All right, give it to me. Happy Roo! Happy Roo! I love it. I love that sound. I love that sound.

We're just getting set up for the What Podcast. They're gonna come hang out. Podcast, what is it?

Podcast with a party? Party with a podcast. Either way, they're coming to hang out with us

and have a good time here at Planet Roo. This is a wonderful, wonderful start to the Roo guys.

2025 has been good to Roo. Can I hear it one more time? Happy Roo! Happy Roo! Beautiful, beautiful.

All right, welcome. This is a special edition of the What Podcast. I'm Barry. That's Brian.

That's Russ, Lord Taco. We've got a panel discussion. We're going to talk about all

the different charity events and the community events that happen here in Manchester and Coffee

County. We've got some special guests and we're gonna, I'm gonna let you guys introduce yourselves

if you don't mind and just kind of give a quick synopsis of who you are. Miss Bonnaroo, you go first.

I'll just say I'm self-appointed, so any of y'all that would like to be Miss Bonnaroo,

please join me next year. Hello, I'm Priscilla Norman and welcome back home.

My name is Brad Parker. I'm the Festival Director of Bonnaroo with C3 Presents. Thank you, thank you.

Ryan. Yeah, I'm Ryan French with City of Manchester and Regional Tourism. So,

welcome to Manchester everybody. So, if you're a local and you're wondering where all your tax

stars are going, get a hold of this guy right here. He's the guy. And I love hearing the

loud applause, that's Brad. You guys look way cooler than I look, I promise you that.

That is the Brad. What we're going to do, I want to talk about what this festival has meant to us

and what it has meant to this community and I'm going to let them do all of that. So,

just real quick for those of you who don't know, you're wondering why I'm up here talking.

I came to Bonnaroo in 2002 and then from 2007 I covered it for a Chattanooga newspaper.

Been here every year. Ryan's been, go ahead. Yeah, hello everybody. I'm Ryan, jumped the fence

into in 02. Security. Yeah, well there's a lot of that potentially in this story

and just to see what all the fuss was about. I was 22 years old,

having fun, music, all the stuff that comes with that was what I was all about. And for some reason

it wasn't immediately on my radar and then my friends were going and I was like, well hell,

I got to go too. And then since 03 it was a can't miss. Like all year after that, I was like,

holy shit, what did I just see? I'm coming back for the rest of my life. And so far I've kept up

with that promise on myself. So we'll see. Ross, do you want to tell your story or do you want me

to tell it? You tell it. So, this is an NA by the way everybody. Sorry, go ahead. Like my earlier

question about how many of you talk about Bonnaroo all the time. That's what I found myself doing

with Brad Steiner, who's a radio guy in Chattanooga. We decided we should do a podcast. He reached out

to Ross, Lord Taco. Taco built our website, put everything together and does an absolutely amazing

job every week. Yeah, it's the machine that keeps it rolling and keeps it looking good and feeling

good. And little known fact here, it was supposed to be the two of you, the Brad Steiner, who's not

here anymore and you and me. That's right. Well, somehow I got cut out of that and this guy got

moved in. I was working at radio still at the time and so I was busy. I was like, I'm kind of supposed to be a

part of that. Seven years later, here we go. So, here's what I want to do. Patience is the key.

Brad's got to get in about 22 minutes. Oh yeah. Let's get started with the bulk of everything and

then what we'd like to do is maybe Q&A. If you guys have questions, we're happy to answer and then we'd

like to meet as many of you as we can. Why are you here? Why am I here? That's a great question.

In 2009, I lied to my mother who is also here at this festival and told her I was going to a friend's

lake house for the weekend and that was the biggest lie I'd ever told my mother at the time.

And I ended up here at Bonnarooy. Volunteered and then... I came as a fan in 2009 and then became

obsessed and then worked my first one. I've worked every one since 2013. All right, so to get this,

the program going, I want to ask Priscilla and Ryan because you guys have probably seen

as much of this festival grow as anybody that I can think of.

That's the basic question. How has it changed? How have you guys seen...

For those who don't know, your dad was the mayor, correct? Twice. Mayor Lonnie, if you guys remember

Mayor Lonnie, one of my favorite moments I cried like a baby was him on stage with Brandy Carlisle

on Father's Day. That was so sweet. He was so proud to be there. Thank you. But Priscilla, if you and

Ryan will, just how has this thing changed your lives? Oh my goodness. I have been coming since

2002, since the very first one, and I haven't missed any. And I don't plan to. I don't plan to

at all. It has changed. It has brought more family. Manchester has always been a small town with a

big soul. And I think having Bonnarooy here has solidified that. Everybody has become a part of

our family, extended family, and we're always happy to welcome you back. Thank you.

