Bonnaroo Ticketing and Camping Changes Questions Answered

Changes are coming to the farm at Bonnarooo for 2023.

Based on our conversation last week with C3, today, part two, answering your questions,

what stays, what goes, what moves back to Camp Nut Butter?

Clarifying the questions that remained before the announcement on the 17th, the What Podcast

Brad Steiner, Barry Courter, Lord Taco starts right now.

Well, welcome into part two of Bonnarooo's Changes for 2023.

I'm Brad.

There's Barry and Lord Taco.

Hi guys.

Hi.

Play.

Game.

Play.

Game.

What is that thing in the corner of your screen there, Taco?

Is that part of your whole, your Minecraft world that you've developed and are conquering

on Twitch?

Yeah, this is for the Twitch stream.

It shows just random graphics and stuff.

Barry, I jumped into Taco's Twitch stream the other night.

I still have no idea what's going on.

I'm kind of glad you did.

What PBR was I on when you jumped in?

Oh, it was deep.

You were deep.

So we said, how far away are you from a thousand check-ins on?

Oh yeah.

I'm on, what's it called?

Grinder for beer.

What is it called?

Grinder for beer or untapped.

Yeah.

Untapped.

Yeah.

All right.

So he's like, he was like 500, not if it was 500, he was like, you were something crazy

away.

And we did the math.

If he drank 25 beers every day until I got there, he will have hit his, his like 5,000.

I don't remember what the number was.

I don't remember.

I am currently at 869.

That's what it was.

Yeah.

So you need to get to a thousand and you're, you're a hundred, you were 150 away when

I left you last.

So we just gotta do 25 a day.

That's 25 a day.

So that we can have, so that we can have the, the, the show, the next show we do can be

Lord Taco's thousandth check-in of PBR.

Yeah.

We can celebrate a thousand check-ins.

Are you going to have to touch back to make that number?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hey, I.

Hey, he's got a couple, take a couple of days off.

It might be, you know, a thousand and 10.

I don't know.

I wanted to point out something that I noticed after our last show, you know, we've bragged

about Russ for people who were just listening.

He's our web guy.

He's created our website, which is awesome.

Created our merchandising, does all of our social media stuff.

But I think we, we discovered a new talent last episode, Brad.

Really do tell.

I don't think I even know.

What was it?

I think Russ is now our, the what podcast hype man.

Yes.

Yeah.

Hype man.

Yes.

Cause when you look at me, you think hype.

You think hype.

That's right.

You think hype.

You got me all, all ready to go for the show.

And you really, you do rev, you do rev the engines.

You send thighs a quiver.

Well, you know, there were some comments on the video last week.

Oh yeah.

What were they?

People wanted to hear more from me.

More Russ.

You know, I.

I don't know how we can fit more of you in.

I don't know.

Well, I'll show you.

Hey, my man.

Yeah.

I kind of liked being just a background character fly on the wall.

I think you said it best last week when you, when I'm like the coffee guy.

The coffee guy.

Yeah.

Sitting back there.

What I love about that guy is that he just laughs at literally everything.

He knows.

I love that guy.

Everything's hilarious.

Yeah.

Everything's hilarious.

Yeah.

So speaking of last week's show, the whole point was you listened to it, you have any

questions, anything that we might've missed, any sort of follow-up that we want to get

through and we asked you your comments at what podcast.com and then at the what underscore

podcast on Twitter and on the social media.

So let's get into it.

You want to go through some of the questions because we got a ton and I'm sure that Corey

and Brad didn't answer all of them.

Huh?

Only I think they missed.

Yeah.

We got quite a few, but they asked, answered most of them and especially thanks to Corey

for reaching out this weekend to make sure that happened.

They, they've been great.

Yeah.

No kidding.

I mean, they were, I thought that show was great.

They were so forthcoming and, and answered everything.

I don't, you know, they didn't, uh, didn't run away from anything.

Didn't backpedal any of that.

So and they're answering these questions.

So how do you want to do this?

I sent you guys the question and answers as well.

I mean, I, I hate to, of course I did, but so that's, I knew that you would not.

Oh, oh, look you there.

All right.

Here we go.

Okay.

