The What Podcast
What's Next for Bonnaroo in 2025?
Season 7, Episode 39
Published November 4, 2024
https://thewhatpodcast.com/episode/whats-next-for-bonnaroo-in-2025

But there is one thing that Bonnarooo has always been and will always be,

which is rooted in the name of our show,

which is that we offer the best in the streets in live music experience.

I think we did have two things that we wanted to kind of just

tease a little bit for next year, if you guys are cool with that.

Of course.

Of course.

Was 2024 Bonnarooo a renaissance year?

And what does that mean?

Was it a renaissance year for the fans?

Was it a renaissance year for the artist?

Was it a renaissance year for the staff?

What are the new camping options?

Will students have a better, cheaper option?

Will they be able to maybe get in for a little bit cheaper?

Will Bonnarooo become a festival spread over two weekends?

What role will Where in the Woods play?

Will EDM be there?

Will Sunday night at Where in the Woods be what it was last year?

Will the comedy, will comedy return to Bonnarooo?

Will Bryan Stone ever have a good day?

And more importantly, will Lord Taco ever find his blue-haired mom?

We're going to answer those questions and so much more on this episode of the What Podcast.

I'm Barry.

That's Lord Taco.

That's Bryan Stone.

Hey guys, how are you?

Other than the clocks, I'm doing well and I won't say another word other than that.

I won't say another word other than that.

I will.

If you want an hour.

I was going to bring it up.

If you want to listen to an hour of why turning the clocks back sucks.

Twice a year.

Twice a year and, you know, whether whatever.

I'm not going down that road.

Anyway, I'm glad to see you guys.

Russ, I see you're wearing your beat t-shirt, man.

Good to see you again.

Brian, my God, you missed an unbelievable concert.

Yeah, I can't wait to hear about it because I haven't talked to you guys.

This is our this is the first time we've discussed it.

No, we have such a big show.

We have Corey and Brad from C3 Presents and we're going to dive way deep.

I mean, we talk we love the sausage making on this show and guys, we make some sausage on this show.

Everything that I just mentioned, we get into.

Not kidding.

But yeah, I have to talk about got to see Russ got to hang out on Monday at in Nashville at the

Ryman the beat concert.

Steve Vai, Tony Levin, Adrian Blue, Danny Carey from Tool drummer.

Unbelievable concert.

What a great night.

What a great everything.

Right, Russ, everything just fell into place, right?

So perfect.

Yeah, I actually was in Nashville earlier than you.

I got there on Saturday.

So, you know, that's no surprise to anybody.

Yeah, we got there two weeks before the show.

Yeah, so I stayed Saturday to Monday.

Yeah, you guys came into town Monday afternoon.

We met up, you know, we got some food, we got a few drinks.

And then we went to the Ryman, which is I think that was my first time at the Ryman, to be honest.

The Mother Church.

Yeah, yeah.

Absolutely beautiful historic venue.

Everyone you've ever heard of has played it.

And yeah, what a great concert.

Just what a great time.

So what do they play primarily as far as material music wise?

Is it is it throughout all the members?

Go ahead.

No, it's it's just the the three 80s album early 80s records that King Crimson put out

Beat, which is where they derived the name of the the project.

Three of a Perfect Pair and Discipline.

Those are those three.

And then they did pull out they did they did play Red, which was a 70s, you know, song.

But that was kind of for the encore.

But yeah, for the most part, this was just the just the 80s King Crimson,

because, you know, King Crimson is 50 plus years of music.

You know, it'd be hard to like do an anthology of all of it.

So picking just this one era, I think was a good choice.

And it was probably one of my favorite, such things I've ever seen.

Interesting group of guys playing from Steve Vai to Danny Carrey, the two to me

that stick out as more than the others.

Just because I'm not as familiar with this music as you guys are.

And just always an interesting mix.

Robert Fripp, you know, was the founding member,

probably the only consistent member in King Crimson and, you know, their guitar player,

incredible guitar player.

He's pretty much retired.

Right. He just sits at home and plays.

And he's good for his kitchen with his wife, who takes your shirt off and takes your shirt off and sings.

Once a week.

TikTok account or something.

YouTube or whatever.

But he's pretty much given up, you know, touring and writing and performing.

And then Bill Bruford, I think is also there.

He was their longtime drummer.

I think he is pretty much retired, too.

I don't know what else he's up to these days.

Well, he quit.

He keeps quitting because he's jazz.

Right. We talked about that while we were standing in line for merch.

He's a jazz drummer.

That's why he quit.

He quit, yes, because they were going into more of a progressive rock type direction.

And then, you know, he ended up in King Crimson, pretty much did the same thing, quit.

But yeah, his work is incredible, too.

I think Danny Carrey and Steve Vai both did a great job.

You could close your eyes and swear that's Robert Fripp and Bill Bruford playing.

They hit note for note.

It was perfect.

Steve Vai, I heard of because of Zappa.

He was a young 19-year-old, played with Zappa.

2011, and Ballou played with Bowie and John Lennon and Genesis.

On and on and on.

These guys were...

Really, Frank Zappa kind of discovered both Steve Vai and Adrian Ballou.

They both kind of came out of his repertoire.

Yeah, I did not know that.

Yeah, I know Steve Vai from like that 90s kind of guitar, band-hailing kind of thing.

I saw him with David Lee Roth.

It's the loudest concert I've ever heard.

It hurt me.

I'm still recovering from the pain from how loud that was.

And so you guys are sitting up top at the Ryman, right?

Back 14th section, the last row.

The further back, the better in that place.

And it's perfect back there.

It was unbelievable.

I remember at one point, look, I went with my brother and my nephew and Russ.

We got lucky.

We all ended up sitting together.

Everything about it was just perfect.

I remember asking my brother, Mike, they're both musicians.

If this was being played by any other four human beings, it would have just sounded like mud.

It was so incredible.

I mean, it was just amazing.

So it was really cool.

So yeah, anyway, there was that.

And that's part of the reason why this show is a week late.

We're going to go a little bit early.

Hopefully you're getting this this week.

We know there's a lot going on, but this, you know, Russ, we always sort of talk about

when our new year starts.

To me, this feels like the beginning of a new season.

So this will be what season nine for us?

This will be season eight.

And you're right.

Yeah.

I mean, this, you know, we don't have a headliners yet, but they dropped a ton of information

on us that really gets you excited for 2025.

Right.

It's we we we kind of wrap up last year, but it's sort of a what did you learn?

You know, what went right?

What went wrong kind of thing?

But it also we talk about next year with these guys.

And again, for those of you who are new to the show, Cory and Brad have been on several

times.

These are the folks that put this thing on.

Right.

And we kind of gave us so much time.

First of all, I just can't, you know, thanks.

These guys were we got them for an hour and a half.

Right.

Every question we wanted to throw and they had their things they wanted to talk about.

I kind of done three hours with them and yeah, I kind of tease the highlights a little bit,

but Russ, you had your list.

What were the things that stood out in?

And I don't want to give too much away because it's like I said, it's a long episode.

So we'll let them get into it.

But what were the things that stood out?

