Inside Bonnaroo's Planet Roo: Shower The People's Mission Radiates Positivity

There are a few things that help dignify a human being.

A good pair of socks is one, but a shower, a clean,

just being clean is kind of key, right?

It is, yeah. We realize that showers can change your day,

whether you're housed or unhoused, getting into a shower

and having that time to decompress with a door shut,

nobody can talk to you, can change the course of your day.

It can change your health in a lot of ways.

We can really have a small impact on somebody's life,

but that could have a huge impact rippling out.

I always tell people once I know somebody's underwear size,

they're pretty much willing to tell me anything about their life.

That's my next pickup line, what's your underwear size?

Welcome back to the What Podcast.

I'm Barry, that's Brian, that's Russ, Russ with the lake behind.

Is that real? That's not a green screen.

This is not a green screen, I'm really here, yeah.

Where are you exactly?

I'm spending the weekend, we'll say it's a lake in Georgia,

about an hour north of Atlanta.

I don't think they want to spoil the location

because they're tired of people moving here.

Based on the views, I would guess they don't, yes.

Yeah, so-

The water's poisonous, don't go there.

Lake Alatuna, go to Lake Alatuna, there you go.

But yeah, no, this is beautiful, we're here for the weekend,

drove the bus down and so, yeah.

Very nice.

Be happy to hop on with you guys today.

Yeah, well this is sort of the first time we've been together

in a couple of weeks.

Russ, you and I were in Atlanta last weekend for Shaky Knees.

We did an episode kind of recapping our visit to Shaky Knees

and a little bit of our visit to the IBMA World of Bluegrass,

but Brian, you actually spent the rest of the last weekend

doing more of that festival while Russ and I were down in Atlanta.

Yeah, we had to split up.

I drew the short straw, I had to go to the Bluegrass Festival.

That's not true at all, I could have done both actually,

I could have easily done both.

It just got to be a busy week and I was fine with doing just our local festival

and it was a lot of fun.

You guys saw last week on the little red carpet thing we did,

which was, I mean, just to be a geek was just a really neat thing, right?

I've never done anything like that and it was just fun,

if nothing else.

And the whole week was just, it was done really well here in Chattanooga.

There's certainly warts and issues and first year event problems to work out,

but I did not have any real FOMO.

The beaches were playing on Saturday and the KG Elephant.

It was the beaches.

And I didn't, yes, I wanted to go, especially in my younger days,

I spent a lot of time in Atlanta.

That's part of why I don't mind as much now as I'm kind of tired of going to the big city,

but I didn't have the FOMO I thought I was going to have,

so it was fun to be on assignment at the Old Bluegrass event here in Chattanooga.

One of the things, and I say this a lot, Brian does his own podcast,

Stone On Air.

You kind of did a recap, but one of the things you talked about was seating,

a festival seating, VIP, GA plus, that sort of thing.

Or just the various kinds of admission.

And I wanted to just a quick hit on that because it's a festival thing related to any festival.

We had a conversation.

We ran into David Champion, a friend of the show, been on the show a couple of times.

He and his wife did VIP and we sort of had a quick conversation.

They were like, you know.

For shakin' ease you're talking about?

For shakin' ease.

They did VIP.

Wasn't sure whether it was worth it or not.

They got what?

Free beer, free water, and got up close.

But Russ, I mean, we could have gotten as close as they did.

That's one of the things I liked about that venue.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I've done VIP.

That's pretty much it.

You get, you know, complimentary beverages.

There's a VIP section.

There didn't seem to be as much for VIP this year just from outside looking in.

Right.

You could have gotten as close as you want pretty much.

Contrast that, Ryan, with what you mentioned at the festival, IBMA.

They did, sounded like what Bonnarooo did a couple of years ago where they sectioned off this

huge piece of property for VIP that nobody got in.

Right?

And again, they created this awkward space.

And that's my point.

We'll throw up a couple of pictures that aren't the best shots ever,

but they'll give you an idea of kind of the seating set up.

I think there's two angles to it here with the IBMA is that there,

it's a different kind of crowd.

It's a different kind of audience.

And I think some seating, like actual sit down in chairs is what they're used to at that festival.

It was in Raleigh for years and it was at an amphitheater that had the built-in seats down below.

So the lawn behind, the traditional style amphitheater.

Almost feels like they tried to recreate that.

But what happened here specifically was in our park, smaller park that we put it in,

they pretty much made the entire section, like the section that everybody wants to go

as the GA plus as they call it.

I think they're just using the wrong terminology of what they want to call it.

But call it whatever you want.

Call it grade A seats, best seats, whatever you want to call it.

Platinum, premium, whatever you want to call it.

And it just caused a lot of confusion.

People didn't know, people who had it weren't sure exactly what it was.

And then they did.

And then they got mad when people they thought didn't have it infringed on their space.

Then the people who thought they were just here to see a festival in a lawn

couldn't get up close.

And you got a band like the Wood Brothers, which are not bluegrass,

are actually the rockinest act they're going to have all weekend.

I enjoyed the show immensely on a Friday night,

but there was hundreds to thousands of people on the outside looking into the main festival

area and they couldn't get in there.

It caused a lot of confusion.

And I hope that here, this specific festival, they work around it.

But Bonnaroo, you just mentioned it, Barry had the exact same thing two years ago

with the platinum situation.

And they immediately realized quickly that didn't work.

And they pivoted and changed.

That Bonnaroo is the best in the world at that.

Our Chattanooga people are not the best in the world at that.

They're not the best in the state at that, maybe even in the county.

That's really why I brought it up is because it's an issue

that a lot of festivals deal with.

You want to do the right thing.

You want to be able to sell those VIP.

Some people want that.

They want a chair.

They want to be able to get up close.

And you can certainly do that.

Correct.

That's my point.

You can do that.

And in this case, they just took the entire best area and gave it all to the premium.

But it was not specific or understood as to what this was.

So hopefully they'll change that logistics next year.

I bet you they do.

I'm sure that they will.

Really, the point is it not only created confusion, as you've said,

but it didn't benefit the VIP people and it definitely didn't benefit the general people.