Same question. Over the years, I've seen Bonnarooy change in a lot of ways. Mostly the philanthropic

giving and the economic impact coming back into the community. We always saw things happening,

but now we see a lot of intent that is really beneficial to the local community. And that's

the way that I've seen it change. And traffic has gotten better. Even if you're frustrated

about traffic today, it has gotten so much better at the local. Wait, we don't cause any traffic.

I remember that first year. Ryan, same question. How have you seen this festival

change in particular? How did it impact on the community?

Yeah, it's what's growing. It's gotten better every year. I joke, you know, the first thing that

Bonnarooy is responsible for is logistics. Their planning and logistics are just out of this world.

If you really think about the fact there's a hundred plus thousand people around this campus

and that they're able to get off the interstate and in here so safely, it's great. But like Priscilla,

this is my 21st Bonnaroo. So I've been going since 2002. I admitted a couple of years ago

because I think statute limitations have expired, but I snuck into the first four.

But I was 15, 16, 17 years old. So I think it's good, but it's been a massive impact

on the community. And I think you're just actually now seeing these generations of folks

that have grown up with Bonnaroo that are in fact much more enlightened citizens than we have now.

But it's just the one thing Bonnaroo has always done is embrace good ideas. I'm sitting here,

I see David, I see the robust folks, like the fact that they're incorporating the community

and making it such a beautiful place to be, I think is what sets it apart from the rest

of the festivals in the country. Real quick, if I could, Ryan,

you just kind of said it, if you're in your early 20s and you live in this county and this city,

all you know that Bonnaroo is here. We've generationally flipped to where there are people

who have known this their entire life. And I don't see the city itself that drastically different

other than technological advances, necessities, the same thing all smaller towns have.

But the embracing of this festival in this community, in this city, it feels palatable,

it feels real. The comment section, forget the comment section, right? But what is,

as now a city official, what is, over the years, have you been hearing from your constituents

about this festival in general? I mean, there's got to be council meetings or alderman meetings

where somebody's not happy, but what kind of feedback do you get?

Yeah. So, I mean, I'll start with just the fact that Bonnaroo has always been an amazing partner

and a willing partner. I think that's the most important element is any type of improvements

that the city, the municipalities wanted to pursue, the county wanted to pursue,

they've always been there. They're always, they want to sit at the table and have discussions

about any kind of improvements. But, you know, I've been on city council, you talk about the

comment section, like I think the fact that, yeah, if you're in your early twenties, all you've known

is Bonnaroo. I think the one thing that comes with that is you also have to kind of battle

complacency because this is how it's always been. And so, I think that's the biggest thing.

I think that's a lot of the work that the Bonnaroo Works Fund does is kind of resetting that narrative,

like, hey, this is above and beyond. You know, I think they've given well over $8 million since

the festival started just to projects, not just in Manchester, around the region. And they're

changing people's lives throughout the year with this investment. And I think that's the biggest

thing is that they're committed to that 365-day investment to the region, not just Manchester,

but the entire region. And it's, again, they're just the most willing partners that you could imagine.

Brad, this is not the only festival you do, right?

It's not.

How is this one different than the other?

Oh, man.

Everything?

Everything?

Yeah. I mean, Bonnaroo changed my life. I think that there's not a lot of festivals that can make

that claim for many people. I think that I was talking about this earlier, the thing that

separates Bonnaroo from any other music festival, I think in the United States, maybe in the world is

there's just this magic community that's fostered here. And yeah, you guys. And there's this like

overwhelming sense of like what it is to be a human and the human connection that I

don't know if it exists many other places. There's a lot of great artists here. We love our artists.

But there's a lot of artists here that you can go see anywhere. And I think it's really,

it says something that people choose to come here to see those artists rather than

the thousand other places that they can make that decision.

Talk about the relationship between the festival and what we see behind us,

this sort of community things. You guys have done that from the beginning. There's always been

maybe a different name, but there's always been an emphasis on recycling. There's been an emphasis on

giving back to the community, having the community benefit. The high school used to benefit.

I think they bought band uniforms early on, right?

Yeah.

That relationship is it chicken and egg time?

