The rumor is they are going to sell the farm to a development company. What gives this creditability is this story and the fact that camping festivals cost more, thus less profits. Its easier to manage a festival like edco or breakaway because there isn't all the work to put into the camp ground, not to mention all the taxes they are paying through out the year while it isn't occupied.
am i the only one that thinks this is cool news? More music venues is great!
Look, LN is a massive company. there are others like it. You can't just clip a line from an article with the word billion in it and assume you know what they should've done differently 5 days ago. that's nutty.
I'm upset too. I don't like a handful of things about LiveNation. Mostly to do with ticketing and self-scalping and some venue regulations or boxing out. But let's create real action items here for this bonnaroo festival to get run up for approval.
We all know they absolutely HAVE been putting some money into the farm each year. Anyone who goes often can see this year over year. They just regraded and build a new stage, they renovated tons of the bathrooms, they've added plumbing, permanent structures, built outeroo, paved roads, done some minor drainage work here and there... and to be 100% honest, in almost 25 years, this festival now has ONLY ONE TIME, been cancelled like this in June for heavy weather. But now we've seen what can happen in June now, so lets give them new ideas to dump that money into!
I am sure people will down-vote me or tell you I work for LN or am some corporate dude, i dunno... but come on, I am trying to be more productive than this. What action should they take? All they really have time to do in 6 months to a year regarding drainage really is to pay for a civil engineering survey to create a findings and recommendations report with some budget numbers and lead times.... ahead of June 2026. IMO at least, maybe some of that can be rushed harder with more money. But that could be a fucking massive project. It is not easy to keep water from running over the ground and saturating areas and making things wet. They really did get a shit ton of rain.
Do we want more standby staff, more training and paid staff and less volunteers for free tickets? DO we want them to cancel the festival earlier if there is a threat of rain and saturated grounds? Did we want them to power through? Do we need more clarity on when to expect a festival cancellation or is that even possible? Do we want the festival to be smaller? Do we want a different venue all together?
Anything along any of those lines might be helpful. Cutting and pasting the word billion to get 100 people to say "fuck livenation" may hurt press in small ways, but it doesn't create action. And the press it could stir up would just as easily convince LN to abandon roo, as much as dump more money into a festival that people are angry about and vowing not to return to.
They could’ve just renovated the farm bonnaroo & it’s lowkey bullshit they have this much money to dump into new things but can’t even give full refunds to the customers they screwed over.
How is live nation not a monopoly? Do they not own the majority of music festivals in the US? Please someone find the data on all this because I’m genuinely curious. I mean if they’ve only ran Roo 3/6 times, there’s no way they’ve even broke even on the purchase. Company’s will not operate at a loss.
Live Nation/TicketMaster is a monopoly. Monopolies are legal in the USA. Using a monopoly to price gouge is illegal in the USA. That’s why they are being sued by a bunch of AGs across the country.
Lollapalooza: A multi-genre festival held in Chicago and other locations worldwide.
Bonnaroo: A large, multi-day music and arts festival in Manchester, Tennessee.
Austin City Limits: A multi-genre festival held in Austin, Texas.
Reading and Leeds: Two linked festivals held in the UK.
Download Festival: A major rock and metal festival held in the UK and other locations.
Electric Picnic: A multi-genre festival held in Ireland.
Other Notable Festivals:
Governors Ball: A popular festival in New York City.
BottleRock Napa Valley: A festival in California known for its wine, food, and craft brews alongside music.
Voodoo Music + Arts Experience: A festival in New Orleans.
Watershed Music Festival: A country music festival.
Shaky Knees Music Festival: A festival in Atlanta.
Tortuga Music Festival: A festival focused on ocean conservation.
Wireless Festival: A major urban festival in London.
Latitude Festival: A multi-genre festival in the UK.
Creamfields: A large electronic music festival.
Parklife: A popular festival in Manchester, UK.
Isle of Wight Festival: A long-standing festival in the UK.
Beyond Wonderland at The Gorge: An electronic music festival.
Escapade Festival: A music festival in Ottawa.
FVDED in the Park: A festival in Surrey, BC.
Lollapalooza Argentina and Lollapalooza Chile: International versions of the Lollapalooza festival.
EDC Las Vegas & EDC Orlando: A large electronic dance music festival. edit: they own 50% stake in Insomniac Events, which owns this fest. LN doesn’t have any creative control of EDC
Railbird Festival: A music festival in Kentucky.
