I'm older than dirt. And I worked my ass off to get here.
The majority of my vacations are music related. I don't smoke, drink (usually) or do any other vice that costs a shit lot of money. So my cash goes into maintaining my mundane low key lifestyle, and feeding my music addiction.
Post by abrakapokus on Nov 21, 2012 13:12:59 GMT -5
Dave and I enter a lot of contests, not just facebook ones but creative ones too. I also do street team to gain points. Tonight, before Mimosa, I'll be handbilling to work off my next fest/concert. We are given a lot too, when friends can't go to concerts or festivals or through qsaroo and presents <3 We do have two small kids which I homeschool and I work 2 days a week for myself. I can move my clients around to have the days off I want and we homeschool on holiday vacations and Saturdays to make up for any days miss. My parents living just a few miles down the road helps us out a lot. I didn't go anywhere for the first 5 years after I had children because they were so attached and nursing so my parents are okay with us going out now. Money is always an issue for us but music and friends are what makes it worth working our butts off at jobs we don't necessarily love.
We're in a weird position too. We can "afford" to do more shows and fests than we could have in the past but time is tricky. My DH has to request all of his "major" vacation at once. So next month we'll get the calendar for 2012 vacation requests. 15 years in and he's still junior at his office so we have to really coordinate. The kids are cool and we're trying to take them to more shows now that they're getting older. Part of our problem is that everything seems to be so far. Raleigh's 2-21/2 hrs. Atlanta 6 hrs and roo is a solid 10. So we do roo, and some "local" things.
The weird thing that has happened with us is that I think Roo has made us cheap. I have a tough time dropping 50 bucks to see one act when I know I'm going to see so many at roo and whatever other fest we hit.
I have a group of about 10 friends who have a collection of fest bracelets so large, it makes me want to cry. They only use their PTO for fests. They all volunteer at the fests. They also carpool together. They are very good at living on a budget so that they have the money they need to eat and travel.
Oh, and two of them have loaded parents. That helps a lot.
Since I have been at my new job for a year and a half, I have two weeks vacation and personal time that accrues. I was able to squeeze 4 fests out of that (Bella Fiore, Forecastle, Bonnaroo, Newport Folk) Plus my new location is close to Freefest and DC has as many shows as I can make time for. It has been a good year and a half, and still getting better. It really is a matter of priorities. Those of you with spouses/kids I'm sure have a much tougher time working fests into your schedule.
Post by daytripperr on Nov 21, 2012 21:06:57 GMT -5
i grew up in the palm springs area, so i've been to coachella 7x (or something) but because i literally lived right there. this is true for many other regional fests i've been to in california and colorado (where i went to college). now living in NC, i'm closer to a lot of others (bonnaroo, moog, etc). plus we usually drive, camp or stay in hostels, and try to do it the cheapest way possible.
I have had it pretty good the last 4 years. I have had a scholarship that paid all of my tuition plus was giving me 2-3 thousand a year for "living expenses". I never moved out of my parents so those living expenses became summer festivals. One top of that I got a decent job which brought in even more. That job has become being the manager which pays really well for a student job and has the most flexible hours ever. Because of my major I'm not able to work much during the semester but during the summer I can work full time when im in town and take as much time off as I want. It is a pretty sweat gig.
Now that it is my fifth year of college most of those scholarships have run dry and I'm planning on moving out pretty soon. I'm almost completely broke and my income is dropping, but I know I only have a summer or two left of real free time so I am going to make it work no matter what.
I'm almost completely broke and my income is dropping, but I know I only have a summer or two left of real free time so I am going to make it work no matter what.
You might be almost broke right now, but kudos for (I assume) maintaining your grades and staying out of student loan debt, because without those payments you'll be able to afford festivals for years to come. You might even be able to afford to retire someday.
I'm almost completely broke and my income is dropping, but I know I only have a summer or two left of real free time so I am going to make it work no matter what.
You might be almost broke right now, but kudos for (I assume) maintaining your grades and staying out of student loan debt, because without those payments you'll be able to afford festivals for years to come. You might even be able to afford to retire someday.