Listen, if you want to make, if a music festival is going to last decades, you've got to be

engaging at more than a surface level. And I think for us, what's really important,

it's really easy to build a stage, make a bunch of noise, sell a bunch of beer, make a bunch of

traffic, and then disappear for 364 days and then come back. What we want to do is

when we go into communities, and Bonnaroo is the perfect example of this. I think Bonnaroo is the

first festival in the country that did this. We want to hold up a mirror. We want to be a reflection

of what is going on in that community, what's happening in that community, what they're trying

to make happen in that community and how we can bolster to that and dig really deep roots and add

fuel to the fire per se. And so I use that analogy a lot. We don't want to come into your neighborhood

and be this big, shiny, noisy thing. We want to come in and simply hold up a mirror and be a

reflection of who they are. And I think that what you're looking at behind you here with all of our

community partners and the different missions that we have and the core values of the brand

that we have here at Bonnaroo, which really filter down to humans being good to other humans.

It's not that simple, but I think it is to an extent. When you can do that, you can win. You

can always win. And you can do a lot of good, like a whole lot of good. And that's what our focus is,

I think, for Bonnaroo. For you guys, for those of you that live here, how is, sorry, how is,

talk about the sort of ebb and flow, this growth, because it's 22, 23 years old. How is it?

I mean, seriously, when the first year 80,000 people lined up on that freeway out there from

Nashville to Chattanooga, that kind of had to be a harsh reality to homeowners.

That was very shocking for the first year. You're hoping for an event to be successful.

I remember my parents getting in the car and driving down the interstate to see if they saw

anyone walking. They were going to pick them up and bring them here. They knew where you were

coming. So I thought that was amazing. That was so amazing. And through the years, somehow,

Bonnaroo keeps making it feel brand new. And it keeps bringing us all back.

What are your memories of the early? Say it again.

What are your memories of those early years and then how?

So my first Bonnaroo was 2011. And I came in my matching Nike outfit and my Nike sandals that I

didn't want to walk through the sludge. And I had my wipeys and I was like, oh, people are going to

be close to me. And the next year, it was like, cool on, let's go out a different way and become

like the people I saw here who are so comfortable in their skin, loving each other even through

their differences and celebrating art and music. So that was the biggest transformation for me.

But over the years, I've always been looking for the people that are going to bathe in the fountain

in the community. And in our grandfather's pool, he said he came home one day and people were

leaving Bonnaroo and stopped to bathe in his pool. So I'm looking for those experiences because

I love that kind of chaos. And now with it being mainstreamed on the interstate, you don't see a

lot of that. But I like seeing all of the welcoming, I'm going to Bonnaroo stuff coming in off the

interstate. Yes.

Ryan, talk about the ebb and flow. I'm sure you've sat in some meetings. They can't all have been

rainbows and unicorns, right? What are some of the hurdles that you guys, that the cities had to

overcome? Yeah. I, you know, a couple of years ago, I'll just cut right into the meat. I don't know.

I probably should have talked about this with Brad, but, um, uh-oh. Yeah. The city, you're in the city

limits of Manchester now. Uh, and that's not always been the case. Um, and I think a couple

years ago, I mean, early, even all the way back to 2017, 16, there was this kind of separation in the

thought process of some elected officials of wanting to create additional taxes, ticket taxes,

and things like that. And the uncomfortable elephant in the room, I guess, was, you know,

we could annex Bonnaroo. It was contiguous to the city limits and the city was a more willing

partner at the time. And so we were able to kind of come in, uh, do that. And I think really kind

of reset some of the initiatives that we were doing as a community. Now, that being said, the

county has come back around. They're back at the table and they're great partners. Um, but as far

as the, the ebb and flow goes, I mean, it's just, it's always about what's, what's best and what,

how can we make it better? You know, is it traffic? Is it investments in the infrastructure?

Is it investments into schools? I mean, I was just talking to someone yesterday when we were in the

high school and I was like, Hey, let me, let me show you this light set that's in the theater

that was invested in by Bonnaroo. Those are kind of things that the long-term investments, um,

that have been made that we kind of maybe become numb to. But yeah, it's, as far as rainbows and

butterflies go, you're elect, some elected officials are always going to have an ego.

You're going to have to run through it. It's no different here and it is anywhere else. Um,

but at the end of the day, the impact that this festival has is enormous culturally,

financially. Um, I'll give you an idea. Tourism in the state of Tennessee is the second largest

industry. It's a $30 billion a year industry for the state of Tennessee. Bonnaroo is roughly a

$330 million regional impact annually, $340 million. So in a community and a state,

Tennessee is one of 10 states that doesn't have an income tax. And so we depend heavily on sales

tax. Be that as a regressive tax as I think it is at the same time for tourism, it does mean higher

margins. And so that means a bigger impact. And so that's why embracing these things,

coming into being partners is so critical because it, it, it shapes our government.