It made it awkward for the band.

And it didn't benefit the band.

It didn't benefit anybody.

And so VIP people want to see a show, but they want to see it in a different perspective.

They don't want to be in the middle of everything.

They don't want to be with the unwashed GA savages,

as our guy Brad Steiner would once call everybody, which is unfair, but we get the point.

They don't want to be in that.

So do give them their luxurious space.

It's great.

I think it was you, Russ, who you got into that VIP, that ginormous VIP thing in Bonnarooo.

I don't remember if it was you or somebody else who said it created this awkward,

like you were standing there and everyone's staring at you.

Yeah, like it was the asshole.

Because it's a completely empty space and you're standing right there.

Yeah, you just feel like everyone's got eyes on you, just judging you.

Look at that guy with his half acre.

Well, and that's the experience I had.

I could have laid down with as much space as I had.

Yeah, absolutely.

That was the experience I had in 2004 for the beaches right before Chapel Rowan.

Now, Chapel Rowan is about to take place.

This is at this tent, which is right next to the witch.

And so most people were getting, Chapel was just, as everybody remembers,

that was the hottest act of the year.

And so it was a light crowd for the beaches.

And they even mentioned like, yeah, we're going to hurry up and get done

because we want to see Chapel too.

And I'm on the rail of platinum.

And because the attendance was lower than they would have probably gotten

because of the hysteria just around the corner, it was glaringly noticeable.

Like I'm as close as I can get and I'm still so far away.

And there's hardly anybody in this platinum.

But then you wonder about from the organizer, from one day to the next,

especially with a new event like here.

Do you change on the fly?

Do you pivot on the fly?

Do you say, you know what?

This isn't working.

You know what?

We're going to forget this.

Open it up.

Y'all all come down.

Good point.

Well, now you're undermining the people who paid for that.

Yeah, you might upset the people that actually paid all that money for it.

And those people would not be wrong to be irritated by that.

So it's like it's needless.

It's needless confusion and complication that has just infiltrated the festival,

the concert buying experience all the way around.

From the four presales to buy a Neil deGrasse Tyson,

you know, speak at the planetarium to the biggest festival in the world.

I understand why they do it and they're never going to stop.

This is what it is.

It's just trying to and Bonnaroo listens.

I hope all festivals listens as well as C3 and Live Nation for all the shit they get.

They listen and Bonnaroo has done a good job with that.

And I just hope other smaller festivals will also listen

and realize that sometimes you're making bigger problems

and you think you are helping anyway.

But but but but but all that to say first year event overall grade.

We had as perfect.

I'm assuming it was nice weather down there for you guys in Atlanta as it was.

It was unbelievable.

Beautiful weekend and week with all the weeks we had star power down here in Chattanooga.

We won't get a better lineup of people.

I wouldn't think I've talked to people all week.

I'm like, who do you get next year?

How do you do this again?

Could you know Billy strings isn't going to give you four days next year?

The guy's not going to do this every year.

So one and I just find out that was coincidence.

You know, he had booked the signal.

I mean, they knew, but that was not.

I mean, that was just dumb luck for Chattanooga.

Yeah, Billy happened to be in town.

But then him sticking around all the way almost to the weekend.

Just as cool as I mean,

Billy strings is the coolest guy in the world.

It appears that that's probably true.

And the other coolest guy in the world, Steve Martin also here last week.

So yeah, you need good luck topping those.

And kudos to the three of us for not getting COVID.

Since apparently everyone else, Steve Martin left here with COVID.

And Martin short was a patient zero.

He's the one who shared that with his buddy.

Well, they had to cancel some of their comedy shows that they do.

So yeah, apparently there was a variant, if you will, around here.

But no, I'm.

It wasn't COVID, but I caught the crud big time.

I mean, I was coughing and stopped up all week.

I'm finally sort of getting over it.

So well, get ready for it again and cave fest in a couple of weeks.

Yeah, I can't wait.

Yeah, I'll have some of that ragweed in there.

So real quick, two funny lines from Steve Martin.

I don't think we talked about this, Russ.

He said several times from the podium that it was going to be only mandolins in the building.

That was a pretty good line.

Only murderers in the building.

Yeah, only murderers.

Play on that.

Only mandolins, right.

And he just turned 80.

And he said, I'm 80.

And Allison, I think I'm telling this right, Allison Brown said, you look 65.

And he said, that's not good either.

Yeah, he said, I feel 65.

And that's also not good.

That's right.

I forgot about that line.

I forgot about that line.

Well, Steve Martin looked 65 in The Jerk.

He looked 65 when he was 20.

That's he and Alice Cooper.

Yeah, people always say, how did Alice look?

He looks old.

And I said, he's looked old since he was 20 years old.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was fun.

It was a lot of fun.

My earliest memory of Steve Martin is seeing his name in the phone book.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

I'm somebody.

Yeah, that was amazing to be able to see him.

I grew up, I literally, I could go, all three of his albums, put it on right now,

drop the needle, and I can go line for line.

Well, I'm a big Saturday Night Live guy, not as much now, but certainly from the 90s.

And I could even appreciate the older stuff, even though Saturday Night Live is such the

perfect example of a generational show.

So I didn't get everybody from those older days, but boy, it's hard not to love Steve Martin.

And to be able to just stand two feet away from the guy was pretty darn cool.

Yeah, it was really cool.

Really fun week, really fun week, and I can't wait for, boy, we're just bluegrassing it up around

here. We got another festival coming up here in town, and it'll all be a K-Fest in a couple

weeks too, which that one's an easy one. That's super easy for us.

All right, what other news?

Might as well talk for a moment before we get to our guest, Meredith, from Shower the People,

that Coachella, I didn't do research on it to find out, but this has got to be the earliest

that they dropped.

This is the earliest.

And not even just by like a week or two, like a couple of months, I would say.

April of 26 is when Coachella takes place, and it's already sold out.

So Coachella is not having trouble. That's for sure. A lot of festivals around might be,

but does that mean anything to the ethos of the current festival line up drop, information drop,

ticket pricing drop? Does that mean anything to Bonnarooo? Does that change how things happen?