Things that jumped out to me, I would say, you know, they did kind of

confirm we're going to have another Thursday headliner.

They wouldn't tell us who, obviously, but they kind of hint said we'll never be able to guess.

But yeah, what did you think of that?

Should they do Thursday headliners every year from now on or is that just a special thing?

Do you think is that too many headliners?

Yeah, that was one.

And the fact that you never guess, I mean, obviously, Dolly came to mind, but the fact

that he was so adamant, you'll never guess.

I'm like, okay, it's not Dolly then because that's the first.

Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know how much time we want to spend on trying to guess.

Yeah, well, that's a whole offseason tradition in itself in the in Bonnarooo lore.

But yeah, I think Thursday is just going to it's a home run idea.

We'll see.

We'll talk to more about it here in a few minutes.

But I was a little dicey with the you'll never guess.

You'll never guess.

Okay, then what is it?

Adrian Blue?

Well, I know, right?

You know, stones.

I mean, we can we can come up with something.

George Strait.

I mean, that was I mean, we're going to go crazy, crazy.

I don't know.

So I don't want to spend a lot of time on that.

Even then I was like, I'm not going to, you know, but it was fun.

They did kind of also confirm.

I mean, for better or worse, probably better for a lot of people.

EDM is here to stay.

You know, the Fred again, closer last year, I think ended up working out really well for him.

Not just here to stay, but Brad did again, make a big point of that, that the what they did last

year with Fred again on Sunday is a precursor to whatever they have planned for this year.

So that's interesting.

Go ahead and, you know, let the Reddit group try to figure out, you know, what he meant by that.

There's another one.

Um, some of the camping, you know, like we said, uh, they're looking at ways to make it easier

for college age students, people that don't have a lot of money, but also people that do have a

lot of money. That was an interesting sort of topic.

We've always talked about that.

That's what they do.

Capitalize on everybody's economic status, which is all, you know, anytime I hear somebody

at least keeping that in mind, it makes me happy.

They're at least thinking about that.

I don't know if it's actually going to amount to a whole lot, but I mean, it's still nice

that they're thinking about that.

They're kind of trying to play to both hands because they recognize they're, like you said,

Barry, there are people that have money and are willing to spend it.

Can't wait to spend it.

Yeah.

And they can't, and you know, they'll spend all kinds of money and they want to accommodate

that. But at the same time, they also want to keep the core price low for people that are just,

you know, like college age and just starting out, um, that just want to get in and see music.

They want to keep that affordable and doable.

Yeah.

Also comedy coming back.

What do you think of that?

I hope.

Yeah. Interesting.

Yeah. I always thought that was a strange thing.

I mean, it was, it was one of the first, you know, kind of organization festival gathering

to do something that extravagant.

Yeah. People had comedy involved with things that they do before, but I always did like it.

I always thought it was cool.

And so, yeah.

And I mentioned it during the show. I liked it because it was just unexpected.

It was like, this is cool. Like, you know, fly to the concourse. I never heard of them

before Bonnarooo. I remember walking into the tent and seeing fly.

That's a wild act to see for the first time too.

And thought this is hilarious, you know, but it was, it just was part of the vibe.

Yeah. I'd never heard of Reggie Watt, I think is his name, right? The good, uh, the drummer.

Reggie Watts.

Watts. Yeah. From one of the late night shows.

Boy, that was wild. Like I think that was 10 years ago and I was like, who is this guy?

So yeah.

Conan. Conan was there and he was so big. They had put up a movie screen out between the this

and the that, right?

And I forgot he did. He was like the MC of the whole weekend that one year.

Yeah. Yeah.

And Triumph.

2010 actually, I think. I think this is coming back to memory. I think it was 2010 when Conan

and Triumph were all over the place.

I've told you my favorite.

Triumph was there the, in the same year as Public Enemy. Not Public Enemy. Yeah. Public Enemy.

And the next day, Janine Gernarofalo was in the media tent doing one of the, and she was like,

did you hear what Triumph said last night? And everybody's like, no, what are you talking about?

He said, you know why Flava Flav wears that clock around his neck?

So you can tell how far back he set back the civil rights movement.

That's pretty good. As you set that joke up, as I was like, Barry, I don't know what are you doing?

That's pretty good.

I mean, it was everywhere. Everyone was talking about it anyway.

But we've talked about it on here. You know, comedy doesn't always work. You know, it kind of,

I saw the Chris Rock thing the year that Bruce Springsteen was there. It was an election year.

I thought he was hilarious.

I thought it was great.

But, you know, it's in the spitting rain and it was a little, you know, it was a different kind

of on the what stage for those that don't remember. Right. Right. It was a headline.

So I don't know. Brad didn't really say what, how it's going to be presented.

For most of us, the comedy tent and the movie tent was there because it had air conditioning.

And that's a lot of what we loved about it. Very, very, very true. I mean, it's just the reality.

People would go in there and sleep. So anyway, man, this was a jam packed. It's a long show.

I, you know, yeah, get your snacks, settle in. This is, yeah, this is a lot to take in.

Yeah, there are and stick around till the end because that's when they talk about what's

happening, changes in the camping area. I don't, I don't know what else to say.

You know, we could give it all away and we probably will come back

in future episodes and dissect everything. But man, thanks to Brad and Corey. Yeah.

Thanks a lot. Yeah. Thank you. Anything else?

I guess we got to talk about the cutting room for real quick though. Right. There are us

in the, in the video, the local video, right? We should quickly, quickly reset this because

it's local, super local, you know, non-important stuff, but still, you know, big, big moment for

our guy here. I thought so. He's already written a speech. He'd written a speech and

never going to get to use it. Yeah. Local friends of ours, your nephew, Barry in a band called Lillian,

they put out a call last month, I guess two months ago now they need extras for,

they're shooting a music video. It's going to be a bar scene. They need people to fill in the

background and stand around to drink beers basically. So that's who better. That's a

difficult role there for you, Russ, right? I was born to play it. Yeah. So I went and did that.

And then a couple of nights ago they did a debut viewing party. The video is done and we all

watched it. I'm not in it at all. Oh my God. You can't even see hardly any of the background at all.

So it's like the old days of the NFL draft when the guy just sits there all day waiting for his

name to be called and it never happens. There's Russ sitting there like PBR in hand. Shaved your

legs for nothing. I know. Exactly. I shaved my legs for this. I shaved for this. All right.

But anyways, it's still a good video. Go check it out. We'll put a link down there.

Pretty fun. All right. All right. Well, here we go. Here's our interview with Brad and Corey

from C3 Presents. These are the guys that put on Bonnarooo and so many other festivals,

South Star, Railbird and so many others. So hope you guys enjoy it and we'll be back at the end

to wrap it up. Hey, there they are. They're back. Corey and Brad from C3. You guys are becoming

regulars on this show. Yeah. Yeah. When do we get to co-host an episode? I was about to say,

Brad, I need some time off in the new year. Yeah. Tell us when. Yeah. I'll you tell maybe Corey and

I can pick a special guest to come on and we'll host a special episode. We got lots of jokes too.

