Barry (00:00)
Welcome to a special live edition of the What Podcast. It's kind of a surprise, but not really a surprise. We knew this was coming. I'm Barry. That's Brian. That's Russ. announcement just dropped. I guess you guys are probably looking you when I say you guys, I mean everyone out there, not just us three. I haven't even seen it yet. I'm gonna let Russ read it out to us here in just a minute. But it looks like Bonnarooo twenty seventeen will be a fallow year, if you know what that means, you know.

Russ (00:28)
Twenty twenty seven.

Barry (00:30)
Keep saying that. I have said

Russ (00:30)
You're always ten years off.

Barry (00:31)
that 27, 2027. 2017 was a great year. They've all

Bryan (00:37)
Yeah it was. Sure was.

Russ (00:37)
Yeah.

Barry (00:39)
right. Next year, 2027 will not happen. It's gonna be a fallow year. all right, guys.

Russ (00:47)
Pondo's here. Hey, what's up Pondo?

Barry (00:49)
We're gonna spend a few minutes talking about this announcement. and then we'll do a probably a bigger show next week, our regular show.

we'll probably have some other special guests, but we wanna get on here real quick. Bri Russ, what's it say?

Russ (01:05)
Alright, this is f festival just put this out. Bonnaroo will not take place in twenty twenty seven and the festival is officially taking a fallow year with plans currently being put in place for a return in twenty twenty eight. And thank you for an epic Bonnaroo twenty twenty six. Our hearts are filled to the brim brim, blah blah blah blah blah. We spent a great deal of effort and money working to improve the campgrounds in Centeroo in the months leading into the twenty twenty six festival.

That included improved drainage, four and a half miles of new roadways, and 135 acres of new grass, which we know because we talked to Dale about all that, which strengthened the farm's resiliency to Mother Nature. With limited time to recuperate, back to back years of storms, including heavy rainfall on Sunday this year, the farm, particularly the main venue, needs a break to rest and recover. So here's what we've decided. Bonnarooo will be taking a much needed year off in twenty twenty seven.

This wasn't an easy decision and not one we take lightly, but in our hearts we know this will break this break will only make Bonnarooo better. We hope to continue radiating positivity in your community throughout the year and thank you for loving this festival as much as we do. So twenty twenty seven is officially out.

Barry (02:23)
Ryan, initial thoughts.

Bryan (02:27)
well

Russ (02:27)
Yeah. I'm not happy.

Bryan (02:30)
Yeah, I mean

Least least surprising thing I've I've heard, even before a few weeks ago when these things started to whisper and and and and we heard a little bit. I I believe Live Nation would host a music festival on volcanic ash if they could make a couple of bucks. but I do believe that the the festival grounds have been beaten into the ground. And if if twenty twenty five didn't happen, if one day a roo didn't happen.

The big Bonnarooo story would be the field this past twenty six, two months ago. That was not okay. Like that was that was that was not people were not ready for rain.

Barry (03:17)
I mean had that been a like a one

off it had that been a one off instead of if we kinda had

Bryan (03:22)
Yes, yes.

Barry (03:23)
these yeah, we've had weather issues before in recent yeah.

Bryan (03:26)
Exactly.

So that that would be that's not just, I wasn't prepared for rain. That was worse than you didn't bring your mutt boots. So I mean and and and and good on everybody, everybody who attended, everybody everybody from the festival, Live Nation C3, everybody for pushing through and finishing that weekend. That was a win. That was huge and that was big for everybody's soul and psyche. But it doesn't change the fact that that was a destroyed ground.

So that

Barry (03:53)
Yeah.

Bryan (03:54)
is not the they're not making that up. That's true, but I actually I I think there's more here, but at that there's no reason to speculate on that right now. It's sad. It's sad. It's the first time in twenty five years that we will not be gearing up for a summer in Middle Tennessee. And that is a sad fact.

Barry (04:12)
Before before wait, Russ, russ, russ. Russ, before you before

Russ (04:12)
Yeah, and speaking of that, this is the twenty fifth year, right? Sorry.