I would say specific to Bonnarooo, there's always a little bit of crossover you will see from one

line up to the next, not a ton. So I don't know how much you could infer from Coachella, how much

would be at Bonnarooo.

Also, just wonder, will Bonnarooo think that they need to be quicker to the punch to get,

you know, to get it out there?

That's a good question too, yeah.

Let me ask it this way. Because I've heard a lot of the socials and how important is this Bonnarooo

lineup in relation, especially in relation to what you're just talking about, does it need to be

similar or does it need to be so completely different than anything else that, you know what

I mean?

It's a good question because that's become such a thing in just the last few years. Like that is,

it, there's always been crossover, but it just really feels like that's happening a lot.

But as, sorry, one of y'all just said is that Coachella and Bonnarooo never have a ton of

crossover. What is popping in California, like this moment, is not the same thing east of the

Mississippi.

Yeah, I mean, you know, they got, they got Justin Bieber. Do we want Justin Bieber at Bonnarooo?

Or is that?

I don't know.

I think there's a lot of people.

I don't.

Maybe.

Who is it? Was it stage coach that got Ed Sheeran and Garth Brooks? I think.

Yeah, I don't know, but there's also a lot. There's a bunch of, it does feel like there's a lot of

early announcements for 2026 events and festivals. A couple of these cruises are already starting to

be booked. Big Ears here, by the way, Barry, I know Big Ears is something you had your eye on

a little bit because it's so top heavy. That's in Knoxville. That is AC, right?

Ashley Capps.

Ashley Capps.

That's his baby. That's his baby. Everyone knows that's his baby.

That was his, the other thing. I do Bonnarooo and then, you know, Big Ears over here and it's got

David Byrne. And is it Robert Plant?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Summerfest, not stagecoach. Summerfest has Ed Sheeran and Garth. But yeah,

the Big Ears, which is a completely, I always hate using the words, avant garde. I mean, it's

almost the, it's the-

Well, then Dave Byrne was going to work just fine then.

Exactly.

Yeah, that fits right in.

Yeah. He's probably not going to be doing talking heads stuff.

Yeah. He might make sure and not play a damn one of them.

I know, but that's cool. Yeah. I'm definitely interested. I saw that lineup. So anyway,

I'm very curious to see what Bonnarooo does along those lines. I did, ran into some, some,

some of the big cheeses, if you will, at Shaky Knees and asked about Brad Parker's replacement.

And she has been named, I don't remember her name.

Shelly something.

She's not ready to come on.

No, Shelby. I'm sorry.

Shelby. I think you're right. Yeah.

Yeah.

She will be a guest on the show at some point, but not soon. She's not Brad Parker.

She is not the-

Nobody is.

Yeah. I was told, let's give her a while to get her feet underneath her. She's not the media

savant that Brad Parker-

She'll work her way into it. She'll have to.

I think that's fair. Yeah.

She'll work her way into it, but Brad Parker has never seen a microphone or camera that he

couldn't wait to get behind. Now he might not share any of it and he might not comment and he

might not act like he likes y'all that much, but he can't wait to be on your camera and your

microphone.

He's good at it, but Corey will. We'll put Corey on.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Corey's still around.

He's a rare breed, Brad Parker, and I wish him the best and everything he's gonna do. But

I enjoyed sparring with him a little bit. That was a lot of fun.

Oh, he's a lot of fun and he loved it too.

So I know he did. I know.

Um, but anyway, so I'm, well, you know, obviously we'll pay attention to the lineup.

I just wonder, cause we were so used to now early January on lineup drop.

Does that turn into December? Right? Like, I mean, there's a, this is a big transitional year for

Bonnaroo, whether we're all acknowledging it or not. It really is in a lot of ways. Do they decide

maybe we should get a little buzz going before the new year?

Maybe we should get this before Christmas.

Yeah. We have a new director. She may have different ideas of how to execute this thing.

So we really don't know. We can't really rely on what they've done in the past because now

we're looking at the future.

And we also know, I mean, I know enough that there are, there is push from the suits for,

for cost control.

Yes.

Like there, this is, this is a, we're going to do this, but we, we, we,

cost is a bigger concern than ever.

Yeah. There is a budget.

There is a budget.

You're going to see things. There's going to be things scaled back. This is going to have a

doge, sorry to go there, a kind of approach to it. I don't mean to be so negative connotation

with the terminology, but just so you understand, there's going to be a lot of that. And that

doesn't mean that anything's ruined. It just means you get, it's going to be that much more

difficult.

And I think they're also a lot more upfront about what they are scaling back on, you know,

so far, I mentioned that on our show. Yeah. That they don't want anyone to show up and be

surprised. Like, wait a minute, we don't have this or that. So they're going to keep us informed.

They're going to communicate as they plan and

into a corner until she tells us.

But they also realize that there is a finite people's dollars are finite. You know, that's

part of why probably Coachella reaches out and, and you don't want to wait. You don't want to be

the last festival announcing your lineup, selling tickets, you know, like if I can only go to two,

you know, I'm going to choose between this one and that one. Until that's part of the equation

as well. So one thing that will not be scaled down, it doesn't look like is Planet Roo, which

has expanded as we saw this year with a huge tent, lots of, lots of new stuff. And one of them that

we're going to talk about here in a minute with Meredith, right? Yeah. Meredith is a what she

co co executive of shower the people. They are a Nashville based charitable organization that

provides showers as well as underwear, laundry service, all kinds of things for homeless people.

Um, they have become part of the Bonnarooo, uh, Planet Roo experience and you'll figure out, um,

it always has fascinated me that the ties that have the, the, the, the charitable things that

Bonnarooo does that a lot of people don't see unless you're there, uh, that go beyond the music,

you know, we talk a lot about the music, we talk a lot about the camping, we talk a lot about our

own experiences, but, uh, it raises Bonnarooo raises a lot of money, does a lot of good things.

And so kind of glad to shine a light. They really do. We've always known this. They've always,

Planet Roo has been there since day one, I'm pretty sure, or at least day two, one pretty much.