We can do bits for days. Yeah. I like that. We'll hand over the keys. You can have the whole damn

IP here. We'll just see you in June. That sounds like too much work. It is. All right. So

this just real quick for people who haven't ever been here before. Brad is festival director,

right? Correct. Correct. And Corey is marketing manager for C3. You guys are

sort of in charge of putting these together, right? The Bonnarooo's and the South Stars and

Corey, you get to go out there and sell it, right? Tell everybody how great it is.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we have lots of questions. Let's start with, let's go backwards a little.

We've made mention on here when we left Bonnarooo back in June, I think Brad, you guys are

back in June. I think Brad, you sent me a text saying feels like what Renaissance,

Bonnarooo Renaissance. Here we are. However, many months later, does it still feel that way?

Yeah, a hundred percent. I think there was a energy in the air with the fans that felt renewed.

Took us a few years to get there. I think we were still, not that I still want to be blaming

COVID for much, but the truth is that we're still digging out of holes that that thing built for

us. And I think the fans had probably their best Bonnarooo experience since 2019, which was a

fantastic year. And I think next year is going to be even better and we'll keep building on that,

building on that momentum. That's always been how these events have worked is we see some momentum

and we capitalize on it. Well, let me bounce off that just a little bit, Brad, because I actually

had that on my notes further down, but since we're there now, I'll ask you to expand on that

a little bit. How do you grade that as far as how it was for the average patron of the festival?

I mean, I'm guessing you don't weed through all the comments of all the ridiculousness that is

social media threads and stuff like that. And my guess is that you don't hang around there very

often. We do read every single one. Well, I think you would be foolish not to look at it a little

bit, but how do you grade that? Where do those metrics come from? I think a lot of this comes

from Corey's world, so I don't want to speak too much on it, but there are so many ways which we

can hear and feel sometimes feedback from fans, right? The Reddit community is always a great

litmus test, I think. I agree. Of understanding kind of, you know, a lot of our,

a lot of our, you know, let's call it people who have been five plus times. I'm just going to use

that as an average. That's where those fans tend to live. So we can get really great feedback from

people that we know are coming year over year from Reddit and people who have maybe come even

since the first year, like you guys, some of you guys. I feel like we get a lot of feedback on

Reddit. In general, with social media, you know, it's just, you can see it fluctuate, like shows

that, you know, maybe don't have any issues, but don't blow your mind. They tend to just have

not a lot going on, like a new, live in a neutral territory. And when things go wrong, you see a

big swell of negative comments, right? You see all of that interaction around that. And this past year,

it was overwhelmingly positive interaction that we had across all of our social platforms.

Yeah. That's my experience as well. What about you, Corey? I mean, that's a little something

where you're a little closer to it. Yeah. I think when it comes to that kind of stuff, the feedback

of our vets matters more because they've been to a lot of festivals and they've had a lot of good

and bad experiences. They're able to walk out of, you know, bar, 2024 and say, that was amazing.

That means a lot to us because they've, you know, been to ones where we've had some work to do

and not say we don't have some work to do coming out of last year. We're literally spent the last,

you know, four or five months trying to just rack our brains for things we can do to make it better.

But yeah, I mean, I'm a lurker in every single, every single botery Facebook group and subreddit

and Instagram account and everything. So I, yeah, I spent a lot of time reading comments and,

you know, looking at mentions and stuff. And what we saw coming out of last year was well,

well, well above what we're used to seeing as far as like good vibes.

Tried to dial down even a little bit because what are those things to like to Brian's question? I

mean, I know there's things like, Hey, I had a good time. But for you guys, it's specifics,

right? Is it there's things you can't control. You can't control the weather. You know, last year

was so unbelievably hot. Nothing you can do about that. This year was hot, but it wasn't,

it wasn't like last year. What were the things that you're hearing from people? Because I know

Brian and Russ and I, we all had our conversations. It just, and I'll just throw something out. I mean,

it felt comfortable. It felt user friendly. I didn't feel overcrowded. I didn't feel rushed.

I didn't feel, you know, it just felt comfortable, if that's the right word.

Something that we talk about a lot in our, when we're on site building the show up until

people arrive on Tuesday, I talk a lot in our all staff meetings about how, you know, the attitude

of our staff can easily, it's almost like a virus, right? If our staff are having a horrible time,

that can translate real easily into fans having a horrible time. And the reason I, the reason I

bring that up is because this year, the sentiment of our whole team, the two weeks leading up to

the show on site was this feels like the, the best the machine's ever been oiled. And I think that

is a result of a lot of hard work by everybody on our team. By no means is it, is it just me?

Is it just Corey? It's a ton of people that make that magic happen. And I think that sentiment

directly reflects over to the experience that the fans have. And sometimes vary to your question,

just on specifics. Sometimes it's, it's the things that are there that I'm looking for.

And what I mean by that is it was really hot. You said it miserable out of our control,

did not see comparatively a ton of comments about the heat on our socials because I think there was,

there was people tend to double down on the bad when it's bad, right? Sure. They've got one

complaint, they'll find four others and they'll give you all five at the same time. Well, things

are really, really good. Sometimes it causes them to maybe not, you know, make that hateful comment

about how hot it was because they have a moment of, of logical thought that's like, oh, these guys

can't control the weather. And if they did, 2021 probably wouldn't have went the way with the way

that it did. Right, right. I think, yeah, that's kind of, that's where my head's at on kind of

reading the, the temperature of the fan. Yeah, it definitely snowballs. You can feel it. Sorry, Brian,

once things start like that, you know, if you had a bad experience, it will call, you couldn't get

your wristband or you got stuck in traffic. And the other side of that is, and it's always amazed

me to hear people who say I sat in traffic for 14 hours and I still had the time of my life. I mean,

that just can't happen anywhere else. But no, but go ahead. I was going to say in the, we all pretty

much kind of understand this after all these years and with anything, but, and I know you guys do,

but when you get, the further you get removed from June, all the bad tends to kind of start to

settle at the bottom and the good starts to rise up with, with most fans that understand the,

the layout, they understand the, the formatics of the festival. The good is so much better than

the bad for most people all the time. It tends to rise up. But when you're looking at that stuff,

a month after, six weeks after something like that, the bad is exploding over all the good.

So I'm sure you guys have seen that to be able to navigate that and, and, and just wonder what

you're, you still keep your finger on the pulse of that on a daily basis, I would imagine, or at

least a weekly basis, maybe, right? I, I, what I'll say to just maybe kind of put a period on this

first question is that I think not to pat ourselves on the back a bunch, but Corey and I,

and a lot of people on our team that have a touch point with any way that we engage with fans,

whether it's on social media or it's the guest services team that's on site, like we really care

about the fan feedback. We sit and we sit and read so many comments, even ones that hurt our

feelings and we get over them. Because it's the only way that we can accurately make improvements

that we know are going to be impactful is by understanding where those pain points are. So

I think if there's anything we're good at, it's, it's listening to what the fans are saying and

reacting to it. How do you, and maybe Corey, this is, I mean, it's for both of you, but how do you

quantify and qualify some of that? I know you, going back to your point about you looking at

the five-year veterans, and I'm sure you wait their answers more than the first-timer, but do you,

I mean, how do you wait that when, you know, the first-time person, and I'm just trying to think

of an example of what they might complain about, you know, I'm going to guess some people are

overwhelmed by how big the place is. You know, there's a lot of walking. They're not always used

to camping that first-time camper. You don't know what to bring, right? You. Yeah. And so that

impacts you, impacts the fan. What, how do you guys, when you're reading those sorts of things,

I mean, there's just some things you can't control, right? Yeah. I mean, I think there's like,

it's kind of a multi-step approach. Like the first step is, you know, my job is to make sure that

people have as few questions going into it as possible. That's why we're producing videos,

doing, you know, segments on socials leading into the show, doing these know before you goes.

