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!!
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
Newport?
Last Edit: Dec 4, 2012 18:11:48 GMT -5 by LD - Back to Top
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
Newport?
LD, that's something I'll have to decide as it gets closer. Everything's up in the air and depends on the job I manage to get. But I will try - I had such a great time this year!
I've spent the last 3 years in Texas and am now in Louisiana. Now that extra travel time is involved and my vaca is more strict, I only get 1 maybe 2 fests a year.
Before that, I was in Ohio and super close to alot of things. I'd pull 3 or 4 fests plus I tone of other shows. This is how. 1. I got 2 weeks vaca time. 2. My job involved a lot of overtime, which I could choose to take as comp time. Comp time=lots of extra vaca time. 3. I'd take as little time off as possible per trip. Usually this meant driving through the night instead if taking an extra day off work for travel time. 4. I'd pay for my ticket, but I'd sell hoops at the Fest. This usually was enough to take care of all my expenses while there and gas.
Tada! Fest life!
Ps I also lived close to family, so I didn't need to use any of that vaca time for holidays like I do now.
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.
I love this, and I agree wholeheartedly. This happens a lot with my friends that are maybe more casual music fans than I am. I tell them I just paid $265 for a bonnaroo ticket, and they're like "man too rich for my blood!" Meanwhile they are smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, renting expensive condos at the beach for a week, eating out several times a week, getting starbucks everyday, etc.
Having said that, I think in their case it might be more of a case of where their passion lies. To them the money they are spending on that week at the beach (that could probably pay for 2-3 big festivals) is more important to them than roughing it on the farm. I think us festival addicts put our blinders on sometimes, thinking that festivals are the best thing in the world, and this feeling applies to EVERYONE. But not everyone likes the idea of spending 4 days in the Tennessee sun, getting no sleep, staying up all night, etc.
But having said THAT, when it comes to the eating out, smoking, starbucks, etc., I think most people in a lower income bracket could do well to cut that stuff out, and apply those funds to whatever it is they are passionate about. I think we see this potential for day-to-day luxury sacrifice more in festival addicts, because our level of passion for what we do is so absurdly high.
But not everyone likes the idea of spending 4 days in the Tennessee sun, getting no sleep, staying up all night, etc.
Wait, what???
Hotelaroo. Tons of music, then shower and get some sleep. I wouldn't do it any other way. Especially since the Tennessee sun is brutal to a northern guy like me.
1. Get a daddy job. If you look at my stats, I wasn't doing all that much until 2009. I walked with my Masters degree and literally hopped in a dirty hippie van for a Phish run leading to Bonnaroo (first hippie shows). When I was a college student I got a few good shows a year and lots of DIY house shows, punk rock etc.
2. Don't have children.
3. Don't piss money away on non-musical things. Just like Postjack mentioned above, I don't smoke, I barely eat out, I make lunch to take to work etc. My #1 expenditure in life is concert tickets. I'm very lucky though, because I don't have to pay rent because my old lady's parents let us live in their rental house for free. Dowry'd.
4. Plan ahead. Don't piss all your money away on booze at shows. Sneak flasks into places. Split gas/hotels with people.
5. Catch the bulk of your shows within a 3 hour radius. I can bounce in and out of NOLA with ease, but the 5+ hr ATL shows are always rough. Use strategy to deduce when bands are coming your way, if they will come back on a 2nd leg etc.
After MMJ (and whenever Death Grips comes around), I don't plan on going to see any shows until SxSW. And then, I don't want to pay much if anything to see shows there. Then I might not do anything after that until June.
Last year I went to; Coachella,Hangout, Summercamp, Bonnaroo, Electric forest, Pitchfork, Forecastle and Lollapalooza. I just have a good job that gives me the summers off I think all together I spent about 15k going to all of them but it was well worth it.
Last year I went to; Coachella,Hangout, Summercamp, Bonnaroo, Electric forest, Pitchfork, Forecastle and Lollapalooza. I just have a good job that gives me the summers off I think all together I spent about 15k going to all of them but it was well worth it.
That's incredible. Which one was your favorite (please don't say Electric Forest)?
No EF wasnt even close to my favorite, I really only went because I had heard such good things about the venue and I had press passes. Its really hard to say which was my favorite they were all so different but if I had to pick it would have to be Roo followed closely by Summercamp.
I have the summer off again this year but I dont think I will be going to that many this year just a select few.
I really liked it, I am from Illinois but this was my 1st year and I had a great time. Its very laid back and a much different atmosphere than the major fests. I liked being able to get close for most of the acts without waiting for hours. So far it is on my list to go back to this summer.
My question is, how the f*ck do you people pull this off? For one, how the hell do you afford it? I make a decent living (JUST JOKING I'M F*CKING LOADED) and I doubt that I could pull this off even if I was living in a shanty somewhere. Between flights or gas, tickets, food, plus having to take time off...do you people eat nothing but PB&J and ramen noodles? Second, how on earth do you cobble together any semblance of a life? Can you just take all this time off from work, no questions asked?
I'm genuinely interested in this. I barely find the time and/or money to hit more than one big fest and a handful of local-ish shows a year, I'm curious as to how people go about it.
Selling blank sheets of paper has a great ROI. Assholes.
I only go to 2-3 fests a year because I live in Nashville and get to see a lot of shows, but I have 28 days a year for PTO and they roll over so no issues taking time off. The only thing I have problems with is figuring out how I have so much debt with as much money as I make. Gotta stop eating out and partying on the weekends so much I guess.
Move to Chicago. We have got to be the festival capital of the country (Lolla, Pitchfork, EDC, Spring Awakening, Riot Fest, Wavefront, North Coast, etc...). Last year I did Bonnaroo, Lolla, Summerfest, Pitchfork and Riot Fest, and I only had to take a few days of vacation time (1 day for Lolla and 3 for Roo) for all of them.