And really there's a, there's a, and you'll hear it from Meredith here as we get into it, there's a

version of, you know, you're always trying to spread the message of Bonnarooo and how to get

people to want to come to this very niche, eclectic, different, difficult place. Um,

and that's even, that's even one of the ways to do it. You get, you get more people involved,

more different organizations involved, and then they're like, whoa, wait, huh?

Yeah. You do what?

What is this? This is awesome. Can I do this more? You know, and like that, even that helps

the, the, the radiate positivity vibe. It helps the, it helps the whole ecosystem of the whole

thing from the charitable ventures to the festival itself. So I don't know if they sit around and

make that as a specific plan, but I would guess it has, it factors in. And quite simply, it's a

way to radiate positively year round. And we talk about that with Meredith. So here we go. This is

our interview with Meredith from Shower the People, which by the way, I'm really surprised

they got that name. I would have figured that would have been exactly right. I would have figured

that have been scooped up by somebody and it's perfect. Or James Taylor. You think you'd come

after him? Exactly. Yeah. James Taylor's chill. He's a positive, radiate positivity guy. Yeah.

All right. Here we go. Here's Meredith.

There she is. Meredith McLeod, Joanne. Did I say that right?

You did. You got it perfect. I'll never do it again.

You'll probably be Mike before the end of the day. You know, I'm good with it. I am good with it.

Thank you so much for joining us. Let's start right at the beginning. Tell, and I was thinking

about this early because everybody has sort of a Bonnarooo origin story. Tell us your origin story.

So I heard about Bonnarooo when I was in high school. I had friends who went to Bonnarooo.

I thought they were crazy to go camp at a festival and hang out for a weekend. They were.

They were. Especially in the early 2000s. They were. And they're still my best friends. So,

but we, I kind of just wrote it off as it wasn't my vibe. And then 2020, we Shower the People got

a grant from Bonnarooo and were invited to come and be a part of Planet Roo. We obviously didn't make

it into the farm until 2020 or 2022. And then I fell in love with not only the farm, but the

people that were working behind the scenes that were like our liaisons and just the feeling of

like love on the farm. I think actually after 2022 things were like so heavy in our world that being

on the farm were like, you were like, Oh my God, I can just say I love you to random people. And

they're going to be like, I love you too. It's not weird. It's not weird. It's not weird. And

so just like have that. It shouldn't be weird anyway, honestly. It should be that way everywhere,

not just Bonnarooo. Yeah, no. That kind of like has drawn us and kept us on the farm.

We hold our fingers every year that we're going to be invited back to Planet Roo, but also having

our own wristbands to be able to go either way. Cause it is now a part of like my, my origin story

is being on the farm. It's just so special. If you haven't been, you can't describe the energy

that you feel as soon as you step out of your car on the farm and being like, I'm finally here. I can

be joyful for five days or whatever it is, which is just so unheard of. If I could ask you to

give us the, for context, the, the circa era of your high school years that you first heard of

Bonnarooo, just so we know where that first hearing of the festival was. What timeframe are we talking

about? 2006. Okay. So pretty early on. So it was a while before you got around to giving the crazy

people an idea or try what this idea was. It was. Yeah. No, I am not a camping girlie. When we go

to the farm now, I have an RV because 2022 we camped and it was a million degrees. And I said,

I'm almost 40. I don't need to be doing that. So I now have gone with adult money to have the time

that I can have to enjoy Bonnarooo to its fullest. I like it. Well, that's what you missed out on the

early years where you could have, you could rough it and not know any better, but you started when

you already knew better. So you were actually ahead of the game there. Yeah. We guys, we've,

we've been defining this wrong the whole time. There's, there's high school money,

there's college money, and then there's adult money. That's how we needed to start defining.

When do we get the adult money? Huge difference in some of those eras.

You kind of jumped right over what Shower of the People, or the, the, the, what you guys actually

do, right? Yeah. Did I understand you had been doing that? You've been part of that before 2020?

Yeah. So I am one of the co-founders of the organization. We have a shower bus. We'd seen

kind of all of the school-y life. My co-founder has dreadlocks down to the floor. So he is obviously

very familiar with the festival scene and had seen what people have done with school buses.

So we turned a school bus into a shower facility and drive around Nashville, giving showers to

people experiencing homelessness. We started that in 2017 and had been trying to work our way to

the farm. We knew that Bonnarooo people would really understand what we were doing and how we

were just trying to lead with love in the work that we were doing. So it just took us a couple

years to finally get to the farm. But yeah. Let's not to gloss over and I've been kind of,

you know, lighthearted up until this, but

there are a few things that help dignify a human being that people don't understand. A good pair of

socks is one, but a shower, a clean, just being clean is kind of key, right? I assume that's what

you guys are all based on. It is. Yeah. We realize that showers can change your day, whether you're

housed or unhoused, getting into a shower and having that time to decompress with a door shut,

nobody can talk to you, can change the course of your day. It can change your health in a lot of

ways. I have had doctors be like, Hey, you know what, just go get in the shower. You'll feel better

after your shower and then tell us how you're feeling. And that kind of resonated with me and

my team of we can really have a small impact on somebody's life, but that could have a huge impact

rippling out. And so that's what we do. We give showers to folks. We also have laundry facilities.

So we do laundry for the folks that are utilizing our shower because showers and clean clothes can

make the difference between being welcome in a restaurant and not. So that's kind of where we

start. My mother who just turned or she'll turn 92 on Tuesday, spent several weeks in the hospital

a couple of years ago and my next door neighbor who's a hospice nurse volunteered, God bless her,

to go to her house and wash my mother's hair. And I mean, it literally changed my mother's attitude.

It was amazing just being clean. So I get it. I get what you're saying. Not to mention, I mean,

we've all we laughed about it again. Taking that shower at 3 a.m. at Bonnarooo and then going to bed

is amazing. So again, a shower is a pretty incredible thing. So good for you guys.

Thank you. Meredith, you said you did I hear you right. 2017 is when the Shower the People

organization you either came together or you came on and correct me on which one on that. And

what led you to that mission? 2017 is when we were founded. I came on full time July of 2017.

The bus was still a school bus with seats in it when we started.