Barry (04:16)
I get to you, you because you said something about don't want to speculate. Let's don't do that today. because there there's gonna be plenty of time for that. this will be a quick short thing, but I'm glad you said it that way because I mean we can't talk about things we've heard, but speculating on what it means beyond.

let's maybe do that later. I'm sorry, Russ, to interrupt you, but what what are your initial

Bryan (04:39)
Not a problem. Go ahead, Russ.

Barry (04:40)
thoughts?

Russ (04:40)
No, no problem.

well you like you said, this is the twenty fifth year next year, right? what a way to celebrate twenty five years is to take a year

Barry (04:49)
Yeah.

Russ (04:49)
off. not twenty five as in we've had twenty five Bonnaroos, but twenty five years since the first one. Is that right? Yeah. Okay.

Barry (04:54)
Right. Two two thousand and two was the first one, then twenty twenty twenty

seven is twenty five years by my my math. Even Bonnaroo math.

Bryan (05:01)
Yeah, it's Yeah. Yeah. Bonroom math is hard, but

Russ (05:04)
Yeah. Yeah. And Adam Yeah, Adam

even says, What are they what are they doing about the twenty fifth year anniversary? I guess they're taking a year off.

Barry (05:13)
Yeah.

Bryan (05:13)
Well,

if there indeed is a twenty twenty-eight, w th they man, you can package things however you want, right? These are

Barry (05:20)
yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bryan (05:21)
these are just numbers and and yeah, and I I'm a big numbers guy. I'm a list Barry, we're the same on that. We love lists and numbers and round numbers, and it's 20 years and it's twenty. I like to celebrate the calendar. I really, really do.

Russ (05:32)
Mm-hmm.

Bryan (05:33)
but I'll tell you what big corporate conglomeration America doesn't really care about. Stuff like that. they're they they need to do things that make sense for them.

for for the property, for everybody involved, and for the bottom line. All those things all come into factors and whether they can make a cool twenty fifth anniversary poster isn't what they're exactly thinking about, I wouldn't I wouldn't think.

Russ (05:57)
Sure, yeah.

Barry (05:59)
Russ, any other th initial thoughts before I give you mine?

Russ (06:03)
no, other than just you know, I hate to say that but a lot of times we've getting these announcements from festivals that they're taking a year off and then they just don't come back. I hope that doesn't happen with Bonnoroo. I don't think it will, but I mean, how many times have we seen this? Moon River goes on pause, South Star goes on pause, and then they just never seem to

Bryan (06:25)
There's a long list.

Barry (06:25)
Yeah.

Russ (06:26)
Yeah, there's a long list. Anyway, sorry.

Barry (06:28)
No, no. all right. So my initial thoughts. I started hearing this from reliable sources, and I hate doing that. I hate doing that more than anything else for two reasons. One, it sounds just made up. And two, I maybe I've done this for so long. I I've all I've gotten to the point where I don't want you to tell me secrets because I don't want to know.

Russ (06:54)
Right.

Barry (06:54)
and I don't want,

Bryan (06:54)
I'm the same way, Barry.

Barry (06:56)
and I don't want to put

Somebody in a position, you know, I don't want to be that guy that's constantly calling and putting them in a in an odd spot. So, but I started hearing this from really reliable sources two weeks ago, maybe, maybe more, three, I guess. and I can tell you the initial I thoughts were way worse. Like not just one year, but done. Done done. and so

In the last couple of days, those same people have been saying, I have hope. I I'm hearing that there is hope that this is indeed a one-year thing and it's an opportunity you know, to come out of it and still have a Bonnarooo. To your point, Ross, you know, we have heard about all these festivals that have been put on pause. They don't own.

They don't have the financial commitment to the site that Live Nation and C three does to to the farm. And

Russ (08:03)
That's true.

Barry (08:04)
yeah, and to go back and and boy the timing of of everything, Brian, you didn't get to go with us with Dale, who is the groundkeeper for I mean, that sounds it's he he has way bigger d role man, there's a train. I am so sorry.