Let's just start with, let's start with a Nick Nick's first question.

What about group group for the chat group for the shaft last year, way out in BFE with

very limited support, almost similar to how Bob should pack.

I don't know what any of this means.

So basically the question is what about decoupling center roof from camping?

Does each camper need a camping pass or is it still per vehicle in group?

What was Corey's answer to that?

Yeah.

So her third point was the ice in there and Corey's answer.

We're bringing back the second entrance to center route, which he said on our show, they're

adding food, beverage and ice to the group area.

He said this is the first he'd heard of the long lines of ice.

So they're dealing with that.

First I've heard of it too.

Yeah.

And by the way, shout out to Nick because I actually do know him or know of him.

I've talked to him before.

Another fellow Volkswagen guy.

And his last name is G W O Z D Z.

But I think it's pronounced and please correct me.

I think it's gavosh.

Wait a second.

G W O Z D Z.

Yes.

Woods.

That's not a typo.

That's how he spells it.

But I'm pretty sure it's pronounced gavosh.

Wads.

Yeah, that's a rock solid name right there.

That is a great name.

Yeah.

Man, what if it was like G wads?

What if it like literally his last name was G wads?

Well, that's how I would have said it.

G wad z.

Well, feel free to comment and correct us.

It's Nick.

I think it's right.

It's first name Nick.

As a guy that is surrounded by people with quote unquote radio names like Thrasher and

you know.

I would go with G wad z.

G wads is fantastic.

It's an awesome name.

It'd be a good band, heavy metal band name.

I love it.

Yeah.

So then there is one really, really long one and I'm not going to get into all of it, but

let's go with Bill Rich's questions.

You want to go that one first?

Yeah.

Well, that would be second.

Now, Kent, there's Kent.

We got one from Kent.

I know, but this is a really long one.

Just because it comes up with uncoupling.

Back to the uncoupling question.

By the way, if you don't know what we're talking about, you should probably go back and listen

to the marathon that was last week's episode before their AMA.

We're doing an ask me anything on Reddit that some of these questions might get answered

as well.

We're just trying to clear some of the clear some of the road before we get there.

Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up.

That's going to be on the 21st.

And I asked Cory about that this morning as we were emailing back and forth with these

answers and he said they don't have a time yet.

Just check with their social media, their socials, and they'll let everybody know.

But they are going to do an AMA like you just said on Monday, the 21st.

They're going to come out with their official announcement about all of these changes on

Thursday the 17th.

They were just cool enough to jump on with us, Brad Parker and Cory Smith last week to

give kind of a heads up.

And so that what is happening today could happen.

People would have what about questions, right?

And that's what that's what we got some good questions.

Got some great questions.

All right.

So questions arise with uncoupling.

This is from Bill.

One, what value remains with VIP camping?

Two, will VIP camping even exist and will it remain closer to Syneru than GA?

Three, will VIP still have both camping and Syneru dedicated lounge areas?

And four, will there be dedicated VIP entrances into Syneru?

Now this was the part that I will be totally honest probably twisted me around more than

any other part of it because I'm not very smart, it turns out.

Plus I think that they moved a hill.

So these are probably the questions I had the most.

So what was Cory's response to these?

So Syneru ticket remains the same pit viewing lounges access to the mound as they call it.

I like the hill much better.

It is the hill.

And we plan to expand those amenities a bit.

There will be no VIP camping anymore, but there are a couple of options for similar

experiences.

They're calling it area 931.

We know it lovingly as Camp Nut Butter.

I'm going to guess that's going to be the trees, backstage camping.

It will offer a limited number of primitive car camping with included showers, air conditioned

restrooms and amenities.

They're going to have pre-pitched glamping and power RV in that section.

I want to stop you real quick.

Okay.

Let's go backwards for a second.

This is a really big, you know, I think that we probably buried the lead in the, in last

week's episode.

VIP camping is the most affected of all of them.

And what you know of VIP before is not going to exist anymore.

They're moving VIP to where we used to be.

Is that what I'm, is that I'm right to assume?

That's what I'm hearing.

Okay.

Area 931.

Yeah, that is Camp Nut Butter and it's not the mound.

It's the hill.

Just to be totally clear.