Can we stop? We need to get what's his name? Russ Arnold. Nice. Okay. Yeah, we should get credit.

Yeah, Russ and I kind of got together. We figured out that at the time there were only 15 shower

stalls, all of them total available to people in Nashville. And there were about 2500 people

experiencing homelessness. So there was a huge need not enough support. And we realized it's a

small thing that we could do to make a big impact. I am a licensed clinical social worker. So I got

my master's in social work and knew if I can just get people to trust me, I can help connect them to

the resources and be that trusted person for them. But you got to earn their trust before you can do

all the work that you want to do. So being able to start with a shower is huge. I always tell people

once I know somebody's underwear size, they're pretty much willing to tell me anything about

their life. So it's a really, really good opening line of like, Hey, get in the shower and then what

else can we help you with? That's a good first. That's my next pickup line. What's your underwear

size? Do you have adult money? Well, speaking of that bus and the the borderline obsession

that people on this show and and other friends of ours and other podcasters in the Bonnarooo space,

our friends, Roo Bus, I'm referencing the 1990 international bus. We're now in an era where 1990

is quite vintage. Yeah. And it's the classic school bus. Think of the school bus that pops in your head.

That's the one. What kind of a challenge was it to get to get an old relic like that to be a

portable showering facility of sorts and mobile resource that you guys have?

It is a challenge. I think like most of us that were born before 1990, it is hard sometimes for

it to get running in the mornings. But it was. Yeah, exactly. We worked with an engineering

company. One of the biggest feats we had was concern about when we're driving the shifting

of the water weight and how that could easily topple the school bus because we have at points

in time, 600 gallons of water. And they're quite top heavy. It's just sitting there by themselves.

You know? Yeah. Yeah. So we worked with some engineering folks, different plumbing organizations,

welders. It took about a year for us to finally get the bus from having seats in it to being able

to provide showers. It actually came to Bonnarooo in 2024. It was that white bus that was parked

right by the Jamtrak station right out front that people were spray painting. That was our shower

bus. So it is actually now been painted by the great folks of Bonnarooo. So we have a piece of

Bonnarooo on the bus that goes with us everywhere because it was painted by the Bonnaroovians.

Nice. Yeah. Is it completely, it's 100% self-contained. You can take the shower.

You don't need hookups, in other words. Whenever you go somewhere, you don't,

it is its own shower facility. Okay. So we do have the ability to hook up and dump water so we can do

endless numbers of showers. We can actually hook up to the hydrant system. But if we're just driving

around, we can do 14 showers without having to ever hook up or dump water or anything.

Wow. That's really cool. And we'll talk a little more Bonnarooo stuff here, but I am curious about

just how this, how Shower the People works. And we'll talk about Planet Roo too.

For people that want to use this, I wrote this down and I'm sorry if I'm getting stuck on semantics.

It was just in the email sent from Jimmy, one of your board members. But the wording, I mean,

he could have just been banging out the email and not even thinking about the way it was. But it said

shower and laundry services in Nashville to help people experiencing homelessness.

What does that mean to you or how do you guys define experiencing homelessness? And

is there, what is the process for somebody who might think they are, don't even know what

qualifies as experiencing homelessness? Is there a database of sorts? Is there a signup sheet?

They just first come first serve? How does that process work? And what, how is it defined

experiencing homelessness? So it's self-reported. I always tell somebody if where they're showering

or have access to a shower now is worse than where what my shower bus is, they are welcome to take a

shower. The only thing that we ask is that they give us a name and it's the same name every time

they give it to us. So whether it's their government name, their street name, some name they just

decided to call themselves that day every time they shower with us that year just to use the

same name. We have a gentleman who like a year and a half ago told me his name was Spy Balloon.

And so he still signs in every week is Spy Balloon. I know that's not his real name, but

it's just proving my point of like, I don't care what it is, just something. So I know, and you

know that it's your turn to get in the shower. We have intentionally been as absolutely low barrier

as possible to utilize our service. Our folks are so used to having to tell their entire life

story to get a meal or prove that they don't make any money. I don't need all of that. If you think

you need a shower, okay, here, here's the shower. Here's the underwear for you to wear, whatever it

is, we're going to just help. Just a quick commentary to that. I just popped into my head growing up.

There was like in the late 90s, early 90s, there was a lot of, there was this big push of, I don't

know, the news magazine saying that whether people on the street who were begging were doing it was

a scam or something, right? Like there was some kind of ring of people trying to get, and I bought

into that a little bit being a kid and didn't know and hearing people talk about it. My mom's always

said, this is just absolute nonsense. Yeah, nobody chooses. No one's doing this on purpose. No one's

trying to get one over on you. Kind of the things we have to deal with a lot these days have always

been around. So the idea that you guys are leaving it open to basically anybody with a low barrier

of entry is a really nice thought because there have been times when I feel like that was more

difficult than it could be. That was just a commentary by me. I'm sorry. Meredith, do you go to

same places on the regular or do you guys move around? How does that work? Are you, you know,

church parking lots, I'm assuming, or whatever? Do you have regular stops? Yeah, we have a weekly

schedule. It changes twice a year. So it changes like summertime when it's a little bit warmer,

people are out a little bit later. And then in winter, a lot of our folks utilize some of the

church-based partners where they can sleep in like their sanctuary. So we'll do showers with those

partners so that way their folks are able to shower. But it's a weekly schedule, changes every

six months, but there are regular shower services that our folks can depend on. We have one that

we've been at for six years. So we know the place that we're at, we know the people that are coming.

We know the neighbors that are around or use us being there, which is a huge problem sometimes. So

we try to be as reliable as we can because that's how folks are going to learn about us.

Posting on Instagram that we switched our shower service is not really going to be helpful to the

folks that need to use our shower service. So we just try to be there when we say we're going to

be there and be dependable on that. And how are you funded? We are all privately grant funded. So

either by individual contributions or private foundations like corporate foundations or like

Bonnarooo Works. I had the same question. So how do you, if you were to seek some government funding,

is that something that at any point of eras of our lives could have been something you guys would

consider doing? Or I don't know enough about how seeking funding and grants works for nonprofits.