Bryan (08:23)
Yeah.

Barry (08:23)
Okay, just to yeah.

Russ (08:26)
Well get off the tracks.

Bryan (08:28)
Yeah, don't be on the tracks there, Barry.

Barry (08:28)
Yeah. No kidding.

Russ (08:30)
Yeah.

Barry (08:30)
No kidding. Don't go. Can you hear me all right? I'll I it's not okay.

Bryan (08:33)
No, you're good. Keep going. You're good. Keep going.

Russ (08:34)
Yeah, you're fine.

Barry (08:37)
we got to take a tour of the entire farm with Dale. and he showed us some of these changes and infrastructure and things that he's very proud of, some of the drainage, miles and miles of drainage and road. told us a little bit, some of the numbers as far as how much.

money really was put into certain things and I'm not gonna to reveal those numbers. but having seen that having seen the what field like you said Brian I have no doubt that the the place needs to recoup. and I'll also add and then I'll let you guys

When they say fallow year, that's not a they didn't pull that out of their rear end. As we said on our show a couple of weeks ago, that's what Glastonbury does. What, every fifth year? Or is it every fourth?

Russ (09:35)
They do every five.

Barry (09:37)
Yeah. So four on, then they take a fallow year.

I think go ahead.

Russ (09:42)
And is

yeah, I mean, do we think this is a one off fallow year for Bonnarooo and then it's gonna be on every year after that, or are they gonna follow a similar model where they do a certain number of years on and then take a year off and that's just built into the plan?

Bryan (09:59)
Yeah. Yeah well so only time will tell.

Barry (10:00)
What I want to do, and I

yeah,

Russ (10:02)
Yeah.

Barry (10:03)
I have reached out and requested guests, guests that we've had on this show that can answer these questions. we'll do future episodes on that, for sure. And this will be the questions that we will ask. the I mean, there's lots of questions that we're gonna come back with. What does this do to the f as a just a fan? You know, are you

Every other year, that'd be hard. Every fifth year, that'd be hard. Maybe not for us because we live so close. But on the other hand, I could see a scenario where, you know, if ne if in 2028 the lineup is amazing, you got all new fans. I mean, I think my initial reaction is the per people that this hurts are the folks like us that have invested so much into going every year. That's

That's what's gonna be tough. Like what are we gonna do for

Russ (10:54)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Barry (10:56)
the next two years, basically?

Bryan (10:58)
And and

and that's

Russ (10:59)
Yeah.

Bryan (10:59)
a surprisingly large number of people in the southeast and even further outside the southeast. I think when you say people like us, I I assume you mean fans, like real

Barry (11:08)
Yes.

Bryan (11:09)
fans that make this a part of their lifestyle, right? It's almost weird.

Barry (11:13)
Year round.

Bryan (11:14)
Some yeah, it's almost it's almost weird. But but I but we all get it. Like we don't need to explain it. We all understand it. So yeah, I mean, jeez.

quickly is I had to go quick and I and I'm t I'm sorry to jump immediate to speculation, but I ca I'm not gonna be around for n the next little bit here and I'll pop in when I can and

Barry (11:35)
I know. This is Brian,

this is the shortest retirement five days, four days, two days. Is that back?

Bryan (11:41)
Or right. Yeah. See you later. And you know, and and you know, Barry,

Russ (11:40)
Yeah. I know. Yeah.

Bryan (11:46)
I hate people who do this stuff. I gotta go. And then they're back the next day, right?

Barry (11:51)
Yeah, but this is big.

Russ (11:52)
Yeah.

Bryan (11:53)
but I hate to jump to immediately to speculation. but I had all night last night, right? As I'm getting I'm I'm also traveling to Seattle to see our, you know, our our our correspondent Beth.

Who ev everybody who listens to the show is familiar with. So we're gonna spend a week in this just been one hell of a week, right? There's just a lot to digest

Barry (12:12)
Tell me about it.