You know, it's great that we have, you know, people like you all and like the robust folks

and like other people who have been in the community for a long time that, you know, also kind of act

stewards and, you know, try to like help people who are going for the first time and tell them,

you need this, you need this. But I think step one is just try to do as much on our end to educate

people ahead of time so that they don't run into problems when they get there. And then as far as

like, I mean, like you said, like during the festival is when you're going to see the most feedback.

And, you know, some people, the reality is they're going to go to Bonnaroo for the first time

and maybe it's all for them. You know, it's the same thing for anything. You go to a big arena

show for the first time and maybe say, well, traffic on the way out sucked. That was way too

many people to be around. I think I'm going to go to club shows. So, you know, sometimes you'll see

some feedback like that and you know, okay, this person gave it a shot. It's not their thing.

That's totally cool. But then other stuff like you see, you know, certain feedback about like

how people camped or like what they brought and you'll say, oh, that's a hole.

They can fix that next year. That's something we need to make sure that we included our comms.

Or you'll see feedback about like certain plazas being busier than the rest, you know, which leads

to some of our infrastructure being a little bit overrun. And then Brad, you know, sends a middle

makes a middle note and sends our site team and we beef it up there next year. So I think it's just

like we try to flag all that stuff in real time. Like during the show, as we're seeing it, like

we've got kind of a running list. Our guest services team fields a ton of that and they're

able to provide really detailed reports about when we're getting, you know, people reaching out,

what it's about, you know, how many people reach out about lines, how many people reached out about

portos, how many people reached out about date and where. And we use all that information

to allocate resources that are existing or bring in new stuff the next year.

And then I think like after the festival, some of those more long form conversations usually

happen on Reddit. So we just take our time poking through that. And, you know, like I said, this

year, a lot of those were very positive, but you read, you know, the couple of paragraphs about

this really fun experience that someone had and, you know, try to find the couple of things in

there that could have made it perfect for them. So, yeah, a little wrong with it, but yeah.

A lot of anecdotes you got to get through there too. I mean, a lot of my day started off bad

because all my days start off bad, you know, that kind of thing. Away from that as much, but

same kind of thing. Brad, you mentioned it from the beginning. If you expand on it just a little

bit, forget the fans. So they said it was the greatest thing ever, the worst thing ever.

Operationally, you said that people felt that things were as good as maybe we'll say half

decade or so. Operationally, getting bands in, artist relations, in and outs, sanitation,

all the things that go along with the weekend on the farm. A plus, B, same as it's been,

a little bit better. Where do you guys feel like that is as an operation from function?

And let me jump on that. Can you claim credit for it or is it just things fell into place?

Depending on your answer, who's fault is it? 100% all just me. I did all the work.

I teed that one up for you, man. No, I mean, listen, I'm the teacher in high school that

never gives A pluses because there's always room for improvement. You're that guy.

As cliche as that is to say. But no, I think that, listen, this show has a very large team

that it takes to execute it. And there was already going to be some challenges with the

transition of Superfly leaving and C3 coming in and AC and C3 figuring out who's who and who's

doing what. And then the pandemic expedited all of that, right? It was supposed to take place over

years and be a smooth thing. And the pandemic expedited that process. And a lot of people

came in and were in a new place and had no idea what was going on. And Bonnarooo's unlike, you can

do 10 Lollapaloozas or 10 years at ACL or whatever. Bonnarooo's a completely different ball game.

And so I think it's just the culmination, Barry, of the past three years of our team

just really melding together and understanding. You take people who already have, like all the

people at C3 that Cory and I work with now that we love, and it's my favorite place I've ever worked,

they're the best at the best of what they do, right? So you just got to take that skill and

apply it to a new ball game. It's the same plays. You're running the same plays that you're running

at any festival, but the field just looks a little different, right? So I think it just took a few

years for us everybody to get comfortable. And now it kind of feels like we're just,

we're going down the track and it's greased and everybody feels good about the direction we're

headed. And I'd say it's a, I'd give it an A. I'm not going to say A plus, but I'd give it an A.

I'll take an A every day of my life. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't see a lot of those in high school.

Well, you talk about the same plays and it's the same sort of event.

We cover some other festivals, but none like this one. And I wonder how much the fan

and the groups of fans, how much you guys see all that? I know you do because if you're looking

at socials, but it always surprises me when we hear or see on Reddit or we hear people being

interviewed either on this show or some others, how unique everybody's experience is, but how

similar and how there are so many different groups doing group things, you know, and, and taking it

to the next level. It's not just, Hey, let's meet here and we'll camp next to each other. It's,

they plan games, they print t-shirts, they, you know, somebody's bringing food. It's amazing to me,

the level of planning that people do year round for this event. I think Bonnarooo always been,

the thing that sets Bonnarooo apart from anything else in the space that it exists in

has always been the community and the fan. You know, you look back at any year of Bonnarooo and

yeah, we've had some fantastic lineups. We've had every artist that you would ever want to see on

your stage there, right? Petty, McCartney, just the list goes on and on, but-

You too.

Yeah, you too. At the same time, you've seen a lot of those people at Coachella, right? And you see

those people and it's such a, it's an honor that we were able to put those artists on our stage,

but the thing that's always separated us, not the talent, not our location, not anything,

it's always been the fan because we've, it's always been about being unapologetically yourself

and finding other people that you can do that with and then, and then watching some music while you

do that. For me at least, that's what the show's about. And there's not many other festivals that

lead with the community element. Like, we talk about it all the time in our marketing,

in our interviews that we do, everywhere, right? And not to say that there's, you know,

don't take this the wrong way. I'm not talking bad about any other shows, but

a lot of music festivals, the programming is first and the artists are always going to be important

because that's what sells the tickets ultimately. But it's really, it's really special that we can

talk about the bands and the fans. We can talk about both of those things and that's unique.

It's very unique to Bonnarooo, in my opinion.

Especially when you consider what you said a minute ago about the transitioning from

Superfly to AC to C3. I mean-

You think you might lose some of that.

Right, right. And there was, you know, there was rumors and there was, it felt like it,

quite honestly, when C3 first got involved, you know, and I don't know if that was just paranoia

on our part, you know, but it was like, oh, everything's going to be different. And, you know,

of course, the big difference is they took our cool camping space, but I'm not bitter about that.