So forgive my ignorance on the question. Yeah. So if we were to seek grant funding from like government,

state, local, federal, the problem is, is they require so much demographic reporting that we

would have to change. A lot of red tape. Shocking. Exactly. That we would have to change the entry

process for the way that our folks could utilize our program. And it just, for us, it doesn't

balance out being able to be accessible to our folks to get money for the government that could

possibly be gone tomorrow. So we would much rather find those corporations and those people that

believe in the mission and the work that we're doing and create those strong partnerships with

them that are going to be much less politically based. Well, along those lines, if somebody may

be listening to this show, maybe they want to donate, is there a way to do that online? Can you

shout that out? Yeah. Our website, showerthepeople.net, super easy. We also have a Venmo.

We're shower the people everywhere on social. So we're pretty easy to find. My email is meredith

at showerthepeople.net. Folks are welcome to email me. Whether it's that they have supplies

that they want to donate, towels that they're going to get rid of that we can tie dye for them,

whatever it may be, we are, we are always looking for support in the community.

There you go. So it's not just money. It's donations. It's supplies. It's stuff that you

need to make this run. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Absolutely. What seems like a natural

jump into the Bonnarooo. What's the relationship? I mean, yeah. What's the relationship and how does

that work? Yeah. So we are partnering with Bonnarooo through Bonnarooo works, Planet Roo,

the incredible Kelsey DeWald and Alex Tomlinson. They are incredible ladies, but they funded us

through grant funding, which meant we got an offer to come to be a part of Planet Roo in 2022.

We have some awesome partnerships with Airbnb and hotels where they give us their towels that have

been ruined by mascara or whatever else. And then we bring all those towels to Bonnarooo and have

them tie dyed. Once they're tied, it doesn't matter if they have a mascara stain or a little

hole. And so that's what we use on our bus. It just feels a little bit better when you hand it

to somebody. It's pretty now. So we have a booth set up in Planet Roo and we invite folks to come

and tie dye the towels for us. And then we take those towels back and put them on our bus for the

year. This year we started kind of allowing folks to purchase those towels, kind of as a

memory of Bonnarooo. We were selling them super cheap. So that was really good for some of those

folks that maybe don't have adult money to be able to get something at Bonnarooo. So that was kind of

how we worked it. But we've also been able to bring the bus down and get it painted. Like I mentioned

earlier, I've been a part of the academy and the house stage kind of talking about different stuff.

Honestly, anything Bonnarooo wants me to do, I'm happy to do at this point, just so that way they

will continue to invite us to be a part of the farm. That's our philosophy too. That's how we do it.

Whatever they want. Yeah, anything you want, just tell me what I'm doing and how many

wristbands I can have. And then this past year, or 2024, we were able to go down through the

campgrounds after the first group goes through that does their consignment sale. We were able

to go and grab all those remaining tarps and things like that. The half-drank cases of water,

we're going to take those to our folks. So we were able to take, I think it was almost 400 tarps and

cases of water and things from the campgrounds and take them to the folks that we serve here

in Nashville, which is really cool. Nice. Well, you stole one of my areas I wanted to go because

the gear closet is down here in Chattanooga. And I'm sure there's others that do portions of

the versions of this, but that sell the leftover stuff. And I was going to ask you, where are you

on the picking ladder of when you get to go in and get what's, I assume there's probably contracts

with gear closet in Capitalistic America. We got to sell, sell, sell, but you guys get to come in

probably right behind them, it sounds like. I do. So gear closet actually does a lot of the

hard work for us. They go through everything, figure out what they can sell, and then they set

aside a pile of like tarps and stuff for us. So that way we're also not having to duplicate efforts.

So we get second pick after them. So whatever is not going to necessarily sell or they have too much

to sell, we get all of that stuff, which is amazing. What I was going to ask is, so it's not just

showers. So you have showers, underwear you've mentioned, towels, tarps, laundry services,

waters, laundry service. So what other things do you guys provide for the community?

Pretty much anything, honestly. We develop such strong relationships with our folks that

once they move into housing, we're going to help them get their pots and pans. And when you tell

people you take clothing donations, not only do they bring you their clothing donations, they bring

you every item that they've ever wanted to donate from their house. So we get a random collection

and be able to pass those items off or donate them to another organization that gives us gift

cards for our folks to shop in their store. So we really try to help our folks in any way. And

we've developed really deep partnerships with other grassroots nonprofits, some of which we've

met at Bonnarooo, and help resource those folks. But not just like, hey, call this person. It's like,

hey, I've already called my friend who runs this nonprofit. They're waiting on your call. This is

what they're going to do for you. We've realized those warm handoffs are going to be so much more

successful than handing a folks seven pages of phone numbers and be like, someone on there

will help you. Have a good time. Yeah. Nice. Well, Meredith, when there's a disaster,

and I'm speaking mostly to like hurricanes and stuff that we would deal with down here in the

south, a lot of times there's drives for whatever is needed. And many times, because people don't

know exactly what they just want to get help. And sometimes it's just give her the stuff they

don't want. And there are actual warnings or suggestions that say, Hey, not so much of this,

a little bit more of this. And I can't think of good examples, but bottled water would always

be the winner here, but maybe not your like, you know, your winter coat, you know, or whatever.

Is there anything you don't need like that somebody might want to bring you that you might turn into a

dumping ground? Is there anything that or it sounds like there's almost everything that you

can utilize a lot here is kind of my point and question. Yeah, we can utilize a lot. I'll make

kind of a PSA for all nonprofits that take use things. Nobody wants to use socks and nobody

wants your used underwear. The number of people that donate both of those. Yeah, I, nobody wants

them. I don't want to go through them. My staff doesn't want to go through them. That kind of

stuff. Just put it in the trash can mattresses, couches. That seems like that's one of those that

people like, Oh, I know how I can get rid of this out of the basement. And I'm helping people. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Right. Yeah. All that kind of stuff where you're like, if you don't, if you wouldn't

give it to your friend, no, we don't necessarily need it. So stains torn, all that kind of stuff.