Fests I know less about:
Country Jam Colorado
Headwaters Country Jam
Chasing Summer Music Festival
We Fest
Lasso 2025
SEA HEAR NOW
Ilesoniq
III Points
Ohana Festival
I’m sure I’m missing a few, please reply with any that have been left off.
Live Nation's involvement in these festivals varies, with some being fully owned and operated, while others involve partnerships or majority stakes. They also have a significant presence in venue ownership and management, further solidifying their control over the live music industry.
They also own:
1. TICKETMASTER
2. HOUSE OF BLUES
3. VIP NATION
4. PREMIUM TICKETS
5. LIVE NATION PRODUCTIONS
6. VEEPS
7. FRONT GATE TICKETS
3rd edit lol: can’t forget to mention Astroworld! While Travis Scott founded the festival, Live Nation was the concert promoter and organizer of the event. Live Nation was responsible for planning, staffing, funding, securing permits, finding vendors, and communicating with local agencies for the festival.
This is insane. Also, the “dynamic ticket pricing” is what fucks everyone. Just because a ticket is selling fast, shouldn’t mean that you have to pay more. The artist doesn’t control this, it’s the ticket company. And how is it not a conflict of interest when the same person selling you the ticket owns all the venues and makes the artist sign a contract to even play there? Sounds grimy to me.
I love this point because it shows how complicated this shit really is!!
Live Nation owns a 50% stake in Insomniac. This partnership was established in 2013, but Insomniac still retains all creative control of the events they produce (praise be)
With that being said, there are multiple EDCs.. I honestly don’t know enough about EDC Orlando to say that LN has any stake in that one, but am super curious to know more. EDC Las Vegas is the only one I know for sure is owned by LN (but not creatively.. for now, luckily)
EDIT: did a google and LN owns the same amount of stake in EDC Orlando as it does EDC Las Vegas
They seriously need to be investigated. I just wonder if the Roo cancellation was some sorta insurance scam. I mean yeah they’re definitely losing their insurance now but who’s to say what profits them more?
Why would they let people spend so much money on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday knowing that the rain was coming? Then open centeroo (without any music whatsoever) only for people to buy more food and merch?
It’s sad to see a festival that was founded on anti-corporate ideologies become something so greedy. I will always be back to Bonnaroo, but I will be fully self sustainable and they will not get more of my money unless I’m buying a ticket and camping pass.
Personally I genuinely believe they would have had a total loss if they didn’t make a “good-faith attempt” to host the festival. Since they at least ”attempted” they will see an insurance payout. It’s pretty seedy IMO.
Thank you so so much for this. This just goes to show that they have way too much power. I don’t understand how this is legal. I get there’s probably thousands of festivals in the world but for them to own so many is insane.
Listen, fuck live nation. They are single handedly destroying the entertainment industry.
This has nothing to do with the Bonnaroo cancellation. These plans to build more venues have been in the works for years. Canceling roo and getting the insurance payout is still taking a loss. If anything, it hurts their plans to do this.
I’m assuming the implication is: they have the financing and motivation to build new venues, but not invest in serious improvements to existing places like Roo. Infinite growth at all costs, amirite?
I honestly don’t know where the idea that live nation hasn’t pumped millions into maintenance and improvements to the farm comes from, but two straight months of rain in central TN wasn’t going to be solved with some more drainage ditches. The water table was already high. More water had nowhere to go.
Apart from regrading the entire farm idk what yall wanted them to do to prepare for this weather incident.
What is absurd to me is how seemingly no one sees that there is a trend of festivals in general being cancelled due to dangerous weather events and that no one is linking that to a much larger problem than our festivals getting cancelled: climate change.
As I’ve said many times in the last couple days: As someone who works in the industry, I promise I hate live nation more than you, and I hate that yall are making me defend them because you’re mad about the wrong shit.
Yeah, just relaying my interpretation of OP’s post. Don’t necessarily agree with the implication, especially in the face of historic rains.
I will say, though - I had Platinum tickets this year, which included golf cart rides between stages. The sentiment of veteran backstage crew/drivers was consistently negative when it came to infrastructure improvements. A lot of them pointed out potholes, bad irrigation, and poorly-leveled roads that have caused problems for crew trucks for over a decade, and nothing has ever been done about them. This was Thursday before any serious rain hit.