9-3-1.

Let me-

Let me-

Oh, it's the area code. Oh, how clever.

Can I-

Sorry.

Sorry, sorry.

Let me just say something real quick because, and I don't, this isn't, this isn't a, again,

this is not patting ourselves on the back. This is really a compliment to C3 before Corey and I

were ever even a part of it. They're, they are, if you work in our space, if you work in live music,

industry, the guys that started C3 are, they're the 98 Bulls of what goes on in this industry.

And I think a lot of it, Barry, I don't, paranoia is a strong word, but it's like, you know, if you,

if you're, if it's 1998 and you play for any other team than the Bulls and you find out

Jordan's coming to play for your guys, how could you ever spin that as a negative, right? How could

you ever spin that as a negative? And that's what happened. I mean, listen, Superfly is fantastic,

AC Entertainment, fantastic, like, but C3 was, you know, Charlie Walker and Charles and these

guys that started that company, they're, they're, they are, they revolutionized the music festival

industry as a whole. And so I am like, I was ecstatic. Like there's always questions, right?

When something new-

Yeah.

happening.

Well, that's it. It's change. And, you know, obviously we'd had our relationship,

quite honestly, and Brian and I laugh about this all the time. We have anxiety going in every year,

you know, we're convinced until we get out of the car and open that first beer or soda or whatever

it is, that something bad's going to happen. You know, that's just how we are.

And it's mainly just because of how big of a, just, just how big and how important,

how important that this thing is, is you're about to do. It's a, it's an anxiety that most people are.

I'm a little more easy going than these two. Everything always works out for me. So

just a little bit. I'm already there now. I'm ready to go.

Yeah. He's already in the bus ready to go. But if, if, if nothing else, if you wanted to,

if as a listener to this show or a viewer on, on YouTube or wherever it might be,

and you'd be saying, well, of course, Brad's going to say that. Of course, Corey is going to say that.

Well, all you have to do is look at the resume of C3, just poke around the website,

just to look around. I mean, they, it's, it is so impressive that I'm, I mean, I,

to me, that's all I needed to see. I know a lot more than that. But if you were interested,

we won't sit here and talk about it now, but just, just take a look, man. You guys got a lot,

or at least I, you know, I'm sure you work in areas across the country with the, how, how the,

the functionality of the company is, but it's impressive stuff. Yeah. I don't look, I didn't

mean to make that a negative. I, in fact, I meant it as a positive, the, the, it's amazing that you

can go from that many different bosses, if you will, and maintain that, that attitude, you know,

that, uh, how do we make this great attitude? And we've always said, uh, you know, from the beginning,

it's always felt like it's about the fan. I never felt like, um, well, almost never there've been

occasions, but some of that's just reality where, you know, it's like, there's a difference between

we're doing it for us and to make money and to get out of here versus how can we make this the

best experience for the fan. And that's most of the time, that's what it's always felt like to me.

Yeah, it's like, uh, there's like, I remember when I went to college, there was like,

there's this thing they did where every time like a path of grass would get like beaten down over

and over again on campus, they would eventually pour sidewalk there. And I feel like that's what

we do at Bonnarooo. It's like, we're kind of there to like support the community. Like this is like,

you know, we do a ton of shows and like the, you know, our, a lot of our coworkers put on concerts,

you know, and that's like, you go into a venue, people come watch the music, go home, you know,

the artist makes money, like, you know, everybody gets paid, whatever. This does not feel like that

at all. This is like, this is like, you're just building a city for people to come have fun at.

And everything is dictated by what that community is telling you. They want and need to have a good

time and thrive for that, you know, little less than a week that they're going to be there. So

yeah, it's like, it's a very unique thing to produce. Well, I'll jump on Brad's metaphor

about the teachers. We've been funny. We were talking about this at the, at my job just the

other day, there's a difference between that teacher who was determined to fail you and that

teacher who's determined to teach you. You know what I mean? There's, and we've all had them.

Or determined to pass you too. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. He's more interested in being tough and

failing people than he is, you know, them learning something. So yeah. All right. So what did we

learn? What are the changes that are people going to see? And I'm thinking I made a note here to

remind myself, uh, where in the woods on Sunday night? I have that on my notes too. Yeah. I figured

you did. Um, those kinds of things you're talking about, uh, Corey, you know, where

crowds are and what's working and what's not. What are the, some of the top of the list things

that people might see differently next year? Um, yeah. I mean, if you want to start there,

I think, I think that's a good place. I think, I mean, obviously the, the plazas in general have

not been the same for two consecutive years since we started programming them. Um, so that,

that, that whole program out there is kind of like nebulous and always evolving. Um, and you know,

what you said about Sunday night, uh, in the woods, like obviously we're not going to do that again.

Um, and I think, I think that's short answer. Yeah. For people who don't know it was because

it was the only thing going and it just got jam packed. Right. I mean, it kind of look,

it's, it's really fun to book, you know, underplays out there, right? You get to see a

massive artists in a small space, but that's not really what that area is designed for. Um,

and it ends up, you know, being crowded and you know, it's really only the first, you know, third

of the people from the stage back that can even really get into the show. Um, so yeah, I think,

I think this year, like not to tease too much, but the, you know, the EDM lineup this year is

looking really, really great. Um, and I think, I think a lot of those bigger acts deserve to sort

of be on, you know, the center stages where they can bring their full production. Um, and you know,

benefit from the multimillion dollar sound systems and play to those larger groups of people.

Uh, I think this year fans will see where in the woods be that place for, you know, discovery

of new electronic artists and DJs. Um, and you'll still be able to go in there and party all night,

but I think, I think trying to put those bigger acts on that stage is something that,

you know, doesn't work great, uh, or, you know, as well as we would like for it to. Um, and that's,

that's not to say you won't see like pop-ups or secret shows or something that's like unannounced

out there. Uh, there's always going to be fun shenanigans, but I think generally speaking to

get those, you know, larger artists out of those stages and center area with the big, big sound

systems and production is that's where those people need to be. And I think that's the way

that that space needs to be used is for kind of like the, the up and coming act.

Certainly sounds fair enough to me on that. None of us were out there, so we didn't see it firsthand.

We're just going by what we heard. I, um, I want to go backwards 20 minutes or so, uh, Brad,

you might've been talking about it, Corey, whoever wants to take this. It's relatively new speaking

of Wildingwood's being relatively new as far as the, the, the way it's been programmed. Uh, the

Tuesday entry is rather new, not this year, maybe the year before, at least post COVID.

I think that's insanely early to show up for the festival and I'm a, I'm a crazy guy who,

who doesn't find much insane about this festival. I think going on Tuesday's nuts. How did that,

how's that worked? Uh, just operationally. Yeah. And I was going to ask that too. Does that

I know it ease traffic and that was the thought, but did it stress the staff? I mean, you still

have to have security and people and parking and all that. So I'm very curious. I'll take this one.

