Bonnaroo 2007!
After the climate roadshow wrapped up, I rolled down to Moonshadow at SVI in Tennessee. We had a few days to prepare for our week at Bonnaroo. Our m.o. is to get there 3 or 4 days before the 100,000 attendees arrive. We have a 20 x 20 foot tent in ‘PlanetRoo,’ the activism zone that festival-goers pass through to get from the peripheral camping zones to the 6 music stages.
Our crew of 23 began assembling a strawbale wall with two arches. It was covered in cob, a mixture of clay, sand, straw, water, and earth. It’s a lot like adobe, but the addition of the straw adds strength. There are structures made of cob all over the world. The most famous might be the houses in Devon, England, some of which are over 1000 years old.
Bonnaroo is insane! It’s dusty and hot and dry and flat and loud and nutty. The only way to not hear many bands at once is to get close to one of the stages. It goes all day and night for over 72 hours. This was my second time at the festival.
While most of our gang worked on the construction of the wall, 4 of us prepared a 45 minute set to perform each day on the Solar Stage.
The wall was a big attraction. We continued adding finishing touches as the festival got under way. That allowed people to come and watch the cob building process, ask questions and even get their hands and feet in the mud!
It was one of the coolest spots at the festival. The organic shapes and special artistic touches inspired people to come check it out and ask questions…