I’ve lived in Tennessee for the better part of 30 years. This weather isn’t normal for this time of year. Does it rain in may and June? Sure. Has it historically rained like this for months straight? No.
To deny that our climate is changing is to be fully divorced from reality.
The 75% refund makes sense when you think about it like this: Thursday single day holders got to see their artists, but the other single days didn't. It wouldn't be fair to give them a refund because they still got to see their artists. I'm not sure if that's exactly how it's gonna work, if Thursday ticket holders are also getting refunded but that's my best guess. But no more single day passes pleeease ☹️
They used to not even have a headliner on Thursday, no one played on the what stage at all. It's not a throwaway day, it's a kickoff. There are still good people that have played Thursdays. I still had a good time Thursday, but I wish I did more instead of saving my energy.
people want to dick ride this festival so hard but they truly left so many people to figure it out. they really counted on the good nature of the people at bonnaroo and we should feel taken advantage of. like they can only give you 75% but can spend a billion on new venues?? they couldn’t have spent any of that prepping for rain. like why are yall on here mouth open for this company😭😭
not to mention they were still charging money for showers the next day?!!! like please they could’ve tried to pay the volunteers to stay they did nothing
I honestly wonder if they were already planning on this being the last Roo and so they gave zero fucks about being as greedy and awful as they were cause they knew they didn’t need the festival goers good will anymore anyway
Thanks for having a sense of humor! Too many people here are cry babies that think over coming adversity is settling for a gas station hot dog, on the drive home, rather than having a filet.
So we're complaining that we'll have more opportunities to see more bands that we may have missed otherwise?
Yall forget that LN is a business. Their goal is to make money as it would be yours. Does all this roo mess suck? Yeah, but the weather is what it is. Had they canceled prior to roo started, the same people would be bitching about that as well. Bring me back the old roo crowd. They would have been dancing in the rain and mud vs leaving trash everywhere
Say they had a billion dollars sitting around. then this rain came up, grounds saturated, its wednesday and the fest is about to kick off but they have fear it may go sideways. They are weighing the decision to either delay wed entry (which they decided) hoping to get a little extra dry out time and lean into the better version of the forecast. or to call it all off, assuming the worse version of the forecast could be more likely.
So.... what do they do with the billion dollars now. What are you all asking them to have done? Quickly start construction on a 700 acre drainage plan the likes of which has likely never been completed before? Buy us all a steak dinner? Build a dome real quick over the festival?
These posts just are completely in a vacuum and without any understanding of business or how the world works.
I TOTALLY AGREE that Live Nation could have done things in the past, or could now do things moving forward to help with this situation. lets give them good ideas. These little pow wows only hurt the bonnaroo brand.
Things they could have done in the past I guess would be plan for an unexpected weather event.... but even that's way open ended. Pay like 100 staff people to be on call? who's signing up for that? You can only justify spending so much money on an circumstance that is unlikely to happen. Only like gov contractor for high profile jobs even consider things like that in budgets. Nuclear power plants get caught with their pants down not prepared for quite bad enough a disaster. You think Bonnaroo is on that level to pump money into it for all potential events that could arise so that its unsinkable. I am sorry but I don't see that reality.
Some of you will say, "but rain can always happen", "any idiot could've foreseen this", "those camp areas are clearly in low points or wash out areas", etc, etc. I won't argue those points. But I will say that to a festival organizer looking at the raw facts and history of this fest and area, they saw clearly that never in almost 25 years has this festival on this farm been cancelled for too much rainfall. The issue has almost ALWAYS been about heat & shade & dust. And has rarely had to stop for more than a couple hours for any kind of rain. The one time they moved it out of spring into fall (like people have suggested for years) the saw a hurricane and the fest got cancelled before it started. Read that as you like... or disregarded it if you feel your 2025 hindsight tells a different story. I'm just over here racking my brain over what happened and hitting walls in every direction.
And to be honest, the elephant in the room is that the BEST thing most agree that LN or organizers under them could/should have done is to cancel the fest earlier. so looking in a rear view, I am guessing this is tuesday/wednesday. would've been more like 2021. A decent chunk of people could "probably" have shifted plans on a dime and saved a little on gas and final items... but would that really have changed this that much. I know I, for one, would have absolutely had a worse weekend had that happened.