It shapes the way our budgets look, our schools look, um, and our, our culture looks, honestly,

that's the biggest thing I'm excited about this next couple of generations of folks

that have been Ruby and since day one, they're born into it.

All right. I want to wait real quick while I'm thinking of it.

Most of you guys, whether you know it or not, probably know each other.

I think we all listen to a lot of the same podcast and everything. So

turn around and say hi to your neighbor before we leave here. Cause you probably know each other,

just don't know it. How much, how much did Barry pay you guys to be in here today? I'm just curious

over under five bucks. He did it in crypto. Barry's big into cryptocurrency. Yeah. I'll send you my

Venmo. Um, there was some news that came out this week and I know Brad wants to speak to it. Uh,

one of the founders passed away this week. So I know you've got to get a, you've got to leave in

a minute and you want to say something. Yeah. I will one, I appreciate you guys coming to this.

I appreciate what everybody on this stage does to contribute to, to Bonnaroo. It's, it's really

magical. Um, earlier this week, we, we unexpectedly and tragically lost John Mayers, who was one of

the founders of Bonnaroo. Uh, we've set up a beautiful Memorial for him, uh, under this Oak

tree back at the corner of the tent. And, uh, we'd love if you all would leave anything there that

you'd like us to share with his family. There's a mailbox that you can write letters and drop

letters in there. And, um, we'd really love for you guys to share your stories and we're going to,

we will be hand delivering that to John's family. It would mean a ton to them. Uh, John was the

visionary of this festival, the dreamer. Um, it took a lot of his friends, uh, to bring this

all together, but I think he was the one that always was saying what if, and that is something

that is really important to the spirit of Bonnaroo. Uh, the infinity stage this year is one of those

what ifs. Um, I hope you guys take time to go check it out, but really this weekend, we're,

we're trying to do what we can do to honor John and, uh, say thank you to him. And I just wanted

to, uh, with, with the group of you all that were here for this, I wanted to share that with you

because, uh, it's a big loss for us. So we appreciate you all, um, whatever you can stop

and share over there. We really appreciate it. Do you have one for him? Um, Brad, I don't know,

I say it all the time on the show. I don't know of anybody who runs an event like this, who is

as accessible as you have been. I'm always available for you, Barry. Now, Brian, I don't

know. That's a different story. Well, I say I can tell everybody what you're going to say before you

say it. So I don't know. I feel like we're either kindred spirits or enemies. I'm not sure. I think

it's a little bit of both. Yeah. And also I'm going to stay for the record here with Brian on

stage with me that I am not the Festival. I just want to confirm that. Of course that's what it's

I promise you. It's not me. What I did. I did. I want you to know Brian, me and Cory talked about

if I for every day of the festival would wear just something small that had an owl on it,

just to see if you guys would pick up on it. But we didn't, I didn't do it.

Listen, do you think that if Festival was floating around on here, we'd get on this stage and admit

to it? Of course he wouldn't. So we don't know for sure yet, but I'll take your word for it, Brian.

I'm just good at my job, man. That's all I'm going to. I know. I know. All right. Before you

get out of here, talk about some of these community programs that you're most proud of.

Yeah. I appreciate the question. I think this year I want to, I want to highlight a couple of things.

The first one I want to highlight is the Infinity stage. We have a team here literally from

all across the globe. I saw guys the other day and they looked so tired. It was 9 a.m. and I said,

are your guys going to be okay? And they said, yeah, he'll be fine. He just got off a 30 hour

flight. I said, okay, maybe he needs to take the day off and come back tomorrow. But no one's ever

done a stage like the Infinity. No one's ever done a stage like the Infinity as big as we're doing.

We will definitely have a learning curve this year because it's never been done. So for those

of you here, we'll have our music census that goes out after the festival and it'll be up on

the screens during the festival QR code. But we'd love your feedback on everything. Obviously,

we know you want Tain Impala, so I'm just telling you I'm listening to that. But we'd love your

feedback on the Infinity. We'd love your feedback on who you want to see play the show in the future.

And the second thing I want to do, and she was in the crowd, but I think she's probably

hiding somewhere backstage now, Kelsey DeWald who runs the Bonnaroo Works Fund who helps us

curate all of the incredible high impact programming that we do here at Bonnaroo. She's

here at Bonnaroo. She's over here hiding to the left. We're making some big changes to this

program and Kelsey's been a real warrior getting through it with us. So I wanted to share with you

guys here today, we're going to be bringing all of our, basically all of our non-profit

charitable giving, we're going to bring internal to C3 and the festival so we can try to maximize

the impact that we're having. And Kelsey's still going to, she agreed to come along for the ride

on that. So you won't see a lot of things out here that are changing, but hopefully you'll see that

we can continue to grow that number and that impact that we're having and expand the programs

we're doing. And I just want to call Kelsey out for the amazing work that she does in here

with all of our partners. Talk a little bit about that survey that you do.