Bryan (12:14)
in the last week or two. And I wanna give me just a I won't diatribe on this. Give me just a second to stretch out just for a sec, that I it was kind of going through my mind last night. I don't get caught up in s in comment sections. If I told you I didn't read them, I would be the biggest liar ever. But I don't get caught up in them. But we were getting some pushback.

A little bit about like why, what do y'all did like from the show and then the clips or whatever about the news coming up.

Russ (12:40)
Yeah, I was gonna bring that up.

Bryan (12:42)
And I w I want to comment on this just because of some other things going on in that sphere of of of social media, and I won't I won't get too too far. But taco's been around here now since 2018. That's no small amount of time. And me and Barry, we've talked about this. I know people roll their eyes. We get it. You've been there every year. All right. But we're not just been there every year.

We've been, I went, I scrapbook and until about 2010. And I pulled out a couple pages of my scrapbooks. This right here is the front page of the Chattanooga Times Free Press from 2002. Probably can't read the name on there exactly of who wrote this, but Barry, that was you. 2002. 2004. Couple pages up in the scrapbook. This is my acceptance letter for my media credentials since 04.

We've I've been media credentialed by this organization. We have long, decades long relationships and communication with people that are working on trusting. And we're not we're not talking about nuclear war. We're talking about entertainment. Live entertainment,

Barry (13:47)
Right, right, right. I've said that many, many times. Yeah, exactly. I yeah.

Russ (13:48)
Yeah. These these aren't state secrets, yeah.

Bryan (13:54)
right? So when we we j a lot of time, if it sounds like a joke, it's because it is. The pre show meeting, there ain't no pre show meeting.

But last week there was. For about

Barry (14:04)
Yeah.

Bryan (14:04)
15 solid minutes, we talked about what are we gonna do with this information? How can we sit here and pretend like everything's fine and just do a show and not mention it?

Barry (14:13)
Right.

Bryan (14:14)
And and we we went back and forth on this. We didn't know what to do. But we were not authorized to say anything, and therefore we don't. We respect,

Barry (14:22)
Right.

Bryan (14:23)
we respect the organization, we respect everybody involved, and they respect us. That's how this works, guys.

Barry (14:29)
Yeah.

Bryan (14:30)
I know the the ethics have changed with YouTube and everything else and and social media being being so so dominant, but there is an ethical nature to this and that's why we we that's why that's what that was. And I know it was a

Barry (14:44)
Yeah.

Bryan (14:44)
little annoying, but I just wanted to put that out there so people understand.

Russ (14:46)
I know. Yeah. It

it and it's funny to me, you know, we put clips out every week. We put a video out, at least one or two from every episode. And the one that gets yeah,

Bryan (14:52)
Yeah. Crickets half the time.

Russ (14:55)
the one that gets viewed the most is the one where we said nothing. There was nothing in that. Everybody

Bryan (14:59)
And everybody hates us for it.

Russ (15:01)
everybody hates us for it. It's like, okay, like why'd you why'd you post this? Okay, well go look at

Barry (15:02)
Yeah.

Russ (15:05)
one of the thousands of other posts that we've made if you don't like this one.

Bryan (15:08)
I just wanted to make sure

Barry (15:08)
Yeah.

Bryan (15:09)
y'all understood that we really value all of this and it means a lot to us. It's very important. But we try not to take it too seriously when we don't have to. And Barry, your thoughts on that if you would like.

Barry (15:19)
Yeah, no, I appreciate what you what you just said very much. it's not it's not rocket science, it's not life or death, and I've said that. I've also said since the beginning of the show that if if there's a question, if there's a rumor

Let's pick up the dang phone and call the person who can tell us the facts rather than go with some sort of rumor or half truth. I've also said I would rather be right than first. and so, you know, last week or last show when I said basically we've heard the rumors, we're monitoring it, we're on it. The only reason I even went that far is because I felt really good about my sources. and that, you know.

Bryan (16:03)
And it was impossible

to ignore. It was impossible.