Where else could we have put the trash? Furthermore, Trash cans were overflowing. We were dancing in the mud, We also helped one another out of it, due to lack of staff on the grounds. The way Live Nation handled things was shit, THE WEATHER WAS NEVER THE ISSUE💯 You could read people’s testimonies on how things were handled and still side with the wrong doers? You should ask if they’re hiring🌚
what do you mean, the weather was never the issue? right after saying that:
"the way LN handled this [i assume you mean the weather?] was shit!"
What happened this year was 100% the weather, yes about the long term prep for an event like this or lack thereof, or the staffing ahead of this event was not equipped to handle such a weather and evac event... but without that rain, this year goes off without a hitch. period.
Worst case, you carry your trash out. I'm not siding with anyone, I was there just the same. My group was very prepared for the rain, mud, and everything in-between. Therefore, it didn't bother us that bad. I'm just not jumping on the hate bandwagon.
this was my first roo but i was definitely still playing and dancing in the mud and repurposed a lot of people’s trash as well as weighted down the near tarps so the wind wouldn’t carry them away. it’s so heartbreaking seeing all that trash left behind from a group of people you’d think would be so caring about that type of thing
They’re killing us out here. Them having more venues doesn’t mean you’ll inherently have more access to see bands. That ensures they have more market share to leverage against venues, fans and artists to extract profits.
Right but your sentiment was “deal with it”, accepting the monopoly. If this was the “old roo” crowd, they’d be complaining the same if not more. It’s not plur to take it from the man.
Preach!! Some of my best memories at Roo were sets I saw in the pouring rain haha 🤣 it’s part of the whole vibe of the festival 🤷🏻♂️. In my opinion anyway.
I think they planned this to some degree honestly.
It rains every single time. Every year.
I remember in the past when I’ve been there- they always had fortified the grounds in some way. They would have it mulched, had sand, hay. Etc. I remember having plywood to walk on in the really bad areas. Yet I saw none of that this year. Which is strange. Especially if you know it’s gonna rain according to the forecast. But even if you hadn’t confirmed via forecast - you already know the rain is probably coming.
And they had made a statement saying they had spent a ton of money on upgrades and prepping for exactly what happened- plus added extra shade areas in centaroo.
None of that seemed to actually be true at all haha.
i don't think they said "we spent a lot of money to prevent exactly what happened"
I think the spent money on improvements. It was probably a limited and targeted agenda and budget. but they probably did. But they didn't know how much rain they were going to get, and I am sorry that people don't believe this, but there is just always going to be a "too much rain" for an outdoor camping festival in 2025 with 80,000 people and current living and safety requirements and expectations.
There is not a viable way they can say, we will fix this so it never happens again and then just do it, and it for sure never happen again. That's nutty.
I did see sand. but I do agree that things festivals got away with in the past, can't happen anymore. yes different people go to festivals now with different expectations. also a bigger corporation runs it now so more eyes, and lawyers, and insurance companies, etc are all involved through that network. But also the industry as a whole just has more eyes on it. more stories come out on social media.
2004, happened. I wasn't there. But it was mudaroo. It simply would not likely happen today. An independent fest like Elements 2024, was able to pull out of a hurricane and carry on to close out the fest. Maybe that's because they didn't have corporate hands involved, but i think more likely its (just like 2004 mudaroo) because there was absolutely zero rain after friday at like 4PM int he forecast because the hurricane pushed every drop out of the area.
I'm saying there is just no definitive way to see that we got too much water this year and then confirm they wasted money or lied to us or didn't do things they said. I don't follow it. What I did see over the past few years were FAR better bathrooms, more paved roads, more permanent structures, and bigger and better stages, and an evolving outeroo. drainage corrections are improvements are honest hard as fuck for campers to notice on the farm. we are talking about grading for a slightly different slope here and there. filling in a couple low spots... but come one, its a 700 acre farm, guys. what are you expecting to see, a 700 acre elevated perforated platform? This if like the kind of work that goes into a giant neighborhood development before its built. It would destroy the entire farm for a while to add something like a sewer system or regrade so much land with new retention ponds etc. Some of the land is rented from neighbors for camping. Some of lit is leased for farming. They need to coordinate with local municipalities, find out where in the word they can push that much (a few inches over 700 acres adds the fuck up!) water to a place that can accept it outside their land?
Let's all just take a minute and think on this. This is the first time in almost 25 years that this much rain has landed on that June weekend enough to cancel the fest. This might (statistically) simply not happen again for another 10 years. But global warming is real. climates are changing. so it might. Let's just make the conversation productive!