Yeah, we got to fix that.

We got to talk to them about that.

Okay.

So, and to let, I just say this and I'm not selling tickets here, but that is legitimately

the greatest spot on the farm.

And we have been so insanely lucky for 15 years to be able to be right there.

It is absurd how fantastic that spot is.

So if you're one of these guys who thinks that VIP camping will not have value anymore,

it is worth every penny to be in those woods.

You're literally five seconds away from center room.

It's not just proximity.

It's trees.

It's everything.

Yeah.

Everything about it is just great.

That's right.

Enjoy it.

Cause we won't be there.

Which makes it even more valuable.

And they took it from us.

People would pay extra to be away from us.

All right.

So, so he said, I'm sorry, go ahead.

I'm sorry.

No, I just was going to make another bad joke.

So yeah, but that, no question.

That is the most valuable piece of property on the farm.

All right.

So then he continues his answer.

There are a couple of options for a similar experience.

And he goes into area nine 31 will offer as limited number of primitive car camping, including

showers, air conditioned restrooms, and other amenities offering pre-pitched glamping power

of you set all of that.

And then moon colony.

What is moon colony?

Moon colony will offer primitive camping option with the same location VIP used to be with

shower vouchers and flushable toilets included in those amenities.

So whatever I think, yeah, go ahead.

I'm sorry.

Yeah.

I think this is a reference to what Corey kind of hinted last week when he said they

have come up with a whole naming scheme for the campgrounds and it's all space themed.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Where I'm guessing area nine 31 moon colony.

Got it.

Is into that.

Got it.

So where moon colony colony is, I don't know, but I'd say you're a hundred percent right,

right?

That's what's in keeping with the theme.

Yeah.

Moon colony is the same location as VIP camping used to be.

Got it.

And he says, well, VIP camping even exists.

That answer is the short answer is no.

VIP camping won't exist as it has in the past, but there will be many more options than available

before and similar experiences and folks will be able to take advantage of.

I'm going to assume that area nine 31 is going to have camping available.

So as you think of it in the past, it will not exist.

It will now be moon colony, which is just another version of car camping and GA, but

with some added amenities.

And then VIP camping moves back to where we are.

Number three, there won't be any lounges in the campgrounds, but there will be areas to

relax the plaza as well as expanded lounge areas in center route for VIP, GA plus and

platinum buyers.

That was to the question of, well, VIP still have both camping and center route dedicated

lounge areas.

So the answer to that is no, but there will be areas to relax in the plazas as well as

expanded lounge areas in center route for GA, GA plus VIP and platinum buyers.

So and I'm jumping ahead a little bit in this, but in sort of interpreting all of this, what

I'm gathering is whereas before your wristband was very limiting, you could only get here.

You know what I mean?

It was, you were blocked from going here.

And even when you got out into camping, like I never went into VIP, I've never been inside

of it, wouldn't know what it looked like, never RV, any of that.

If I'm understanding, you'll be much more able to mingle with anybody.

Like so say Brad gets RV or whatever, you know, the glamping or the pitch tent and Russ

and I don't, we can still go see you and vice versa, except for this area 931.

That's the only one that I think will still be off limits.

So it does, but I'm trying to think this through.

I wonder what it matters if I get area 931, which is now I'm guessing being called VIP,

then where does platinum go?

I've not seen any reference to platinum.

Well, I mean, he says platinum buyers in answers.

There's platinum buyers.

Okay.

Well, there's still a platinum ticket, but I don't think there's a platinum campground.

I think it's all rolled into area 931.

And it doesn't matter which ticket level you buy.

You could purchase access to 931, even if you had a GA.

With all that being said, the GA ticket being the cheap, it's cheaper than it was in 2023.

You just have to then determine your experience beyond that.

How you want to experience a festival, whether it be in this part of the camp, whether with

this experience, that part is all up to you.

Just the basic GA pass is actually cheaper than it was last year.

Right.

All right.

That to me is the most confusing because it's different part of this entire equation.

And you know, what do we hate as human beings?

We hate change.

So this is one of those things that you probably have to see in practice before you wrap your

head around it.

And you're like, oh, wow, this actually was pretty good.