I'm not, I'm not reusing this for scraps. I'm trying to provide dignity for somebody. So if

it's not going to be a dignified gift to give to somebody, I don't necessarily need it. I like

Dignified. I like that. Yeah. Yeah. Biggest things that we always are needing is men's medium and

large boxer briefs and deodorant. Those are things that go the fastest. They are donated the least.

They're not fun to shop for. So people don't really want to donate them. And they're not things that

we can take you. So yeah, when you have, and you have to be intentional and deliberate about that,

to have extra of those items. So that would be, that would be a good call out to somebody who

just wants to help and not just unload their stuff on you. Right. Yeah. So you joked earlier

about, you know, you wanted to go to Bonnarooo, but Bonnarooo is a good fit for what you guys do. Right.

I mean, it's not just because you want to go because it's Bonnarooo and it's just down the street.

Right. It seems like the mission's sort of, and I don't think for people who are not from this

area, who've never been to Bonnarooo, this is not unusual. This dovetails is what I'm saying, right?

Yeah, absolutely. It's a perfect fit, not only in the fact that we're reusing old things pretty

much throughout our entire organization, from the towels to the bus to how we do our work,

but it also is about showing love, providing dignity and really supporting individuals to

help raise them to where they can be successful themselves, which I feel like is kind of the basis

and love around Bonnarooo is we all want to go together and kind of raise ourselves up in this

weekend to kind of make it through the rest of the year. And that's basically what we do every day.

But I also tell people it's great for my team because we really get to fill up our cups. We

have to deal day in and day out of people telling us that we're causing homelessness and that by

providing showers, we're enabling people to be homeless and all these things when you're like,

I'm just trying to help. And then to go to the farm and have people being like, you're doing

great work. And to hear that over and over all weekend gives you enough strength to be able to

to take the fight throughout the year. So it's so much more than just going and having a good time.

It really helps us do the work and have the support that we need throughout the whole year.

I know you speak to earlier, you name drop some names that we're familiar with that we love and

think are rock stars as well about Planet Roo, but it's it is really grown in the last few years. And

my first time spending a lot of time there was just this past year and it might

Barry, maybe it was all of our first time really actually zeroing in on what Planet Roo is doing.

I mean, the old hand that held the globe thing. I mean, I've seen that since I was 20 years old,

23 years old, but I didn't know what it was. You know, I just say, hey, look how cool that is.

And then move along. Talk about your experience when you're on the farm at the installation at

the Planet Roo, which is now just the footprint is so huge. Just quickly give a summary of how

those days go and how that interaction goes, because it really was impressive to me from

the stage size to the booze size to the amount of people that were there and how the amount of

shade it provides. If you would just talk about that quickly. And let me piggyback on that,

because this is one of the things that we sort of talk about. Did they reach out? Did Kelsey

reach out to you or did you reach out to her? And I'm trying to think of somebody else if they have

an organization like yours. I mean, how does this how does this develop? So we were originally

invited through the grant process because we'd applied as a grant grantee. But they also send

out like a I don't know an RFP. I don't know exactly what they call it, but an application

similar like they do to the vendors of hey, do you want to have a booth in Planet Roo?

So we apply every year to have our booth. You can say if you want to be a part of the academy and

do some stuff there. If you want to be a part of the house stage, we obviously are like, as I said

earlier, whatever you need, I will happily do. So we started off just coming as a booth,

developing those relationships with Kelsey and Alex and just kind of letting them know like, hey,

we love what you guys do. This really means a lot to our team. However, we can support

the work that y'all are doing to then support the work that we're doing. Like we want to have this

unique partnership. We also partner like had them reach out to us during the disasters that happened

in Nashville. So the tornadoes and the flooding and the bombing and all of that stuff and kind of

helped reinforce that they're not just a funder for us. They are actually a partner in the work

that we're doing. And I think that makes such a difference of we know that they can depend on us.

We know that we can depend on them. And so we've continued to develop that relationship.

But applying at the beginning and getting just kind of that opportunity is how it all started.

And a day in the life there is quite something to see, I would guess.

It is. So it's actually my favorite thing because I still get up with an alarm clock at Bonnarooo.

So I am up with the sun. But it is so cool walking and hearing the quiet of Bonnarooo and knowing like,

wow, there's all these people here. And it's just so calm and beautiful. And then you walk in and

we set up and then we're there until eight. So we don't ever miss a headliner. We get to see

kind of the influx of people throughout the day, starting with like the young families and kids

that come in tie dye and get really excited. And then as the day goes on, maybe some people,

we have to remind them like, hey, you have tie dyed, your hands are going to be stained. Like,

don't freak out later in the day when you look at your hands and your hands are stained.

So then like as the headliners come in, so we get to see kind of it all. This year, we were

facing the fountain. So we got to see everyone excited to see the fountain and jump in and some

people watching right there. Yeah. We got to sell a lot of towels to people who jumped in the fountain

and then we're like, oh, now what do I do? That was a good idea. It was a great idea for us.

Yeah. So and then we get we close up for the day and then we get to go enjoy all the headliners

and kind of have fun and bond and then kind of do it again. But one of the coolest parts is I also

get to drop the supplies off for our booth Monday before anyone else is allowed on the farm. So I

get to literally drive my car under the arch and go in to drive through center row and see all of

that and then to leave the after everything and go through the campground. So I kind of get to see

the before and after of everything, which is really special.

She she Meredith, you get it. You get it. Like you understand it grabbed you quickly and you

are obsessed like all the rest of us. I love it. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. No, I really wish I wouldn't

have been so scared to try it when I was younger, but I think I really needed to have like built in

bathrooms and all of those things to really enjoy Bonnarooo. So but no, I it has a special place in my

heart, especially I'm a mom. I have two small kids. So me and my husband get to drop them off. And

then we say we get to go to adult summer camp for a week and just like kind of forget we have

responsibilities and just like enjoy life without anybody asking us for anything. But I am with your

adult money to exactly. It's great. It's so many people. I know so many people that call it adult

summer camp and that that that tracks so so perfectly. Let's let's let's talk about things

that that are just fun and and and meaning well meaningless outside of the in the moment.