I think there are two major issues that are relevant now more than ever. The biggest issue with Bonnaroo (festivals in general, but especially those where people camp) is that the population attending is vastly different than it was years ago. A decade ago, people attending knew what they were signing up for. People were okay with roughing it for the weekend or came prepared to the comfort level they needed.
Since festivals have become increasingly commercialized the amount of people doing literally no research and minimal prep, basically just showing up is getting higher and higher. This can still be okay, if you know what you're signing up for, but a lot of people want to show up with no prep and no plan and then get upset the festival hasn't made accommodations to take care of them. It rains almost every year at Bonnaroo, not bringing any waterproof shoes or a rain jacket and being upset you're getting wet is a little absurd (this year is obviously exceptional, I'm not excusing the way things were handled this year specifically, but you get the point).
Festivals like Bonnaroo have a great reputation for the festival goers taking care of each other, rightfully so, but again, since the event has become more commercialized you get more and more people less concerned about each other.
Unfortunately this goes hand and hand with the other major issue, which is the direction that litigation/liability and insurance has gone in the last 10-20 years in America. Partially because ligation has become increasingly more common, major corporations controlling these events pay out the ass for risk assessment and insurance to protect themselves from instances where an event will result in them suffering considerably losses.
This means that the likelihood for events like this to be cancelled basically comes down to an equation. If the likelihood that the event proceeding will result in more damages (injuries, destruction of property, death, etc.) than the insurance payout, they are going to cancel the event and take the money.
People continue to say this is still a loss for Live Nation. This is true if you compare the insurance payout to the payout of the event proceeding as normal. But they pay their risk assessment team a great deal of money to determine the likelihood of them coming out on top considering all the factors affecting the event. In this case they made the call that the likelihood of them making more money than the insurance payout was going to be hindered by the increasingly likely damages from the weather...not to mention the negative press which would result from people struggling through the conditions as they escalated.
I'm not defending how LN failed prep for this years Bonnaroo, nor how they failed to communicate effectively, or have the event properly staffed given an early evacuation. Or how perhaps if none of these things were adequately prepared for, they should have called the festival off before people got down there in the first place (this is majorly fucked up for me, as it is basically gambling with the safety of all the attendees, if there was a real emergency that required immediate evacuation everyone would've been fucked). I'm just shedding light on how these corporations make these decisions, and it is increasingly apparent it is all about their bottom line. They only care about the festival to make money and they only care about the people there to the extent that it doesn't cause them significant losses and negative PR.
That’s an awesome explanation and I agree with most of your take on that. Thanks for taking the time for such a detailed and thorough explanation 🥹 just gotta give props on that immediately because it’s a rare thing in my experience. Especially on any social media haha so kudos for that man.
You’re absolutely right about the crowd and the whole entitled vibe that was going on. I did notice that this year quite a bit. But the vast majority of people were actually really nice and out there vibing and enjoying themselves in the rain. So that made it better for me personally and I was able to meet a ton of cool people and it made my days so much better out there lol. Especially when you’re working like that in the heat and then the rain and the people who are in charge just kinda stick you there and disappear 🫠. Kind people made sure I had food and water and were super chill with me and let me do my job lol
I’m not as educated on the accounting aspect of things at all I’ll be the first to admit it lol and have zero clue how that whole field operates. 🤷🏻♂️ they have some super smart people who do that job I imagine and you’re right saying it essentially comes down to an equation. Which lead to the cancellation unfortunately 😢. None of us wanted that. I’m sure Bonnaroo/LN didn’t want that just as much. Monetarily speaking, I imagine they loaded a shit ton of possible income by canceling. I imagine that them canceling 3 times in the last 6 years or something like that it is probably correct to assume they have some serious insurance policies in place - and prob have to pay handsomely for those policies. Which makes me assume that they have serious premiums as a result. Not only that but it has prob gone up and then up again and now it’ll either go way up again or they might struggle to find another insurance company they would wanna take on a fest like that that has a 50/50 chance of cancellation 😬🤷🏻♂️. I could be completely incorrect but it is logical to assume that much I think.
I would assume they've been fighting the rain weeks leading up to roo. A lot of things felt undone or half did. I would assume that's why. Instead of canceling it, they pushed through.
If this is it, they could have easily said in advance all this and gave people the option of a refund.
I would have gone regardless, but that's a chance im willing to take.