If they're offering you any opportunity to, and I would love to know the price difference.

If they're offering you the opportunity of camping back where we used to camp.

I don't know, man.

There might not be a price that's worth it.

It's so good.

I mean, I'm you name the price, I'm there.

We're going to have to talk about that in the next several weeks.

Russ and I both know where we were last year and we're going to have to, we might have

to talk about it.

How much is it too late to change my birthday present?

How much money do we have in that old podcast bank account?

We got to sell a lot more T-shirts.

All right, so then we get into this question, which is one of the scenarios that was mentioned

last year was the eventually the campground activities and shows may continue to expand

to the point where they may sell a campground ticket without buying a center ticket with

all the new changes that allow for this or will you still need a center wristband to

get through the toll booths?

Sir, very simply, you must still have a center route ticket to enter the festival and campgrounds,

meaning you cannot just buy a campground ticket and hang out for the weekend.

Yeah, that's not going to happen.

I think that was probably an idea that I know I floated at one time.

I don't know if we all did, but I know I, I don't know if I meant it in jest, but it

was more of a this, what's happening out there and camping is, you know, so cool and so busy

that this could happen.

Well, then when you get into center, will there be changes inside center?

For instance, are you going to change pit access for GA?

Big, big question.

Yeah, we got that maybe a dozen times and his response was, quote, this is important

to us too.

We are not changing that system.

I do love their pit system, that European pit system where you, you sort of, you know,

find your show and you line up for it and it's available to pretty much anybody that

wants to, to camp out for a few hours, especially when it's a light festival.

It's so easy to get into the pit.

I almost wonder why somebody would stand all the way out there when you can just, you know,

walk past the bees and be there and you know, five minutes.

It really is a strange thing.

Barry is one of these taco that refuses to walk into the pit.

I don't get it.

I never understood why you'd rather stand at the back of the farm.

Then walk another 40 yards and be 20 feet from the stage.

I don't know.

I've never been a work my way to the front of the stage, fight my way up guy, because

I hate when I do that.

And then 40 people, I get a good spot.

And then 10 minutes later, I'm still 40 rows back.

And I know that doesn't happen in the pit because it's more controlled, but that's just

been my mindset the whole time.

I'd rather go where, well, when you pull into a parking lot, do you drive to the front and

look for one up front or you take first available?

That's a parking lot, Barry.

I take first available.

But I'm not sitting in a car for an hour watching a show where like my sight line matters.

That is a ridiculous analogy.

Okay.

Well, also, I've done both.

What do you do if you have to pee?

And Paul Janeway is not around to pee.

My personal porta potty is my paulopotty.

I'm looking for a paulopotty.

Nice callback.

That's good.

Hey, I'm jumping again ahead, but I've reached out.

One of the questions that we got that didn't make the early list was about ADA.

And I sent that to Corey and he just just responded.

So the question was, what was the question?

Remind me.

Let's see.

Can you ask about ADA for your follow up?

Last year ADA was okay, but access to activities in the campgrounds was subpar.

I would like to know a bit more about how they are looking to rectify.

Also what types of camping will have ADA?

And then will there be any changes to preferred viewing areas for VIP?

If they expand that GA wristband folks.

And then his answer is ADA base camp is the same in the same location.

It's very hard to provide proximity to anything specifically other than Centauru with all

the plazas being so spread out.

So we prioritize Centauru for our ADA guests.

They'll be able to get RV, primitive car camping or souvenir in that area.

There are many other areas that will also offer accessible options.

I'd like to encourage them to browse the map with the accessible filter on to see their

options.

Oh, a filter.

Oh, yeah.

I don't know if that, you know, answers everything, but it sounds like they're at least trying

to figure something out and they don't anticipate any changes to the premium viewing areas from

last year.

So there you go.

So this year, this question was what happens if we already purchased tickets last year

while we were at the festival?

What we do now?

All you do now is purchase your camping experience, all whatever camp, whatever camping package

that you want.

That's the only thing that you'll have to go to add on to your ticket.

Now, how they organize all that.

I don't know.

I mean, that's that's on them.

But that's all you will have to do is go to choose your camping package when you when

these things open up.

That's the 17th, right?