Well kind of. Now that the majority of my scholarships have run out my grandparents are paying my tuition. I have taken out federally subsidized this year to help with everything else. I know its not the smartest decision but they have like 2% interest that doesn't start accruing until I graduate so its not going to be back breaking
When I was going to lots of festivals several years ago, it was because I worked in retail and could just not be scheduled whenever. Yeah, I didn't get paid for it, but I had the flexibility. When I had a job with the benefit of PTO, I accrued 8 hours of vacation time and 8 hours of sick time every month. I was only able to go to two festivals every year because we were also forced to use two days of vacation over the Christmas holiday (which was balls).
We are slowly building up how many festivals we go to in a year. We live in the DC area so FreeFest is simple, but we are now doing two travel fests a year. Our daughter will be 4 in a couple months and we've decided she's old enough to go to one with us (FloydFest) and we will go to one alone (Forecastle most likely). These are our only vacations. I have built up a lot of PTO being at my job for over 5 years and my husband is self-employed.
When we went to Forecastle I met some MMJ followers, and they were over 30 and professionals. They said they are business owners and chose that job because of the flexibility to follow their music passion. They are a group of about 8 couples across the country who schedule their vacations together to go to fests and MMJ shows. They even coordinate childcare so sometimes their kids can come and stay with the local folks during the actual show. Must say it sounded pretty awesome...
Post by mattlikesrock on Nov 28, 2012 10:41:19 GMT -5
This year I went to Hangout, Bonnaroo, Music Midtown, and CounterPoint. (I have also been to Lolla, Beale Street, and several others) Here are a few things that work for me.
I will just speak to cost. I think the "afford" part mainly breaks down into these 3 categories.
Tickets The only one I bought tickets to was Bonnaroo. I was able to get tickets for the other three because I covered them for one of the two blogs I work with (on a very, very part-time basis). I was also approved for Forecastle, but had to cancel last minute. I have only ever been rejected by one festival. If you like to write and take pictures, and you have any drive towards doing it at all, you can probably get on with some blog/local newspaper/etc. somewhere, and go as media without having to do much regular work throughout the year. That's what I do.
Lodging Hangout - crashed on the pull out couch of a fellow Inforooster for the weekend for $50. Bonnaroo - I made friends with locals at the first Roo in 2002 and I have stayed with them every year since. Also, camping is of course free. Music Midtown and CounterPoint - I have a cousin in Midtown and an aunt in Douglasville. Main point: Network, Couch Surf, barter, and be a good guest so that you get invited back
Travel As you can tell I only went to festivals in the south. It's obviously easier if you stay regional (and it helps with not needing to take as many, or any, vacation days.) When I work as media I usually get two tickets. I will usually offer to take a friend and give them the second ticket for free if they will just put gas in the car. And sometimes I make them carry my camera just to show them who's in charge. ;D jk This saves them a lot of money, and me a little. It's an arrangement that has worked well for us. You can also carpool to things with friends that you have arranged to split gas with up front, or you can probably find a carpool buddy to a lot of things on great sites like this one. Lots of the people on here carpool to Roo together.
And finally, I think the main thing is that in the end you do what you want to do. I have friends that tell me every year, "I want to go to Bonnaroo so bad but I can't afford it!" And then they will go to a crazy expensive college football game, buy a bunch of video games, or go out to eat every day for lunch. I do those other things in moderation, but probably less than if I didn't go to music festivals. There are times when I'm sure cost is a real factor, but most of the time it's that we are just choosing something else over them.
It's simple. There will always be people with way more money and way fewer responsibilities. They're also eating better food, drinking better booze, taking better no no words, and getting oral sex from more beautiful people. Try not to obsess over it.
Uma! Less teeth!!
Thank you for that completely zen thought. Obsessing over it is indeed counterproductive. I am infinitely thankful for everything that I do have and try not to dwell on what I do not have.
I did 7 fests two years ago and 4 last summer. I'm hoping for at least 4 this summer. I'm in college, but still work 40 hours a week. I volunteer when I can, get connections for free tickets, buy the ones I can't get or volunteer for, carpool, and live cheap. Festivals are the thing I have the most fun at, so I try to make it work the best I can without selling heady goods out of my bus.
This was my first year to attend multiple fests, and I was able to squeeze in 3. The only way I managed is because I am currently at my folks, and not paying rent. My boss also lets me have PTO whenever I want, because I often work late and on my days off.