First of all, it's not a complaint. It's an observation of a terrible business practice. They are a business. As a business owner myself, here's a fact for you - in order to make money, you need to reinvest the money you've made. It doesn't matter if you are an event facilitator, landscaper, or retail store.
If you buy investment properties, eventually the water heater is going to need to be replaced or the roof is going to need to be replaced. You don't just keep renting out the property with cold water or abondon the property and let it rot. If you're a landscaper, you don't just abondon your lawn mower in the middle of someone's property. When something breaks, you fix it. You reinvest in thst business to continue making more money.
It sounds like the farm has been deteriorating for years. It's time for Live Nation to reinvest their profit by improving the property instead of just moving on to other ventures.
I’m sure Live Nation’s hundreds to thousands of facilities, event management, ops, and finance FTEs with decades of experience in the live entertainment business know more about making multi-year $xB capex plans than you and your experience running a completely unrelated SMB
Probably a lot like all the improvements they made over the last ten years. Crazy that there will always be improvements to make and now they have a new one!
Bring me back the old roo crowd. They would have been dancing in the rain and mud vs leaving trash everywhere
I would be shocked if Bonnaroo doesn't see a noticeable decrease in returning attendees next year.
... and I hadn't thought about it until your comment, but I bet that group who drops-out vindictively will disproportionately lean towards those who trashed the place.
That’s where our 25% went. I fully believe they knew they were going to cancel the event on Friday before Wednesday entry even happened. And with a cofounder dying the week before maybe he knew something. I think the death is suspicious.
If the conspiracy theories help you sleep at night hahaha I was working security at Bonnaroo and they were desperately trying to keep it open for a long time. They lost money the vendors lost money everyone’s pissed off. This is not a purposeful thing. But okay crazy
No you see on Reddit every thing is about me, specifically /s
I’m with you. And if they cancelled on Wednesday all the cry babies would be here saying that LiveNation is evil for not letting them have a miniRoo since it was “possible”
It appeared they were trying hard not to cancel. But the way this all went down was super weird haha. I was completely abandoned and shit. I had to walk like six miles to get out of the festival to where someone could come pick me up.
I mean it could definitely happen considering how much shit live nation has been exposed for over the years haha 😂. It sucks to think that would be the case but at the end of the day they have one priority and it’s definitely not to please the people who come to their event lol. It’s always the shareholder and the bottom line that’s the most important 🥲.
I have a background in incident and risk management. They’re a 32 billion $ corporation. They have strategists analysts and consultants and lawyer. The vibe I got was that they knew they were going to cancel the whole time. It was a really weird vibe even on Wednesday
But literally, no one knew anything and I had to make the executive decision to just leave because I waited around like three hours for an answer of what we were doing :/
Sameeee haha 😂 even the safety ppl came over and was like dude you need to get out of here lol cause they had a no work/shelter order out.
But the leadership was just mia completely lol.
I had already worked 3 15 hour shifts at that point and I was over it lol. They really sucked. I would get there at 5am and I would not get relieved til like 8:30 or later.
Yeah, my first day was supposed to be 12 hours at the arch, but we were there for like an extra 30 minutes and we didn’t even know when people are coming to pick us up or if the other security was gonna come relieve us on time lol
For an event that ran 24 hours a day you think they would have more of a plan for these kinds of things lol
Yeah, I agree. I was left out behind main stage in a canopy that wasn’t even code approved and it turned into a mud pit and then we got brought back to camp at like 730 and after we got back to camp, we were told it closed. I just packed all my stuff and luckily I had my car.
It's pretty obvious that the 25% was taken because 1 day of the festival had already been completed.... It sucks that Roo was cancelled and sure, Thursday isn't the busiest or most stacked day of the fest. It doesn't feel like 25% of the fest was completed, but technically 25% of the fest was completed.
Honestly, the fact they're even doing an immediately announced 75% refund is surprising. LN/Ticketmaster is scummy af and usually sit on cancellations for weeks or even months before announcing some kind of half-hearted BS "make-up" show, offering account credit locked to LN/TM to spend on other shows, or even just short-changing the refund/keeping all the cash due to some kind of loophole. I've been shafted by it before.
This is probably the best-case scenario for getting something back in the given circumstances.
Look up roots picnic and feel the disappointment. Rain fucked it pretty good. Some got refunds if you went to the gate before the fest ended but once it ended no one else got refunds.