Or is that the AMA?

Well, the 17th is when they put all this on the website.

Yeah, 17th is when they officially announce what we've already been talking about.

And then the 21st is when they're doing their AMA.

And then they're going to have Black Friday will be their early bird sales for tickets.

Right.

That what you understood?

Yeah.

That's what I got.

And then from there on out, it's, you know, announcements in January line up and all that.

Plus recluse recluse.

Yep.

OK.

What other questions do we have?

I'm just scrolling through here.

Anything else that we might have missed?

Somebody asked about whether it changes capacity or any of that sort of who and I asked Corey

that too when we were talking like, are you still going to sell more or less GA?

And I think Brad, you asked him that last week to our Brad Parker.

He said they're sort of limited.

You know, their pre pitch, as they call them, is limited to availability of how many tents

they can get sleeping bags.

So start.

Wait a second.

Start over.

You mean capacity as far as the whole festival is concerned?

Eighty thousand is still sold out.

And as far as it like changing the number of GA and all that, it's still going to be

a similar dispersion, you know, similar VIP tickets and pre pitch and all that to GA.

OK.

I see what you mean.

Depending on what they sell.

Yeah.

OK.

And then picking your own spot.

Now that one is curious.

And I thought that when it came up, when you asked the question, Brad, of Brad Parker about

if I get there and I don't like my spot, can I go to the other side of the field?

And you know, I of course, leave it up to me to want to order off the menu.

Why can't I just do what I want to do?

I have to be honest.

I was surprised that Brad Parker's answer that you can, you know, once they try to put

you in a spot, you can go to the other side of your campground, but you can't go to another

campground.

I'm I'm betting the attendance and the guys working there don't much like that answer.

They want you to go where they put you because otherwise it'd just be, you know, even more

chaos.

But yeah, just tell them Brad said you could.

Brad said not me, not me.

Don't quote me on that one.

I have nothing to do with that.

That's just my guess.

So.

So what was his answer here?

So the Corey said, I'm honestly not too sure on this one.

I think we usually prefer to have folks park where instructed by the attendance.

I think that this is one of those street smart things where when you'd show up and you're

not a dick, you say, hey, man, I've got 10 cars with me that we're all going to camp

together.

Can we just go over there?

Yeah, we're not going to bother anybody.

Yeah, this is a this is like if you've never been to Bonnarooo before.

And look, this is not a place that is really, really, I don't know, based on a lot of rules.

You know, basically there's one rule.

Just be cool.

Don't be a dick.

Don't be a dick.

Right.

And yeah, if I can throw in another top tip there, when you show up to park and you're

talking to the attendees, if you've got a ice cold bottle of water to hand them.

Yeah.

Hey, man, be cool.

That goes a long way.

Yeah.

If you're not working in the heat, they probably appreciate it.

You try water.

I give them a 20.

Well, it's so funny to hear you talking about this Bradstine.

Were you there with me, Russ, a couple of years ago when he came in late?

And I'd already had it all worked out.

And he walked in with his window.

He's like, yeah, and me and the guy are looking at each other like, what's his problem?

I'll have a conversation here.

Yeah.

I'll take care of this.

I just backed up and said, let him bet.

We'll figure it out.

I mean, I was probably wrong, right?

You were wrong.

OK.

You were 100% wrong.

Because like I said, I'd already worked it out.

This kid, he was a 20 something year old kid from Chattanooga.

He knew my songbird's hat.

You know, he was being, I'll just do whatever you want to do and then here you drive.

Here I come out making a fool of myself.

Of course.

There's no way this will work.

Well, we managed.

You got to count on me to do one or two of those a week, I'm sure.

I'll take care of this.

Big foot my way up here.

And of course, as you know, we can't but nut butter.

We can't but butter.

We take up half an acre.

So we are asking a lot.

Speaking of but nutter, I talked to Bryan Stone very early this morning.

8.07 this morning.

Do you want to guess what Bryan Stone was doing at 8.07 this morning?

Wow.

Having a gin and tonic.

It was a gin and juice.

He made a gin and juice.

He said, I've never had a gin and juice, so I guess I just tried it.

8.07.

Well, you can't drink all day.

You can't drink all day.