Barry (16:05)
Exactly.

Russ (16:05)
Right. If we don't say anything, that almost

Barry (16:07)
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Russ (16:07)
looks worse, right? If we're i if it seems like we're

we're ignoring it or we don't know.

Barry (16:12)
And s let me say the fifth thing, and I've told you guys, I plan to do or I want to do this next year and the next year and the next year. So if we burn those bridges, you know, we get we don't get what we get. So

Bryan (16:27)
Exactly, Barry.

We could have done a show

Russ (16:28)
Yeah, next thing you know.

Bryan (16:30)
ten days ago saying, guys, there's no Bonaru next year. And guess what? Bonaru would never talk to us again. Or they shouldn't. They shouldn't. Because we we would have

Barry (16:36)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, right. Yeah.

Bryan (16:40)
we would have we would have broken that trust. So I again sorry to go on about that, but

Barry (16:44)
Trust is exactly

it. I I have always said I won't lie to you. And you know,

Bryan (16:50)
No.

Barry (16:50)
the people that I talk to say, good. If you do, you're done. You know, it's the only thing. I won't ever lie to you and I won't go behind your back. So anyway, a long way around saying this has happened. It's for for those of you who are just hearing it, it's gonna suck. You're gonna do like Brian did last night and like I've been doing for two weeks, and Russ, you probably have.

Man, what does this do to my life? What does this do to our show? What does it

Russ (17:17)
No kidding. Yeah.

Barry (17:19)
do to, you know, we don't know. We don't know. We'll we'll figure that out.

Bryan (17:24)
Yeah.

Russ (17:24)
Yeah. What

are we doing next June? Are we we're going to the other farm? Is that the plan? I mean, I I could see may Okay. All right. See ya. but no, I I

Bryan (17:30)
I'm going to Mexico, man. I'm off to Mexico. Mexico. I don't know. I don't know.

Barry (17:34)
Yeah. Yeah.

Russ (17:38)
I could see something happening like twenty twenty and twenty twenty one where, you know, okay, everybody that would normally go to Bonnarooo maybe organizes their own smaller local things, maybe just

Bryan (17:49)
That would be so cool.

Russ (17:50)
Yeah, and so there may be a variety of things to to do come next summer, hopefully.

Bryan (17:56)
Satellite

bonroos all over the country. Find some woods and have a party.

Barry (17:58)
Many ruse, many ruse.

Russ (17:58)
There you go. Mini

ruse. Yep. Mm-hmm.

Barry (18:02)
I will going back to what I said about the the people in charge who I've talked to who say I have optimism. the other thing that even they've said and everyone else is is this is such a community community. And to your point, I can absolutely see many rus or something, something, because this thing means too much to too many of us. I don't

We do a show every week. It sounds so funny to say that, but how?

Russ (18:31)
Yeah, we we're not just gonna walk away from it.

Barry (18:34)
Well, no, I don't mean that. I mean that there's interest enough for 52 shows about a about a

Bryan (18:38)
Yeah. Yeah.

Russ (18:39)
Mm. Yeah.

Barry (18:41)
four-day festival, a five-day depending, you know. So anyway, the interest is there. Go ahead.

Bryan (18:45)
Well, I will say

K fest in October now is where anybody in the southeast should be looking at for a little bit of a Bonnarooo reunion and consoling weekend, if you would like. very, very that just popped into my head last night. I was like, Well, certainly not gonna miss K Fest now, 'cause it's got early Bonnarooo feels. So let's put that out

Russ (19:08)
true, yeah. Mm-hmm.

Bryan (19:11)
there too. If you you know that that's something maybe yeah.

Who know like you know, I don't know. I

Barry (19:16)
yeah, we're gonna be hyping

Russ (19:16)
And if

Barry (19:17)
it up. We're gonna

Russ (19:18)
and if I were

Todd, if I were at the caverns, I might look at putting my own little mini festival on second week in June at the caverns.

Bryan (19:26)
Already discussed already

was talking about that through text threads yesterday. Cave jam. Bring it back, Todd. Bring it back and put it in June. Let's go.