So, you know, the thing with Bonnarooo that's challenging is, is one of the things that's

challenging about Bonnarooo is the, to your, to your point, Barry, the staff we house pretty much

on site for the most part, right? They're, they're there already anyways. So we're bringing those guys

in on Monday. Most of the time, like the bigger staffing calls, you know, they're coming in Sunday

or Monday before the show. And the whole idea around Tuesday came from the fact that, you know,

we've, we've continuously over the past 10 years worked to make, uh, to get rid of the horror

stories of, you know, from year one through 10, let's call it of, you know, I sat for, for

39,000 hours in traffic on 24 trying to- Yeah, I never thought that was okay by the way.

There's some people that said it was. I never was okay with that. You know, this past year,

and don't quote me on this because I don't have the data in front of me, but I think we,

we didn't have any single car, the entire show that waited, I think more than two and a half

hours to get in, which is ridiculously almost unbelievable. Yeah. Absolutely unbelievable.

Show the data, Brad. I don't know if I believe you. I know it's true. I remember you saying that

before, so it sounds right. But here's the thing. The Tuesday thing is not, that's not the perfect

solve that made that happen, right? There's a lot of tweaks to our traffic plan. There's a lot of,

um, you know, actually conditioning fans to understand when peak hours are so that we can

spread out that, that arrival profile a little bit. There's a lot of different tweaks that

result in us getting that wait time down. But the idea behind Tuesday was, was, was very simple.

We have fans who we know want to show up early and get as close to the arch as possible. And two,

any, any of those guys that we can get to show up on Tuesday is one less car we don't have to

screen on Wednesday. Sure. Yeah. So even if it's 2000 cars, whatever, 3000 cars, I mean, you're

talking thousands of staff of search minutes, right? To get those cars in. So, um, it's been

a successful experiment. Um, maybe, maybe some would say even too, too, uh, successful because

I feel like part of the ride of passage of honor, it was having at least a little bit of a way to

get in and out. The line was fun sometimes. All right. I will. The line has been fun before.

Lines been fun. I'm going back about 15 years on that one though. Uh, but yeah, yeah, no, I hear

you. There's a lot of the inconveniences of this place are charming to some of us a little bit.

Um, but you're, again, you got to deal with the first time goer, the day, uh, the day only goer,

you got to look at it from everybody's angle. And some people are never ever going to think

sitting in their car for extended mere period of time is a good, a good time, but many of us.

Well, let's ask Russ. I mean, seriously, we, we laugh, but rush, you get there and have a

last couple of years Tuesday. I'll ask you, and then I'll ask Corey and Brad. Yeah. I didn't hear

anybody complain. The ones who got there on Tuesday, I didn't hear them complain that they were

unhappy that they were in there early. You know what I mean? Uh, they got a good spot. They had a

hung out with their friends. What I found stuff to do. Right, Russ? Right. And prior to the Tuesday

early entry, you know, I would go and, you know, sleep in the Walmart parking lot. They know the

night before and a bunch of other people did that too. So it was kind of like the party starts in

Manchester before you even get inside to Bonnarooo. And now it's like, we just get there Tuesday

and, uh, everything works out. So yeah, I mean, I, and I think probably the most people that are

going to come Tuesday are the most experienced and prepared and so that they know they're going in

for a whole week. So they can't, they plan accordingly and they just make it a thing.

So I'll always do Tuesday entry. I think. Hell yeah, Russ, we always got one, well,

you got one, at least one car coming in on Tuesday. I love that. I mean, we used to like,

when I was going as a fan, like we would, we would roll in as soon as you could on Wednesday. And

like some of the most fun we had was, you know, while they're still filling up the farm, you

crack a beer as soon as you park the truck and then just start throwing frisbee.

No, no, I get it, Corey. We used to get for us for, or for everybody getting there early was

Wednesday at one o'clock. Yeah. That's what we used to do for years. And we were like,

yeah, we've been doing this early stuff for about a decade. Of course, it wouldn't let everybody.

It's a fun place to spend time. And like, just to be a little like, like there's not a whole lot

going on. So you just wander around and find the party and it doesn't need to be a sanctioned event

where you want to be. Right. Yeah. We always, and Brian always disappears on that Wednesday and go

for a walk about and see what's new and I'll cover every acre. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. We,

and also like, like some other camping festivals will even like charge more to come in for an extra

day. And we were like, that's kind of a good thing for us too. So like, let's just let people do that.

And this year too, specifically it, the blazing heat didn't show up till the weekend on that

Tuesday and Wednesday. That was a very mild, almost chilly, chilly, chilly night. Yeah. Tuesday night,

Wednesday night, Thursday night. So you, I do got it on. I remember. Yeah. You gotta think about that

kind of stuff too. Let, let this just popped in my head. It doesn't mean anything. It's just something

to chew on for a second. If we were to go back to September of 21 and you let people in on Tuesday,

Oh man. Well, you, we, none of us, maybe you guys did, but none of us knew what was going to happen

with that. You know, the, the outcome of that until like Thursday. And so I guess you got to keep that

kind of stuff in mind slightly, I guess. Yeah. We'd still be finding some of those folks.

I mean, like that's, that's the other thing too. Like there are other times of the year when,

you know, generally the heat is less, but the balance there is the rain. So I'll take the

heat every day. That's just the same. I want to shift gears a little bit and talk lineup in,

and this is kind of a broad, not just Bonnarooo, but you guys do other festivals. You just did South

Star. And talking about lineup, I wanted to be sure and remind people that we broke news a couple

of weeks ago. Boot Scoot Boogie Nights is the first band on the lineup, right? You heard it here.

That was news to me, man. I think you might've fallen victim to some of Brad's bullshit.

That was me going rogue again. And you look at his Twitter again,

man. Oh, he sent it. He texted me, man. I got it straight from, so it's gotta be official.

Yeah. First one's boot scooting Boogie Nights. Second one's Daft Punk.

I know. Why don't you listen to anything that Brad says?

Guys, I didn't come on here to ruin my reputation. So let's keep the jokes to a minimum.

But it's a bigger picture. We talked, Corey, I think when you were on with us before talking

about South Star, and you sort of honed in on a particular type of lineup. In this case,

it was a 90s sing-along type of thing. Anthem, I believe is the word we used.

Yeah. That worked. I mean, you got Rain, but it seemed to work. People were loving it.

From a big picture. Big picture. Is that something that you guys, C3,

are having to do with other festivals, or does it depend event for event?

Event for event, for sure. I mean, for a smaller show like that where you only can book 15, 20

acts, you want to keep it all in the same lane and make sure that you're sort of pleasing that fan

base. Yeah. I mean, the trend now is that a lot of the successful shows, not just for C3,

I think in the industry, are boutique shows that are more thematically programmed, right?

AC had been doing that for a very long time. Moon River was something that was,

if you're a Drew Holcomb fan, you're going to see every one of your favorite bands at Moon River.

Yeah, very genre specific. Yeah. When we did Homecoming in Cincinnati,

if you were a fan of the National, you were going to get to see them play two of their best albums,

and then every other band on your Spotify recommended playlist was going to be on the

lineup, right? High Water and Charleston, same thing. Railbirds, same thing. So I think that

you'll see it's very hard to start from scratch in today's music climate, a multi-genre festival,

right? That's why you see a lot of these hyper-focused lineups now, because I don't

think you can establish something like a Lala or an ACL or a Bonnarooo. You can't do that now.