You don't start in the morning.

That's right.

That's true.

That's true.

All right.

So there's going to be more questions, but you know, look, we've got we got hundreds

of them.

We could only send the ones that seem to be the most asked to Corey and not take up his

entire day.

So I hope that that is a good addendum to last week's show.

And of course, if you haven't given it a shot, it's a marathon.

I know it is a very long slog last week.

But there is a lot to get through.

And of course, when you get the chitter chatter box like Russ Jackson, you can't just turn

it off.

He's got to let him go.

That's why we had to do a two-parter.

But the key things are if you bought GA already or if you bought already, you know, you can

still go through the process, right?

The pit area is still going to be there.

Yes.

But the VIP and all those sort of barriers outside of center are gone.

Center is where the VIP thing is.

And you can sort of a la carte.

Right.

I mean, what am I missing?

Is that the main things?

I mean, the other thing to the other thing, too, is like, I know I know VIP has always

been a certain thing, but it always did make me like scratch my head why they put where

in the woods an all night rave party right next to VIP, who probably if I'm guessing

is on the older demographic and wanted to go to bed early.

Where you are now, the where the I can't stress this enough.

Where VIP is going to be now.

Oh, man.

It's worth every penny.

It's worth it.

If you have the money, spend it.

The other thing you're going to sleep like a baby, too.

The other thing that I never really quite understood is that sort of barrier, like not

being able to go visit friends, like not being able to have people come visit us and not

being able to go see people in VIP even for us.

So I'm kind of glad that's going away.

We'll see how it works.

But really want to thank you.

What do you mean by that?

I don't know.

I don't know what you mean by that.

I think that's what I understand.

This whole thing is once you're outside of center room, you're able to go to the different

areas.

I mean, you could in some some of the plazas, but there were barriers to some of the VIP

and glamping and all that.

If you didn't have the right wristband, you couldn't get.

Yeah.

But but you're not I don't foresee you having a G.A. and G.A. camping experience, being

able to walk back to VIP in area three.

That's 91.

Right.

That's the one.

OK, specifically, you can't.

But I think you can in some of the other areas.

Yeah, everything else, I think, will be open.

Right.

OK, that's what I mean.

OK.

I really, really want to thank Corey and Brad again for for doing this.

No, I mean, I think that they're doing exactly the right thing.

They're trying to communicate as much and as often as possible.

And that's what look, if there's been one complaint that we've had over the last couple

of years, it's just the sheer and most of this covid.

But the sheer lack of communication about things that has really driven a lot of us

kind of crazy and maybe turned off a few folks.

I take this as a nice step of them understanding, hey, this is a this is going to be a big deal

and this is going to make people readjust and rethink and really address their pocket

book.

So good for them for getting out in front of this and trying to send as many smoke signals

up as possible that this is happening, this is happening.

And please don't don't yell at us this time.

Why are you yelling?

I agree.

I agree.

All right, anything else that we should get to?

I think well, I mean, there's other news that we'll probably get to next episode, you know,

with some other events.

But the big news again, they're going to announce on the 17th, they're going to do that AMA

on the 21st on social and discord.

So check your, you know, your socials for the when and where and then Rue Clues and

then Black Friday.

You know, we're right back in it.

So before they start getting the lineup out there and I would like for us to do our headline

prediction show, I would like to free of the information that we may or may not have, I

would like to like a predict the lineup, headliners, maybe top three lines next episode.

What do you think?

OK, OK.

OK.

Yeah.

I'm going to, you know, see what you guys think is out there and then I'll do the same

because I'm going to see one tonight that I feel as though I know you.

I feel like this could be a real possibility of, you know, a Saturday early eight o'clock

slot.

So.

All right.

I'll report back.

And taco.

Good luck, man.

Twenty five.

It's a good number.

You can do it.

You can do it.

You're halfway there already, my friend.

You're halfway there.

I'm not Bryan Stone with my gin.

I'm not kidding.

All right.

By the way, somebody should donate his liver.

I don't know how this dude has lived as long as he has.

Donate it and show this one off.

All right.

We'll talk to you next week on the podcast.

Thank you.

So gather round and tell everyone

you made the end for a reason.