I know when we first saw it, and it's mostly because Brian and I are old and cynical,

we're like, oh, another survey that will never be utilized. But give us your email. I think I

even told you that and you had an answer. So here's what I'll just admit it. And this is

being recorded, so maybe I shouldn't say this, but we make a lot of assumption. We work in an industry

that's driven on data and ticket sales and all of that. And that's great to have the ability to

access a lot of that information. Sometimes we use data, in my opinion, to make assumptions about

what you all want to see at this festival rather than just asking you directly. We look at how

certain tours are selling, what artists' albums are doing well, and for the most part that works

in our favor. We book bands that people want to see because their albums are popular and their

tours are selling out. But the way that we're able to keep Bonnaroo weird with things like

Luke Combs and Insane Clown Posse on the same day is by getting from you all directly what you want

to hear and what you want to see at the show. And last year we put that census out. It's the first

time we've ever done it. It wasn't a marketing ploy. We didn't ask for your name or your email,

your phone number. We just wanted you to answer questions and that was it. And I think we had

over 20,000 people respond to that census. And we use that data directly to get the artists that

are playing the show this year. So please, please, please, the Sabrina Carpenter way,

please, please, please fill out the census whenever it goes out. Corey Smith will love you and thank

you forever if you do that. How for you guys that live here, again, I'm gonna go back to that,

that you guys that live here, we drop in for a week, you know, four or five days, whatever.

How does this festival impact this city and this county the other 355 days at you?

I'm gonna interrupt her real quick. I have to go. I love you guys so much.

I love Bonnaroo so much. I will come back and try to hang out before this is over if I can,

but I have to go. I love you guys. Bonnaroo.

Yeah, Brad. Thanks, Brad.

It's like Clark Kent. He's got to dip out. Don't be Festival. He didn't convince me of anything,

by the way. I just want to go spread some more rumors.

I always leave them wanting.

So the ways that I see the impact from Bonnaroo year-round as a local is I've seen the pizza

cooker that's at the rec center that the Bonnaroo Works Foundation paid for,

and I see the musical instruments outside at the playground of a local daycare that they paid for.

I see solar panels on one of the biggest buildings in our community that they paid for.

I see buses. I see ambulances. I see band uniforms, lights at our theater,

and I see a person. There's a person. Kelsey shows up. If I text her and say,

Kelsey, this local sponsorship or this local event's happening, if she can be there, she's there,

and that face with the giving lets you know that it's more than just check writing. This is a

relationship with our community, and we see that everywhere.

And I think also by carrying the Bonnarooian code throughout the year, no matter whether you're

here in Manchester or wherever home may be to you, and remembering to radiate the positivity,

share the love. We're all here, and we're just wanting to all love one another, and I think that

as long as we can take that, the world's going to be a better place.

It's not often a message actually gets through. That's pretty cool.

Ryan, same question. Throughout the year, for the rest of the year, how has Bonnaroo impacted

the city and the county? Yeah, again, financially, I'll start there. To the city of Manchester,

we start seeing a spike in sales taxes with ticket sales. It's a little over a million dollars to the

annual budget that comes in directly to Bonnaroo. That's not a consideration of lodging taxes and

other taxes that come in as well. To give you an idea, that's roughly 10% of the entire city's

operational budget, so it's huge. Now, the other 365 days a year, I think that that's probably the

most interesting question because it depends on who you are. My family, we have five kids,

and they are out here every single year from as little as three years old, two years old. We have

them out here. There's no safer place in the world, in my opinion, than Bonnaroo.

And in a world that can suck sometimes, when you have a code that you come to and the first

thing is you got to radiate positivity, I think it's one of those things that ripples throughout

the community the rest of the year. For people that get it, there's always going to be your

handful of assholes, but we don't worry about those guys. They're in the comment section.

Well, to piggyback off of that, Ryan, I mean, doing this for 22 years, I've had countless

people in my life having children that are 15 or 14, it's on the way to 17, and they want to go to

Bonnaroo. That rite of passage, it's still alive and very vibrant and very well. And I think that's

the spirit of this festival all the way around is that you haven't experienced anything if you

haven't done this. And having that still be so prevalent is, I don't like to use the word magical

that much, but it really is a magical kind of thing that it's the youth and the returning

customers for sure, but the youth really keeps this thing alive and well, I believe.

I asked the question earlier, how many of you talk about it all the time?