Just out of thin air, yeah. Those things came out of lightning in a bottle when the iPod generation

was really booming and people realized that fans were multi-genre and they listened to all sorts

of stuff, and that's still true, but I think that as an industry, I think it's kind of,

it's like a flat circle a little bit. Fans listened to everything for so long. They would

listen to hip-hop and rock and metal and all of that, and now I think fans are in a spot where,

yeah, I listen to everything, but I want to go to a show this weekend and see this one specific thing.

I was just at When We Were Young in Vegas. I mean, that thing is like,

people that listen to emo pop-punk music in middle school or high school, you know, 15,

20 years ago, that is like the biggest injection of nostalgia that you could ever ask for

is going to that show, and those people go every year, and they see a lot of the same bands,

but it's like a yearly pilgrimage that they make to go hear, you know, that music that really

resonates and brings back memories from a certain part of their life, and I think that that's what

you'll see with shows moving forward is a lot of really narrow programming that helps these

shows stick out from the competition. Which obviously Bonnarooo has never been

and still isn't, and I'm guessing the multi-genre approach is where you guys are

always going to be. Is that fair to say? I mean, that's, to me, still seems like what holds Bonnarooo

together is that wide genre sweeping fan. We spent some time on this show recently about algorithms

and how they're just keeping people in their own, forget the bubbles people keep themselves in that

we normally talk about from a political, other national standpoint. A lot of entertainment is

all being curated right into this to where they want this right here and all this periphery.

They're not that, it's not that they don't like it, they're not that interested in it, but Bonnarooo

is still, to me, the king of that. Maybe Coachella could, you know, make an argument, but that's

still the goal here, right? I think this tees up perfectly to something that I wanted to talk about

on this show. All right, let's go. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. And then, and then, yeah,

and then I think this will, what I'm about to say will then lead us into talking about some

results from the music census that we did earlier this year. Great, yeah. Those are familiar with.

So Bonnarooo has always been at a face value, multi-genre, but it hasn't always been,

it hasn't always been multi-genre to the extent of like what a Lollapalooza is. No, not the first

four years anyway, if you want to go that specific guess. But there is one thing that Bonnarooo has

always been and will always be, which is rooted in the name of our show, which is that we offer

the best in the streets in live music experience. So that changes from year to year, right?

The best that can be offered of live music in 2025 is different than what was the best that could be

offered in 2007, right? In the first 10 years of the show, Dave Matthews, Phil Lesh, you know, Trey,

all of that stuff, that jam scene was this underground massive thing that was coming up

and it was the best that you could be offered as a fan at that time. And I think in 2025,

you're going to see that we're still doing the same thing. It just looks different.

We are going to be offering people a world-class live experience that gives you the best that is

out there to be offered, regardless of where you decide to live sonically as a fan.

I want to hear what Cory has to say, but I want to jump on that because I was thinking

it as Brian was talking, especially how is that window anymore? How far out can you guys look?

As we've talked about this before, we know from talking to Steven and Brian, who book a lot of

the bands, they're already thinking next year and even in some cases next year. Can you still think

two years out and try to predict what will be the best of 2026? Yeah, I mean, I know we had our,

like, we had our first confirmation for 2025 Bonnarooo before Highwater. So like back in March,

and that was a conversation that had been going on for like two plus years. So yeah, it's way out.

But there, I mean, there's certain stuff that you know, like, this is a core Bonnarooo band,

always going to be a core Bonnarooo act. And we're going to talk to them every single year.

And whenever they want to play, they're going to play. So I'd be, I'm sure there's a handful

of names that come to mind for you guys. And so like, I think the fans should know that those

conversations are always happening. There's literally always a dialogue. I think a good

example of that, and this is not a hint at next year, I just want to be clear about that.

Where's my pen? You know, we... Mark, time stamp. Well, this band just played, so it'll be obvious

that we're not going to have them. But like a band like Paramore is always going to be welcome at

Bonnarooo, right? Bonnarooo fans love Paramore. They're a darling of Nashville. Like that's,

I think that's what Cory's talking about as far as like, you know, bands that are kind of core to

what we do as a festival. But I think, Barry, I think we have to do both at the same time.

And that's why Brian Benson and Steve Green, and these guys are really great. Sometimes

something happens that makes us look really good that maybe wasn't intentional. Like,

you know, we book a band and at the time it's like, oh, this seems like it'll be a good booking.

And then they explode and it makes us look like geniuses, right? Chappell Roan's a great

band. It's on the list. We'll be there in a minute. If you think about it, in the last

two and a half years, we've had Chappell Roan, Zac, Brian, and Noah Kahn play the smaller stages that

we have to offer, right? And collectively, you know, Zac's doing football stadiums.

Yep. And so, but then you have some things that I think we put ourselves out there to say, hey,

we're a tastemaker and we're going to show you why we're right. And one of those things that you all

are going to see very soon is just proof in the pudding that these guys know what they're doing

over here is, you know, we had Fred again on Sunday last year. People really questioned that

decision. And without giving away too much, I think in 2025, you're really going to see

why we put our eggs in the Fred again basket. So it's a little bit of both, Barry. You got to

just take, you got to see what's happening in real time and see how you can capitalize on it. You've

also got to trust your gut a little bit and say, hey, I think in 12 to 18 months, this is something

that fans are going to be excited about. Well, and then you also have a case like,

and I can't remember Corey, if you told us this when we talked, but I know we had Matt from

Huntsville, you know, that Southstar was supposed to start next year. And then blink 182 comes in

and says, Hey, we'd like to do it. And y'all put together a festival in what, four or five months

or something. So you got to kind of, you got to be able to adapt too. That's so that's interesting.

Well, let me real quick. I had this on, I didn't know where else you're going to bring it in. Now

seems like a good enough time. This is more you guys as, as patrons, not as much as bookers and

festival industry experts, but we we've talked about this recently about, and we've, we're kind

of bouncing around this same subject matter of, you know, jam bands early on with, with Bonnaroo being

the, the, a large focus. And then later on for a shorter amount of time, but certainly a window,

the, I don't know what you would call it, but the Mumford and Sons era of, of where anything that

looked or sounded like Mumford, Avis, whoever. What'd you call her? Us stomp and clap, stomp and clap,

stomp and clap, whatever you want to call it. That really was a, like that was where the

home run hitting was. And then EDM, I mean, meteoric rise, they're going to grow out of that as being

the fan base as that being their regular stop eventually hadn't happened yet, but eventually.

Do you think about five years from now, what could be that next kind of sub genre that really

doesn't take over the festival, but to the, to the person who just kind of glances and like,

who are all these bands I've never heard of any thoughts as to where you think things might go

a little bit down the future? Cause we know they're going to shift. We just have no idea what it would,

what it will be a we meaning I don't. I have no idea.

Simple, long, long windy questions. Simple answer. I don't know, man.