Russ (19:29)
Yeah. Cave Jam, bring it back. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Bryan (19:36)
Sorry for the let's go.

Barry (19:35)
Funny funny you s

funny you bring it up. But I heard from our buddy, not Todd, our buddy Jeff at Cave Fest. he saw our Halloween episode and said, Love for you guys to give us a little bit of love like that and we'll we'll work with you and I said, I'm pretty sure I can make that happen. So Yeah.

Russ (19:57)
we're planning on it and yeah, we'd

love to get you know, some Yeah. It's a hundred bucks, yeah.

Bryan (19:59)
It's a hundred bucks too. It's a hundred dollars.

Barry (20:02)
Yeah.

Bryan (20:03)
Ninety-nine bucks. So anyway. yeah, what

Barry (20:03)
Yeah. All right.

Bryan (20:06)
does this mean long term? Boy, we don't know. We'll see. I I'm I'm sorry to not be around to to discuss it because I want to. I'm also looking forward to just disappearing for a week. So sorry to false false goodbye for a little while, guys, but I I'll

Barry (20:24)
Yeah. Now this was big.

Bryan (20:26)
I'll I'll make some plans to be around here. I know everybody just can't wait. I'm I'm kidding. But but thank you guys out there. And yeah, I mean it's sad, but it's okay. You know, I think it's okay. I do. I mean, I guess. It's gonna have to be, right?

Russ (20:42)
Well,

Barry (20:42)
Yeah.

Russ (20:42)
you it's a it's we were hearing much, much worse, you know. We were hearing like it's done, they're gonna sell it, they're gonna dismantle the farm, whatever. And it's actually not as bad as what we thought. You know, a year off still sucks, but Yeah.

Barry (20:53)
Not yet. We there's still some questions, but I will say I

reached out to one of the some and I said, Is there a positive light at the end of this tunnel? And the answer I got was there always is. Now that's cryptic, but not wrong. Can't say it's

Russ (21:09)
Mm-hmm.

Barry (21:10)
never not great, this news, but we'll see. All right, guys. Brian, I know you got a

Bryan (21:14)
Occasionally it's not

Russ (21:14)
I know, I wore my shirt today,

yeah.

Bryan (21:16)
occasionally it's not great.

Russ (21:18)
Yeah.

Barry (21:18)
Yeah. Yeah,

I know. We're gonna have to put a parentheses, redo that shirt.

Bryan (21:23)
An asterisk.

Russ (21:22)
We're gonna have to put a disclaimer yeah.

Barry (21:25)
Sometimes. All right, guys. Let's go to work. We got jobs. All right.

Bryan (21:28)
All right. Yep. Real life real

life calls. See you guys. Thank you.

Russ (21:30)
All right. Yeah, we'll see y'all later.

Thanks, thanks for everybody for tuning in. I saw Pondo, Kira Adam. all kinds of comments. Yeah. Pondo, he said,

Barry (21:37)
Any comments in it worth real quick, just another read a couple real quick before we go.

Russ (21:43)
thanks, guys. He said, you know, he knew about it last week and he couldn't say anything either. So this was kind of a an open secret, I guess. Kira who says you know, she had to skip shows on Sunday because of the risk of falling in the mud, which I get that.

Barry (22:00)
Yep. Baby coming soon, baby coming soon. Yeah.

Bryan (22:00)
it's terrible. So bad.

Russ (22:01)
who else? Some people are going to shakey.

Baby's coming soon. So yeah, we got got quite a few comments in here. So thanks everybody for tuning in. yeah, we just wanted to hop on and do this once the announcement drops, so appreciate it. And we'll see ya we'll be back next week with a regular episode. Yeah.

Bryan (22:15)
All right, everybody. See you later, guys. We're gonna be all right. Everything's gonna be good.

Barry (22:16)
All right.

Russ (22:20)
Yeah, there you go. All right, see ya.

Barry (22:21)
There it is. Bye.