How many of you feel like this festival changed your life?

That's a common theme, and I just blanked on my thought. So many people have asked me,

is Bonnaroo safe for my kids? That's where I was going with that. Or my teenager, or my 19, 18 year

old. I'm so worried. And Ryan, you just said it. It's one of the safest places you can be.

There's nothing dangerous about this festival at all unless you live your life dangerously,

and then you're going to run into issues no matter where you go.

That's always my answer when people would ask. If your kid's one of those that trouble finds,

or he or she finds trouble, it's there.

Yeah, but you can find trouble here if you want to make it. The beautiful thing is,

virtually nobody wants that. And it's very rare you run into a place where there's this many people

who collectively feel the same way. It still blows my mind every year to be in a spot where

so many people are all on the same page. Every single minute of the festival, when shit is just,

oh my God, it's weather, or whatever it might be, let's figure out how to make this work. Let's

figure out how to make this the best it can be. And almost always that turns out to be the case.

Never not great. Can you tell us what the conversations were like with your parents

when this thing first sort of came around? I mean, again, I can only imagine if 80,000 people

descended on my neighborhood. Not in my backyard. I'm gonna have a moment or two.

So I actually live in Nashville, but I grew up here. This is home, and Lonnie Norman was my

father. So when it first came, they were just so excited. And they couldn't wait for everyone to

come. They kept calling me, like Priscilla, you have to hurry up and come home. You are just not

gonna believe what we're seeing. There are so many people. So I think they were hoping for people,

but they didn't expect as many people as they saw. So as I said before, they were trolling the

interstate to happily bring anybody that was headed this way on this farm very safely.

And they came every year until they, of course, were not able to come any longer. But

this place is a special place for us, for my family. Once in a lifetime, memories have been made here.

Our friends that are our friends for life. So I just love you being here, being back in my hometown.

Priscilla, I would like to stick with your father for just a minute. He was the mayor in the 90s,

later again in 2012, if I'm getting my numbers right. First African American mayor of Manchester,

never, never lost a public seat that he sought. So the trust within the community was there

clearly since the 90s and into the 2000s. And he was a supporter from the jump.

From the start, from the start, he thought this festival was the best thing in the world.

How many of you are here for the first time?

Look at those nudes. Happy to have you.

Yeah.

Applause again. Is it what you expected? Better? Worse? It's early. I know it's early. It's still

when you get here, it's kind of overwhelming. All right. How many of you have been here two years?

How many? Five? How many? Ten? Yeah, there's a lot of repeats. I don't know too many things like that.

That's really cool. All right. What else you got? Well, Ryan, I want to bring you back. You were

talking about the numbers to the community and the overall numbers are, you know, they're real

for the most part. You know how local municipalities, state municipalities and

numbers can start to maybe turn into junk data. But I mean, I just went through the

Manchester Times backlogs and it's a little bit more than just, oh, 300 umpteen billion,

uncountable jillion, right? I'm at Food City. That's a grocery store in Chattanooga this morning.

Two different sets of cars are filling up on their last run before they're heading up. Talk to them

for a few minutes. Let's say they spent a hundred bucks each. That's money spent a hundred miles away,

80 miles away. Some of the numbers I saw here from 2013, right? So we're going back a ways.

$28 per day outside of the county per person is spent. Inside the county,

$35 a day per person within Coffee County and $86 total spent,

and spending throughout, you know, leading up to the weekend, that kind of thing.

Those are numbers that are easier for me to digest. You can tell me $100 million. I'm like, wow,

I don't know what that money even is. But that's real money going to real places, to real businesses,

to real people that, I mean, to say without it, you would be ruined would be silly. But

that kind of stuff is really, really resonates with me. Yeah. I think your bigger point is,

you know, the hundred miles away, right? Because the local sales tax rate here is 2.75,

but the state sales tax rate is seven. So yeah, we're closer to an eight and a half, nine or

something in Hamilton County. Yeah. So when you get into Tennessee and you start spending money,

it's going to the state coffers either way. So it's going to be beneficial to everybody.