I only have 3 weeks of vacation, a personal holiday, and 10 paid holidays from work. So 26 paid days during the M-F work week in the year where I get paid and don't have to be at work. And I pretty much ONLY use them for festivals or shows in ATL, Nashville, etc. I rolled over like 3 days from last year so I think I had 29 total days this year. 1 day left now. And I didn't use any sick days because we get like $200 in january if we make it through the whole year without taking a sick day.
This year I went to more shows than any other year in my life including a couple that were 7 hours away from me that caused me to burn up 3 days of vacation for both (Dead Can Dance and David Byrne & St. Vincent). I went to a French Quarter Fest, Jazzfest, Hangout, DeLuna, Bayfest, Voodoo, Fun Fun Fun, and Bear Creek. Most of those fests that are within a couple hours driving distance I can do without taking much vacation. It takes a good bit of planning though. I do need to request off at least a few days in advance and there is always 1-2 weeks at work during our plant shutdown that I cannot take off (we normally know when this is a good bit in advance though).
I am a R&D chemical engineer with a pretty decent salary based on the cost of living in Mobile. My wife and I don't go out to eat hardly ever and we are both pretty good cooks. I always bring either a sandwich for work everyday or leftover from the night before. My wife also works and her earnings go towards her student loans and groceries. I take care of the mortgage, my student loans, and the bills. She hates festivals and only goes to the occasional show with me so I normally am only buying one ticket.
I'm from Fairhope! We should meet up at a show sometime this summer. Going to try to find a Hangout ticket on the cheap this year, but last year it was directly after law school finals and I couldn' t really make it back in time.
For me, I've gone to 10 (big) festivals since the summer of 2007. On average that's 2 per year.
But I do it as smart as possible. I have yet to go to a festival that requires a) airfare or b) hotel stay.
Bonnaroo can be done fairly cheap if you do it right (the ticket price also covers a campsite). The other festival I hit up quite a bit is Virgin FreeFest, and that's umm... free (other than $60 for gas and maybe a $40 hotel for a night). When I went to Lollapalooza in 2007 I took the Megabus (bus tickets were $5 each way), crashed at my brother's apartment in Chicago, and scored the $60 souvenir tickets. I won tickets to Made in America from a local radio station, and crashed at a friend's in the Philly area in exchange for the second ticket.
I guess what I'm saying is that there are cheap ways to do festivals. It does take a lot of planning and knowing what festivals are out of your limits no matter how great the lineup looks. As for time, I'm still in grad. school so I have a pretty flexible summer schedule.
Does anyone here think posting "fake" lineup posters negatively effect the conversation on these boards? I'm not talking about poorly designed, unrealistic, random lineups that are a waste of time, but something made with purpose and keeps in mind reported rumors?
Does anyone here think posting "fake" lineup posters negatively effect the conversation on these boards? I'm not talking about poorly designed, unrealistic, random lineups that are a waste of time, but something made with purpose and keeps in mind reported rumors?
I'd like to hear what people think.
Posting a fake lineup with the intent of tricking people is not helpful. I told you to stop posting the link to a fake lineup because you signed up and your only posts were a smiley face and a fake lineup poster. You weren't trying to help conversation or make this community better. You were trying to fool people into believing it was real. Next time make sure you get the dates right and post it in the "Fake Lineup Poster" thread.
Does anyone here think posting "fake" lineup posters negatively effect the conversation on these boards? I'm not talking about poorly designed, unrealistic, random lineups that are a waste of time, but something made with purpose and keeps in mind reported rumors?
I'd like to hear what people think.
Posting a fake lineup with the intent of tricking people is not helpful. I told you to stop posting the link to a fake lineup because you signed up and your only posts were a smiley face and a fake lineup poster. You weren't trying to help conversation or make this community better. You were trying to fool people into believing it was real. Next time make sure you get the dates right and post it in the "Fake Lineup Poster" thread.
I had no idea where to put this. The most obvious place would be the Which Stage but we can't make threads there unless its in a subforum which is stupid and wrong.
Anyway, I see lots of people on here who go to pretty much EVERY FESTIVAL EVER. People who go to Coachella and Wanee and Hangout and Sasquatch and Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza and Pitchfork and ACL and ATP and Voodoo and Moogfest and Outside Lands and Life is Good and Newport Folk and Firefly and Ultra and EDC and FYF and FFFF and Wakarusa and All Good and that sh*tty SCI dubsteppy thing in the woods and Gathering of the Vibes and plus like two dozen other concerts.
My question is, how the f*ck do you people pull this off? For one, how the hell do you afford it? I make a decent living (JUST JOKING I'M F*CKING LOADED) and I doubt that I could pull this off even if I was living in a shanty somewhere. Between flights or gas, tickets, food, plus having to take time off...do you people eat nothing but PB&J and ramen noodles? Second, how on earth do you cobble together any semblance of a life? Can you just take all this time off from work, no questions asked?
I'm genuinely interested in this. I barely find the time and/or money to hit more than one big fest and a handful of local-ish shows a year, I'm curious as to how people go about it.
I just saw this but as a professional in his mid thirties who mainly makes a living charging lawyers 100$ an hour to remove porn from their computers it is easy. You have your gear and going to a festival costs about the same as staying in a nice hotel on a city vacation. It costs me on average 150 a day not including transportation and who would not pay that for a good time?
Post by canexplain on Feb 15, 2013 18:10:34 GMT -5
I don't work, most of my income is disposable, music, next to ladies have always been my top priority. Like Sgt and a lot of peeps have said, think and it doesn't have to cost you your first child. Well it did me, but hey, it was WS cr****