But now I'm moving, so this next year will be tight. I'm not certain how i'm going to fit in everything I want to do (Wanee, Roo and Burning Man), but dammit, I'm gonna try
Post by hiddenzombie013 on Nov 29, 2012 2:02:33 GMT -5
This year I went to three festivals (Bonnaroo, Deluna, and Counterpoint), and I was able to pull it off pretty well. I got a summer job that payed really well, and I called off almost a week for Roo (since I was volunteering). I could have gone to Orion as well, but I didn't want to ask for another extended period of time away less than two months after starting, so I passed. School was coming up, and due to my job's grueling hours (5:30-midnight M-F) and my class schedule starting so early (one class I had started at 7:30), I left that job on good terms. I stayed right until the first week of Deluna, and then had back-to-back weekends of festival goodess.
This makes this coming year a bit tricky, but I'd love to do more than 3 in 2013. Bonnaroo is a no-brainer, and I'll probably keep going as long as they keep having them (even if tha means until I'm old). I'm almost definitely doing Ultra, and I'm pretty dead set on doing my first ever Lollapalooza as well (since that'll be my first fest I'm 21 for!). I'm considering Hangout, Deluna, and Wanee next year, but it will come down to my school/work/financial situation at the time. Counterpoint is more likely than all of the others except for Roo and Ultra, since it was really cheap for me and not as much of a hassle to travel to (I also love working with WET). I'd also love to do Coachella in 2014 and ACL in 2015 (yes, I'm thinking that far out already).
Thankfully, I'm going to school for teaching, so once I graduate, I'll have every summer free, and the plan is to attend as many Bonnaroos and Lolapaloozas I can afford from there on out!
Post by Funky Munky on Nov 29, 2012 2:31:38 GMT -5
It's really pretty simple, first off if you can't afford it then you're not "loaded". Secondly, if you can't take the time off then I'm guessing you work for someone else. The key to doing what you want, and being "loaded" is working for yourself. Ownership gives you revenue opportunities and freedoms that you just can't get when you're not the guy running the show. I don't do every festival but I do all I care to and have plenty of time for other non-music travel and still have plenty of spare change in my pocket.
As long as you get a salary instead of a dividend it's an uphill battle. It always amazes me how many people seem content working for someone else instead of putting their own skin in the game. There may be a bit more risk but the rewards are well worth it.
I make $15-20k a year but am still able to travel for several months and do multiple fests. I'm 26, unmarried, have no debt, do not want children, and don't want to buy a house. Since I'm living just for me it makes things much easier.
I am a test subject for drug companies and haven't had to work in over four years. I choose when I do studies which means I'm able to be free when I want to be. I never know what studies I'll do until a month or two beforehand. Sometimes I plan on doing a fest but find a good study and cancel my plans if there's enough money to be made. I had tickets for Sasquatch this year but ended up selling them because of that. The unpredictability is a definite downside.
I live within my means, save money, and travel very cheap. I don't have a credit card or ever spend money I don't have. I found a small, cheap apartment and have been driving the same car for over seven years. It is very fuel efficient and until it explodes it will be my car. I use the library and internet for my media intake. I own very little and put all my money into experiences instead of things.
I sleep in my car or with family and friends and never get hotels. I traveled about four months this year and based a lot of that around festivals or seeing my sister in Portland. I maximize the experience by doing things along the way like finding places to stop and hike at on my route. This way when I vacation I am doing more than just music. If you research a bit you can find tons of free or cheap things to do that are awesome. I don't mean being forced to go to a dog parade as your entertainment option. I only do stuff I really like and generally am able to do it for almost nothing.
At fests I bring my own food and booze so I don't have to be overspending. I really only spend for my ticket and the cost of getting there. I don't spend money on merch, lodging, etc. In Minneapolis I am within walking distance to all the music venues so do that instead of taxis or driving and then paying to park. I see multiple shows a month. I generally like to be sober for a show but if I decide to drink I just do it on the way there so I'm not spending on drinks.
Live music is really important to me and it's what I spend virtually all my money on. Jimmy John's get the second most from me haha. I guess I've just made fests/concerts a priority for me, and much like what many of you are saying, live my life accordingly so it can happen.