But as far as digestible numbers, you know, we look at the State Department of Tourism puts out

a really cool snapshot each year for each county. And just kind of give you an idea, you know,

Manchester, Coffee County roughly sees about a $600 plus savings per year per household in savings

thanks to tourism. And if you really want to break down tourism in Coffee County, well, just look

around. This is where it is. So that's more of a digestible number for people. Because again,

like you said, it kind of gets lost in the fray over 22 years. It's already cooked into budgets

and this and that. But if you look at that number every year, 600 bucks, it saves us. And I'll also

say to the spending coming into Bonnaroo is actually a little bit lower than averages. And

that's because we know most of you are trying to save your money till you get here. And that's a

good thing. So, but yeah, those are in line. And that's what leads to that overall regional impact

that I'll say this isn't as much as it is a local festival for us because we love it. It benefits

us. It benefits the entire state of Tennessee. And I think you've seen that commitment from the

state because of that. I wish I had the quote in front of me now, but I don't. But if somebody back

in media on a panel earlier was talking about, it says 75% of attendees are outside of the state

of Tennessee. So I don't know what that means exactly, except it sounds good. Yeah. Lots of

travel, lots of money, lots of commerce. And that's what that that's what everybody wants.

And to have a great time on top of that. So I just, I, I can't imagine the, I I've never been here

in the city running around, which is a lot less now. They don't want you leaving stay if you can.

I've never encountered a local in 20 years that was anything other than helpful.

There was anything other than gracious. I mean, I haven't even run into a bad attitude. I mean,

I guess I was the bad attitude, maybe I don't know. It's, it's, it's wild and it's a testament

to what's happening here. We hear. I did want to jump in and answer your question earlier about

when you first came to town, what was that like? My, I have a 95 year old grandfather that's about

200 yards away just across the interstate from right here as a crow flies. And he's uniquely

minded as far as his acceptance of people in the world. But he had a swimming pool at the time.

The first thing he did was open the swimming pool to the traffic that was sitting in front of his

house waiting to get in. And Priscilla said it, we're so excited to come back every year and see

everybody because they're family, right? And we're, we're excited about the family and seeing

all the folks. A couple of years ago, my great dad was telling me he's not, he's turning 92 years old

and he said, yeah, you know, I appreciate being this old, but when you get this old,

all your friends are, are gone before you. And so I went to, uh, loophole reality, uh, the Vonaru

fan page and I just posted on there, Hey, my granddad's turning 92. It doesn't have any friends

that are around. He's got one or two. They're going to call him and be done by eight 30 this morning.

Give him a call. I gave his phone number out for the next 40 something hours. His phone rang

and I just snuck to his house. Didn't say anything. He goes, I know it was you,

but he ended up having calls from all 50 states, from people he ended up taking, accepting well

over 300 calls. There's no telling how many he missed because he talked to people the whole

entire time. And that's what this community is about. That's the people that are new here.

That's what you belong to now. So go ahead and make plans for next year and the year after,

and the year after one more piece of commentary. This isn't really a question, but Ryan speak to it.

If you remember, I got a few years on you, but not a whole lot. How many of you have heard of

the itch. You coup park festival. Not that many, few of you. I see you. I see, I see you. Oh geez.

Yeah. So in, in August of 99 on this property, it was a, a festival called itchy coup park

classic rock artists for the most part. Think heart Nancy and whatever names from heart.

Mitch rider was here. Sammy Hagar, things like that. Two weeks before that, roughly was Woodstock

99. And so between, I don't have time to reset the Woodstock 99 thing. Y'all don't, I'm going to

assume you know how that went. Not good. And then itchy coup park, it was a, was a failure financially.

It tanked, it didn't sell well. I don't know if that had anything to do with, because the biggest

story in America in late July, 1999 into August was the destruction and dangerous. I mean,

that's the only way to put it dangerous setting that what we thought American music festivals had

turned into. And so there wasn't a promoter that was going to touch this anywhere. Any kind of

festival was a done idea for now. And then as we mentioned earlier with the, with the,

the sad passing of, of Jonathan Mayers and, and countless names that are not,

they're escaping me this moment, boldly went out here and said, all right, let's give this a try.

Let's do this. And I'll be damned if it didn't work. And it, it reset into the 21st century,

the European style, along with the jam fish, grateful dead ethos.

And it creates, this isn't just a festival that's really cool for us to be at right now.

It's transformative to the entire landscape of live music and, and, and festival gatherings,

proving it can be safe, proving it could be done well. And that's a, that's a damn bold risk.

Ryan, your, your memories of the Ichikyu park and all that leading into the turn of the 21st century.

Do you have any thoughts on that? Yeah. So Ichikyu, I guess you said it was 99. I guess the most

important thing about Ichikyu was the research that went into it. They had determined that

Manchester was a great place for a festival because it's like a day and a half drive from

80% of the United States. And then the names, you know, Ashley Cavs, think back, Jeff Cuellar,

those people come in and this beautiful thing. But yeah, Ichikyu was, Ichikyu was crazy. It was,

it was a different, it was a bunch of people showed up with not a lot of idea of where to go.