Yeah. Some of your experiences at Bonnarooo, some shows you've seen, some some some, you know, acts

that you were overly surprised with those kinds of things over the last couple of years as just

when you get to be an attendee, you get to break away from showering the people and you get to

shower the people and you get to do your own thing. Yeah. I am one of those people who I listen to

music, but I never like know who the artist is. So whenever I go to Bonnarooo, it's always so

surprising to me. I'm like, I don't know any songs by this person else. Oh, yeah. I know every song.

Yeah. Red Hot Chili Peppers was one of those experiences for me where I was like, I'm like,

I know who they are. I like the band. I knew every single song that they played and was like

having so much fun just acting a fool in the crowd and like dancing and all of that kind of stuff.

Also, like just waiting in lines for food and being friends, becoming friends with like everyone

in line. I think that kind of moments of Bonnarooo are so underrated of those like small when you're

like all in it together and you can meet people. We know some girls that we met from like North

Dakota who I've never met anybody from North Dakota before, but there's like one that's fair.

There's a group of girls who come every year and like they came to our booth the next year

and they're like, I was like, Oh, where are you guys from? They're like North Dakota. And I'm like,

I met you last year because I've never met anybody from North Dakota. So like those

personal experiences are awesome. Going down the water slide when it's a million degrees is like

something we're like, I don't know that I felt this joy in a long time as a grown up. But

going to shows now don't like I went to Nelly because I didn't get to see him on the farm

this year. I went to him here in Nashville and I was like, well, this is kind of sad. Everyone's

like sitting in a chair and like, that's not what we're supposed to do. It's not the same.

So now I'm like ruined for musical experiences. But I think just the whole like energy that you

feel in a show, whether you like the music or not, it's just so cool seeing everyone have this like

shared enjoyment over something. How does the radiate positivity that you're just sharing with

us? Does that carry over for the work you guys do the other 360? I mean, you got to imagine you

need a lot of positivity because that's dealing with some stuff at the end of the day, you know,

in January, are you still feeling that love? You know what I'm saying? I mean, yeah, I mean,

it's definitely harder to find. But that's where it's like, you have like our bus is now bright blue

with all of this Bonnarooo love on it, which helps like remember of like, oh, that's bright,

it's sunshiney, it's helpful. It's, it's not gray against the gray background of the middle of winter

sky. But I try to radiate positivity kind of with whatever I do, it drives my husband nuts. I'm the

one that's going to run up if I see you trying to take a group photo and be like, I got you,

let me do that for you. That's just kind of who I am as a person. I think Bonnarooo just allows me

to be accepted in that, like, I'm going to do this crazy thing. And I want everyone to enjoy it.

We said earlier, we kind of made a crack about it was like, you know, Bonnarooo, you can tell

somebody you love them. I mean, that's what I mean. Do you do you get to carry that over?

That's what I've always said since the first year of Bonnarooo is like, why can't it be like this

365 days a year? Yeah, that's, I think we definitely do. I know that for my team,

there's sometimes where we have to kind of contain the times that we tell people that we love them,

because they may not understand what that love might be, and be a little misconstrued. But

we are always trying to just let people know we are there for them. We want to help them. We are

there to cheerlead for them, which I think is kind of what Bonnarooo is all about. So we do try to

bring that in. I'm trying to teach my kids that like, hey, it doesn't we need to focus on the

positives in life. We can't do anything about the negative. So let's just like, keep being positive,

focus on that. Let's cheer on our friends cheer on all these people, because ultimately, it's

going to make things better. So I love it. Well, last one for me overall, I just want to double

back around on the tie dye towels and the things you guys do in in Planet Roo during the festival.

And I had two lines of thought. One is that every it seems like everybody at Bonnarooo shares this

wants to collect everything. If it says Bonnarooo on it or something when I got there, then they

want it. And then when you said about people getting out of the the fountain, there are many

times when people realize I wasn't as good ideas. I thought it was. So the idea that you guys have

all these tie dye towels that you're selling and for money for proceeds for what you're doing or

whatever version of that. I'm not asking a question. I'm just kind of reiterating that.

Go get yourself a tie dye towel if you need it. If you need it. That's awesome. And certainly

bring some to keepsake. And thank you for doing work like that. Of course, Meredith, thank you

so much for last second jumping on here. Certainly the timing we appreciate that and the

the good work that you do in Nashville. Tell everybody again how they can if they want to help,

how can they find you guys either online or at Bonnarooo? Go ahead. Showerthepeople.net is our

website. Shower the People Nashville is our Instagram handle. We will hopefully be at Planet

Roo again this year, assuming that I haven't upset anybody. I think we'll be there this year. So

yeah, come find us. Come tie dye a towel. Come hang out. You guys got better come stop by the

booth. I will come find you guys if not. So yeah, you guys are now part of our Bonnarooo family. So

you guys will see us in our full Bonnarooo spirit when we're on the farm.

All right, once again, we keep meeting cool people that are related to this cool event that we love

so much. Right? I don't know how else to say it. It's just amazing to me. Yeah. Yeah. And shout out

to I can't remember right away who it is. Somebody in our discord referred us to Meredith and said,

okay, yeah, yeah. So thank you for that. And, you know, once again, if you are on the discord,

reach out if you've got an idea for somebody on the show that we haven't talked to yet. We are all

ears. All ears. Bring it. We whether you too, I don't know if you guys remember, but we actually

met Jimmy at our event there in Planet Roo. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. So again, just, and you

know, Ross, you and I talked about it. We ran into so many people at Shaking Knees in Atlanta last

week that came up and said hello. Can't thank you guys enough. Please keep doing it. Come up

and say hello. It means the world to me anyway. And I know that Brian and Ross feel the same way.

It is. It is fun. Normally in life, I want to be left alone at all times.

In those settings. I'm good with it. I'm good with it. We're pulling you out of your,

your shell kicking and screaming, but we're doing it. All right. Another great show. Don't know what

we're doing next week. I've got, we've got a couple of things lined up that I'm excited about,

especially in a couple of weeks. We're going to, we're going to get outside of our

shell a little bit and I'll talk about that more later. So, all right. Thanks guys for listening.

Peace and keep radiating positivity.