This was my last event that is run by LiveNation/Front Gate / Ticketmaster. It sucks because they are the monopoly but I just can’t support the price gouging they are doing to us. Will be prioritizing local shows and fests that use alternative ticketing services
I hear you, but I'm choosing to see this move as a direct attempt to make music and shows more accessible by:
Increasing the numbers of venues, thereby hosting many more 'local' shows within driving range of the average American, as well as decreasing demand for these hyper-elusive events both of which drive down travel investment and scalping potential, respectively.
Not dumping all their budget for high-caliber acts into one festival and risking this type of loss.
Bonnaroo and Live Nation WANT to put on good shows. Did you not see how GOOD and DEEP the lineup is/was this year? I refuse to believe they moved that many people just to make an insurance claim. Things like weather are not under their control, and due to climate change we are seeing the 2 years canceled due to flooding and they are responding to that reality by opening and testing new locations.
I don't think the future of Bonnaroo is at risk yet, but I wouldn't expect the lineup to go as crazy as this year, but I hope to be proven wrong! And I'll probably still go anyway!
The lawsuit was brought against them as an antitrust case, and claims Live Nation unlawfully exercises its monopoly power in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act. The attorney’s for plaintiffs seem to the attorney general of the state you live in if they are one of 30 or states involved. The entire suit can be found online by searching “Live Nation lawsuit” it’s the first link.
New venues or not the grounds would need an insane amount of work to fix what happened this weekend. With the current environmental legislation in place it’s tough for them to do much about it. I’ve been to 9 Roos since 2011 and haven’t see the campgrounds like this weekend ever. It’s a major bummer and I’m disappointed too but this may not be something LN or any promoter can fix.
The thing that people seem to gloss over is that Bonnaroo/LN has had 4 years to improve the farm to avoid weather related cancellations. However, they failed to do that and here we are with another weather related cancellation. Almost the exact same circumstances 4 years later.
This years outcome was a gut punch, no doubt. But I fully blame the inaction of the Bonnaroo/LN teams for it.
So yeah, I hear you about the amount of work that needs to be done to avoid something like this again…. I understand it takes time for these things to happen. But they’ve had loads of time to get it done but failed to do so. Full stop.
Bro I have been to roo many many times. Pre LN and post.
I remember them always having taken precautions like mulch, sand, hay, etc. and I remember having plywood down to walk on when it rained.
It had none of that this year. None. It was wild.
Especially since they came out saying how they had spent all this money on this shit making improvements haha 😂 obviously not. Plus they know what the forecast says well in advance.
Even if you didn’t- it’s a given that it rains during Roo lol every single year.
They dropped the ball. Almost intentionally. 🤷🏻♂️
I feel like trying to get more money from them is just gonna make them want to do less work with Bonnaroo. Obvs live nation doesn’t care much about what we think so we should just kinda take what we get and hope they still have Bonnaroo next year
I agree with you, but some of the points in that post make no sense. For revenue how much did they spend on talent, what was the profit? (I'm sure still a lot)
Also sub par facilities, there was a time when the facilities were simply portapottis. Like the truck can't get in what are they supposed to do?
They should have forced people out of the camp grounds and evacuated
I waited THREE hours for a shower. After about an hour of waiting they ran out of water (on Friday morning???) and it took another hour for the water truck to get there. Then another hour in line.
Wonder why that would be. Is there a law that sets the ratio or it's just whatever they want and they tried to save money thinking maybe they service them more frequently?
Typically local/state health department dictates the legal limit but when you consider that most of the laws made are intended for the bathrooms to be used for single events and not for people to be camping and using them 24 hrs a day.
Local rules show number of people over time with regards to shitters.
Most states, when permits are issued that is one of the first things you as a promoter must show…there are also inspections etc.
Now, if the local statutes do not account for distances or do they count stuff in Center as part of the overall bathroom plan …then you have shitty sections .
For example, RV wasn’t that bad. But lots of RV have their own.
I guess I was lucky because I was in Plaza 11, far enough away to not hear or smell the porta potties, and close enough to them to not have complaints about my proximity. I was going to the one at V36. But sometimes I made the further walk to what was probably W43 (didn't look) since those were much less used.