And then that led to in, in 2002, I think the city council for the most part kind of dismissed

Bonnaroo, the seriousness of Bonnaroo. Cause they're like, right. I figured it'd be a big failure.

Yeah. They're like, Oh, you say 80,000 people is going to come. That's what they said last thing.

And then 80,000 people showed up and it was like, Holy crap. We, you know, what do you do? And it's,

it's been full speed ever since. We hear, every time he's on our show or anytime we talk to him,

one of the things Brad Parker says that makes this work is they always at the end of the festival

say what went right, what went wrong, but they always are open to the idea of what if,

what if we did this? How does it work from the city's standpoint to the, to the C3 people,

to the Brad Parker's of the world come to you guys here and say, what if we do this?

I guess what I'm asking is it a two way street? Can you guys go to them and say, what if we did

this? Yeah, absolutely. So Bonnaroo, every year they'll come back before the festival. We'll go

into the festival with a series of safety meetings. You know, they'll brief us on things that they're

changing as far as safety, because safety is paramount. It is the number one concern, making

sure everyone comes here, has fun and is in a safe manner. And then of course, after the festival's

over, we'll, we all recover and then we come back to the table and is there things that we can do

better? Is there, is there plans that we can put in place? For the most part now that's really

worked out. There are some, you know, there are some investments that can be made. You know,

I'm thinking about widening Bushy Branch Road, by the way. Someone from the Bonnaroo merch team

needs to make a Bushy Branch Road t-shirt by the way. Yeah. I've read a lot about, there's been some

issues getting that widened. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Widen the road. Sorry. I grew up in Lynchburg,

so I got a little bit of that twang. But yeah, we need to widen that road. It's only been 20 years.

Use an extra lane. Yeah. That's, but that, that going back to the annexation discussion, that was

kind of one of the, that was one of the sticking points was the willingness to do that. You know,

the state of Tennessee is willing to come in. That's, that's a plan that's been tossed around.

But those types of discussions, Bonnaroo very much comes to the table. I'll give you another example.

I guess it's a better example. Water infrastructure is a real big deal around here. A couple years ago,

we had to run a new water main from the center of town across the interstate. It's about a $1.2

million project at the time. Bonnaroo chipped in, we were able to work with a grant and the

city of Manchester ended up paying a hundred thousand dollars for a $1.2 million project.

Bonnaroo funded a majority of that matching grant to the tune of about 600 grand. That's an example

of kind of those intrinsic things that maybe the residents aren't as aware of, that we need to do

a better job of selling, but that's, that's their commitment, not just to the idea, but to the

implementation, execution of the idea. Just to pull a few headlines from the last 10 years or so.

2014 editorial, could we survive without Bonnaroo? In 15, Bonnaroo to buy Chromebooks for county

schools, pay to paint Manchester recreation center. 2012 Verizon Wireless enhances their network here

in the city of Manchester. Now I'm sure eventually there would be upgrades in the cellular service

here, but that I'm guessing was expedited because of the necessity for it. The $50 million impact on

this one, I was mentioning earlier, Bonnaroo exceeds expectations from 2012. The works fund

that were the, the beneficiaries of what we're doing here right now, 139,000 in grants.

The $1.4 million water project that you were just talking about, Ryan, and the list just keeps going

on and on from the last couple of years. Big bucks for local nonprofits and then nonprofits see big

Bonnaroo benefits. Those are just headlines from the Manchester Times. And it's,

it's remarkable how much they put into the community. And the older I get, the more I value

community. And, and this is one hell of a community.

Probably going to wrap up here in a little bit, mostly because I'm tired of sitting on this bench.

But I wanted to point out tomorrow, the RooHamm guys are going to be here hosting another panel.

And I know Ryan Benson is going to be part of that panel. He's the guy that actually books the

lineup. So looking forward to that. I don't know if Parker's still here, RooHamm was here. And then

on Saturday, the real RUBAs, Daniel and Sharla, they're around. They're going to be talking about

their totem program, which is pretty awesome. So if you will hope you'll come back for that.

I know we had, there's Daniel. There he is crashing the rail. I don't know if we can,

if you guys have any questions for anybody up here, if you want to ask,

we'll try to hear as best we can. Yes, sir.

Favorite show, favorite. That's my guy, Zach.

Paul McCartney, 2013. It's not even close.

2016 Pearl Jam, Dead and Company. Now it wasn't everybody else's favorite year, but that was one

of my favorite years. All right. Well, thank you guys so much. We're going to come out and hug and

howdy and I hope we'll stick around. Happy RooHamm. Happy RooHamm. Thank you.