SPRINGSTEEN, PHISH, JIMMY BUFFET, NIN MAKE BONNAROO ’09 BEST

Bringing in over 75,000 rabid music fans, Bonnaroo in 2009 featured Bruce Springsteen, Phish, Jimmy Buffet and NIN last U.S. together.

Taking place once again in Manchester, Tennessee, Bonnaroo boasted one of the best festival lineups the U.S. had to offer in 2009. With over 75,000 die hard music fans flocking to the farm in rural Tennessee from June 11th-14th, Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment once again brought together a diverse lineup featuring Bruce Springsteen, Phish, Nine Inch Nails last U.S. show together, a surprise Jimmy Buffet Saturday afternoon set, Snoop Dogg, The Beastie Boys, Al Green, Public Enemy, David Bryne, Wilco, Gov’t Mule, The Mars Volta, Merle Haggard and Erykah Badu to name just a small sampling of the wide range of musicians. Besides Bruce Springsteen making his U.S. Festival debut, it’s quite clear many fans had been anxiously waiting for the reunion of jam band favorites Phish, who made their first appearance with at Bonnaroo with a late night set on Friday June 12th and they had the privilege of closing down the festivities on Sunday evening and delighted the masses by inviting Bruce Springsteen to the stage to sit in for a few songs. In fact, it’s no secret Bonnaroo has built itself on the successful formula Phish used for putting on a music festival and Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment continue to fine tune and tweak the parameters of Bonnaroo into America’s most successful festivals bringing in record attendance in 2009.

Jimmy Buffet, who was a last minute surprise on Saturday afternoon, talked about how much fun he had a Bonnaroo and why he decided to perform a Grateful Dead classic “Scarlet Begonias” perhaps to appease some of the heavy influx of Dead Heads who migrate to Bonnaroo each year.

“We’ve been planning this for six months to come here. I wanted to just come here and play because in my Tennessee days, I heard it was interesting and I should come and I came and I had a very good time. I know we have a lot of younger fans that actually do kind of cross over, so I expected that there would be a pretty good cross over of young kids that came to our show.”

Lead vocalist Grace Potter who performed with her band Grace Potter and the Nocturnals also talked about why she has so much faith in the diversity of Bonnaroo.

“I feel like there’s some longevity to Bonnaroo. It doesn’t feel like something that’s going to go away anytime soon, you know. It’s been put on properly, with the right collection of bands for long enough that I trust it. There’s a certain faith that you get in a festival when it’s gotten to a certain point. I think it took about four years for any festival to really get off the ground. It takes about four years but with Bonnaroo it was magic from the beginning. So that’s why I keep coming back. I just feel that there’s a spirit. There’s a heartbeat to this festival. It doesn’t seem to change no matter what bands they bring in. I mean Nine Inch Nails are here and it doesn’t change a thing except that people are excited and the diversity is stunning. Public Enemy, come on. I can’t wait.”

Chuck D of Public Enemy has certainly performed at his fair share of festivals throughout the bands storied career and he talked about how glad he was to finally be invited to perform at Bonnaroo after hearing about it for many years.

“Well I heard about Bonnaroo for quite a few years. As a rap group we were the first ones that played festivals and festivals was really a European thing, an Asian thing as far as continents were concerned. Some things in South America. So, it’s good that The United States start having more festivals and over the last ten years places like Bonnaroo and Coachella have really meant a lot. I’m glad that we were invited. We weren’t specifically made for festival tours, so this is a good thing for us to come and show what we can do.”

Held over 4 days including 7 stages, a comedy club, a cinema tent, a Troo Music Lounge showcasing up and coming talented bands from around the globe, a silent disco, Art installments from some of the world’s finest artists and music held until sunrise, Bonnaroo continues to define what makes a festival so successful. Once again Bonnaroo broke down the barriers of different musical genres by bringing together Rock, Country, Blue Grass, Techno, Alternative, Jam Band, Hip Hop, New Wave, Jazz and everything in between. Just a few of the other bands who performed at Bonnaroo in 2009 included TV on the Radio, Elvis Costello, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Andrew Bird, Moe., Girl Talk, Galactic, Del McCourey Band, Allen Toussaint, Paul Oakenfold, Coheed and Cambria, Lucinda Williams, Bela Fleck, The Ting Tings, Gomez, Shadows Fall, Alejandro Escovedo, Murs, Robyn Hitchcock, Robert Earl keen and Raphael Saadiq.