story / Koko + Tatiana
photography / T. Denisa Photography
Yeah Bonnaroo was like almost two weeks ago but we are just catching up ok.
If this was your first time you were probably saying, you’ve never seen anything like this and if it wasn’t you already had your routes, food and activities planned out for the greatest four days you could spend on one gigantic farm. Bonnaroo 2012, also known as the second largest city in Tennessee once the festival begins, brought out 100,000 people for their love of music, food, art and an overall experience like no other experience you might experience in a lifetime(say that five times really fast).
It was indeed a great deal to take in, from the music to the fashion the interesting people it was surely a live in the moment occurrence. Just the thought of The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Santigold, Ben Folds Five, The Black Lips, Kendrick Lamar, Alice Cooper, Major Lazer, Radiohead, Rubblebucket and in the same place was a sight to see. In order to give you the best recap we scoured our collective brain cells to try to remember as much as we could.(It was a long weekend.)
Day 1: Dude, Where’s My Tent?
Tatiana: The highlights of the day started with calling Bonnaroo not just a festival, but calling it home. Starting out in Tent City all you could see was a sea of cars, homemade flags, and people ready for the peaceful vibes that the festival had to offer. Next enter the promise land, better known as Centeroo, full of food, activities like Silent Disco and of course The What, The Which, This, That and The Other Stage; where we would see some of our favorite artists give their all. Bonnaroo attendees were in full effect and made their way to spectacular performances such as Danny Brown, the pounding bass sounds of Yelawolf, and mellow raps of Kendrick Lamar and if you were in a laughing mood you made your way over to the Comedy Tent. Mind you this was just the first night. If you were a newbie and were on the hunt for your home in Tent City , you may have ended up wandering for awhile ending the night with, “Dude, Where’s My Tent?”
Koko: More like “Dude, Where’s My Phone?” I can’t believe I lost my phone in the first ten hours. It was definitely after that funnel cake and moonshine combo for dinner. I must have blacked out in the pit during whatever act we were seeing. WTF. Moving on. Today was awesome. Yelawolf is so HOT. When I met him and he was like, “I’m Yela.” I seriously had to think about sick babies to maintain my cool. I feel like I am at the best Adult Summer camp ever and all the counselors are famous musicians I want to sleep with. Pretty awesome.
Day 2: No Water Guns Allowed
Tatiana: Starting your morning off with music was the way to go. Tent City isn’t called Tent City for any reason. Microphones, loud bass and crowd like performances of your favorite songs may have made you think it was coming from the main stage, when all the while it was your neighbors having their own installment of karaoke. This day marked the hottest day of the festival, temperatures reached a high of 99 and it surely felt like it. It was necessary to have a water gun, unfortunately the huge supersoaker wasn’t allowed. Don’t fret though the great performances of Aziz Ansari, Radiohead and the ultimate party brought to you by Major Lazer made Day Two very satisfying.
Koko: I can’t tell if it’s the fun or the moonshine but, I am having like so much fun even without my phone. Sucks about the $30 dollar water gun that we purchased at Walmart. I love Radiohead so much.
Day 3: Legal Graffiti
photo / Max Cooper
Tatiana: Finally up and about you could take in all of your surroundings. Blank walls were everywhere with spraycans and paint at your finger tips you had to make use of them. Around you would see beautiful murals, Free Cadillac Twice, Fight Club signups and of course LADYGUNN tagged up! Santigold was THE SHOW to attend! Dancing out of this world, electro-reggae rhythms and crowd participation that spawned an up rise of half of the crowd on stage with her made this show one to never forget. Hopefully you still had energy as the Roots were next and in between that you may have wanted your peace time for a nap or grooving with a hula hoop. Das Racist, Skrillex were among the crowd and just enjoying the scene as well. Red Hot Chilli Peppers surprised us with new and old. Speaking of surprises after a ten year hiatus, R&B soulful singer, D’Angelo became the topic of conversations as the surprise at Questlove’s SuperJam.
Koko: This was my third time of seeing Santi and I’ll still consider it a perk from having her on the cover of the newest issue. I love her shows. Her fans are so passionate and excited and I totally feel like I am one of those people. This was like the only show of the festival that I made plans to go to and it was so worth it. Hearing songs off the new album live was fucking awesome. At the show there were these two guys who totally looked like famous, industry types wearing all black and watching the show. At one point I saw them point and talk about me and I couldn’t tell if it was because they thought I was hot or they recognized or heard something about me. So of course I get paranoid and think OMG do they know Efram(they guy that I had a crush on) and think I am some stalker freak? So I asked Tot to go ask them if they knew Efram and they were like yeah but he’s not here. Way to make a weird situation even more weird! Later we saw one of them playing with The Roots and we were like “Uhhhhhh…” I felt like a school child. The Roots were awesome. I saw Das Racist for the first time and loved it. The Red Hot Chili Peppers were fantastic and Anthony without his shirt on is heaven. Also he was wearing an OFF! hat which I thought was incredibly cool since I just interviewed those guys for our next issue. I hung out with Max who is some type of personality for Billboard and at one point I was like is he going to kiss me because that would be both terrifying and romantic. Plus Brian the cute 19 year old (totally legal) security guy who Allison said looks like a lesbian was vying for my affection. Decisions , decisions. Decided. Don’t be a whore and go back to the hotel room and get some rest for the last day. Ps. Thanks graffiti guys who tagged Ladygunn.
Day 4: It’s Not Hard To Say Goodbye
Tatiana: Because Bonnaroo 2012 was the festival you would have not wanted to miss. We saw our favorite artists enjoying the festival, found our lost phone, made great friends, saw friends from high school and even got a new crush. Bonnaroo2013…We Think So.
Koko: I LOVE The Black Lips. They are like my favorite band right now and I was really excited about meeting them and equally mortified when I met them and they were like, “We called you and someone picked up at the lost and found.” OMG THEY FOUND MY PHONE. Someone turned my phone in? I love these Bonnaroo people. We have it all on tape because they were filming for some project. Our camera guy however ditched us. I got my phone back. Some scary security lady had to escort us out of “private bathrooms” and I missed my flight so I was in Tennessee for 2 extra DAYS. Good times.
For more pics go here, or here.