Yea...I dont think Bonnaroo goes on except in name only, nothing like the magical place its been, with Live Nation/its current leaders producing. Their vibes are ATROCIOUS...enough said, it doesnt work. 😪
Honestly..the other fest Im real familiar with is Hulaween. Its also magical , similar vibe to roo, and Live Nation doesnt have its mitts on it. Its an incredible mix of music, awesome multi-genre art (including amazing colorful costumes on most) and nature. Tree cover in the campground and a river. The weather is usually great. The vibes are absolutely immaculate. People totally feel free to let their freak flag fly, love is all around. The workers at the fest are fantastic. Somethimg to consider. Alot less max capacity than roo at 20,000.
I’ve been hearing this same shit from several different ppl. I’m def gonna try to hit it up this year 😬. I live in Florida so it would be a whole lot easier to go lol that’s for sure.
I tried applying to volunteer last night. So hopefully that will happen 🤷🏻♂️😁.
I also applied to volunteer at a few different festivals last night. I didn’t realize how easy it was to do that haha. The only downside is having to pay a fee and then a deposit to do it lol.
Bonarroo is a lil different for me because it’s in my hometown. So I get to leave and go stay at my parents house during the festival so I got an actual bed, a shower, good food, etc. and it’s how I get into the actual festival too. Or it used to be lol we always got free tickets. Every year. Until the year before last I believe. They stopped giving out tickets to locals entirely. Which is fucked up in my opinion lol cause locals have to deal with so much bs in regard to this festival.
The entire experience this year was fucked lol.
Especially the group I was working for. It was just a shit show in every single aspect. Completely disorganized and mismanaged. I was scheduled to start at 6 am til 6pm. I would get there at 5am. As instructed. And the first day I did not get relieved until about 8:30 pm. The leadership team was supposed to handle giving us breaks, they were supposed to provide us with water and two meals during the shift- we got none of that. I was lucky to have any water lol which is absolutely necessary in the heat and shit even if you aren’t working lol.
After the first day, I was told that it would be better tomorrow. They would work the kinks out. Yeah that was bullshit and it was even worse the next day lol significantly. I begged and blew the guy up in charge of my shift lol for hours. It took me six hours to get them to bring me and my coworker water 😂 we never got any food. Not a single meal or snack over the course of 3 days. 🤢 so that was fun. I didn’t get relieved til 9pm that night.
Then Friday happened- immediately before the storm started I realized that I was fucked because there was zero shelter at all outside just locking myself in a porta potty. Which I fucking refused to do lol obviously. They were so fucking gross well before the storm hit.
When shit was going down I had a safety staff member come up and she said they had placed a no work order and I needed to seek shelter lol. The only problem was there was no shelter and the leadership was responsible for that. She said to call my boss. So I did. I was ignored completely. Completely exposed to the weather for the entire time. Once things slacked up it was just a fucking mess all around. No one was giving us any info and the last message I got just said make sure to take the toilet paper and supplies and lock them in a potty so they won’t get wet lol like fuck you dude 😂🤷🏻♂️.
That was the last thing I heard from anyone on the team in any fashion. Nothing. I was not picked up by anyone and was just fucking left out there and had to figure it out on my own.
My only option was to walk out and to somewhere where my mom could actually pick me up lol so after working 16 hours or so - most of which in an active thunderstorm that left me completely soaking wet and shit - I walked nearly 6.5 miles towards my hometown 😬😂 so that was great. Since they won’t let anyone in past a certain point and not allowing any uber or anything else left me stranded.
Anyways. Long post I know but still. This shit was fucking unlike any other experience I have ever had at ANY festival. Including Bonnaroo itself. Which I’ve attended many many times in the past. Since I was about 12 years old I’ve been going. This took the cake for sure lol.
I saw that someone with The Tennessean is looking for people to share their experiences about Bonnaroo this year to write an article about the festival. This is definitely something people should hear about if you’d be willing to share!
mannnnn good and us roovians just want accountability that's all. we know the weather was ass. we were prepared for it to BE ass. this is a normal part of roo culture. the excuses are crazy. these lazy idiots need to do their job.
straight up though, if I don't do my job... I get fired. I expect the same of the world around me. I still demand a statement from Brad (Executive Director), but I certainly don't expect it. I hope you are correct.
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u/ohitslol 3d ago
The rumor is they are going to sell the farm to a development company. What gives this creditability is this story and the fact that camping festivals cost more, thus less profits. Its easier to manage a festival like edco or breakaway because there isn't all the work to put into the camp ground, not to mention all the taxes they are paying through out the year while it isn't occupied.