I'll take that one. Five years. Who knows, man. Tell two years this stuff drives up and moves along

quick and cycles. Here's what I'll say is there are scenes and communities in the music space that you

can readily identify as something that's going to be here and stick around for a long time.

And as much as this pains some people that will listen to this to hear,

and I'm not making any sonic comparison here. So just please keep that in mind.

But I already like where this is going. The scene, the scene that is underground

electronic music right now is the jam scene from the early 2000s. Yes, it is.

It's the exact same thing. And so, you know, Corey and I and Benson and these guys, we,

we talk a lot about staying core to what we are, which is, which is offering the best that's in

the streets. And what does that mean now? And acknowledging that every single fan that shows

up to Bonnarooo is, is, is a priority number one to us. But the fans that got us through the first

20 years are not the same fans that will get us through the next 20 years. And we have to find a

way to balance that and be forward thinking. And I think that you'll see things like Fred again,

as a headliner on Sunday, when there's traditionally a legacy band there is exactly

what we're talking about when we're saying, how do we get that new generation of fan that's going

to last us the next 20 years and not totally piss off the ones that have been coming for the last 20?

You can even like, it's like, even if you look at one band and like, obviously I'm,

I'm a dead head. I think you guys know that and RIP Phil F, but yeah. But I mean, like, if you

like look at that one band and you listen to their shit from like the early seventies all the way up

until the nineties, you hear so many different kinds of music. Like, you know, you get a keyboard,

it's like Britt Midland in the eighties. That's like, sounds like Seeger and just playing the

hell out of the organ. And then you go back to the early seventies and they're like almost a

folk band. So it's like, yeah, everybody, everything changes and like, it's, it's really fun to like

bring in the new stuff and the different stuff. Sometimes in Brian and I have talked about this

and it's been funny to kind of watch Brian cause I'm a little bit older than, than Brian, but

we've changed. You know, sometimes as fans, we don't want to admit, we want to say, Oh,

Bonnarooo is not the same as it used to be. I don't like it anymore. Maybe it's not Bonnarooo

so much that changed as you. Maybe it's you dude. Yeah. You know, I don't want to sleep on the

ground anymore or, you know, EDM. I like some of it. I don't like all of it, but it doesn't have to

be for me. And that's always sometimes hard for people to accept, you know, may not be my thing.

The main reason for that question was, is just, I was curious as you guys, what you think as music

fans that that was the main reason. But as we all know, if Bonnarooo stuck with the jam formula,

we wouldn't be sitting here talking about Bonnarooo in 2024. If they stuck with the stomp and clap,

you know, era. And all we were doing is throwing that up every, every week or every year on, on,

on the main stages, we wouldn't be here talking. So I was just, that's what, that's where that came

from. Well, the cool thing is like going back to the census. So like we do a survey every year

and it's like a little more like standardized across festivals. And last year we were like,

we want something that gives like Bonnarooo fans an opportunity to answer a ton of questions that

are super specific to what they want to hear. And the cool thing about that is, you know,

when you look at sort of the pie chart from what people are listening to and what they want to see

more of and what they like that we have, it is very much like, it looks like a pizza. Like,

you know, like there's, there's like a bunch of slices and some of them are a little bit

bigger than others, but like pretty much every genre is represented, whether it's, you know,

country or EDM or hip hop or, you know, rock, like it's, and it's still like that. So like,

you're always going to see jam bands there. You're always going to see some hip hop.

You're always going to see some of that, like, you know, full, you're always going to see a bunch

of guitars out there. So like our, our fan base is still like, we, we are what they go to,

to hear all of that in the same weekend. And that's really, really exciting.

Speaking of that census, can, can we put the, the, the chatter to bed on this? Do you want it to be

two weekends kind of thing? Yeah, I know you guys saw Reddit. So you read all this stuff.

We're not doing two weekends at Bonnarooo, right? Can we say that now? Can we say that here today?

Come on, Brad. I see you want to say it.

Brad's a muted. You did a bit.

He's speechless. I should have given a really long answer, but stayed muted the whole time.

Well, you guys can really hear what else. Yeah, we're not going to do two weekends of

Bonnarooo. Listen, we're, we're, we ask, we ask these questions sometimes to make sure we're not

missing something obvious. That's all it is. It, it, it, it, it's nothing to do with our intention

and more to do about our curiosity to make sure that there's not something blatantly in our face

that we're just not picking up on. And there were a couple of questions like that in that survey.

That was probably the most glaringly obvious one, but there were a few and, you know, we got a lot

of, I pulled it up to see if I could remember correctly. Yeah, we got almost 20,000 responses

to that survey, which is incredible. Yeah. And, you know, to what we're talking about the pie,

when you talk about genres of music that are represented at the show, it, it, it's a very,

it's a very tasty, delicious pie with lots of different slices. But a glaring thing to me was,

you know, how much electronic has grown as a slice of that pie over the past years. Like I'm looking

at it right now. One of the questions, what, what macro genre of music would you say you listen to

most of 18 of almost 20,000 responses, 20, almost 27% identified electronic as their,

as their primary. Can't ignore that. That's a big slice. No. And what we've learned for having

guests on and they're like you said, there's now sub genres within, within, within there, you know,

all kinds of different, it's not just one type of music. And that gets back to that sort of jam

thing that you mentioned. So, I had a question and I just lost it. Corey, let's start with the

census real quick. I'm sorry. Was there a surprise? And there was a, there was a happy surprise on my

end. I mean, like, you know, you guys know, I play guitar. I like, I like rock bands. I've,

I've always been a jam fan. I like anything that's riff heavy. And like pretty much every question

we asked about genre, we kept seeing like, we want more guitars. We want more bands.

Keep the rock alive, baby. There's yeah. And like, you know, that's like subdivided in this general

like rock category. And then you also have like indie and then like jam is still represented. So

I think, I think people just want to see some, you know, make sure we got a good balance of

guitars and, you know, bands out there. So it's nice. Like for someone like me,

I think that that's, you know, a big positive. I think there's all, I think one thing too,

not that I was surprised, but that made me happy was I think there is data to support that we,

I think it would be in a different form than it's ever been, but there is definitely space

to return comedy to Bonnarooo. And I think people will try to figure out what that looks like.

It won't be, you know, what it's, how it's been presented in the past, but I'm just looking here.

Would you be more likely to come to Bonnarooo if the lineup featured comedy acts? 24% said yes.

And 60% said that it wouldn't, it wouldn't make their decision to buy, but they would like it if

it was there. So that's overwhelmingly, you know, 75 to 80% of people have some sort of positive

connotation with comedy at, at Bonnarooo. So, you know, arts is in the, in the title. And that's one

of the things that always jumped out at me. The first couple of years that I went was this place

is different. And part of what was that, there was the comedy tent and the, the film tent and all the

art things, you know, it wasn't just the music and that's, I think that helps it stand out. So I'm

glad to hear that. I think we did have two, two things that we wanted to kind of just tease a

little bit for, for next year, if you guys are cool with that. Of course. The first one I think is that

Thursday next year, we're going to have something really special. You could never, if you'd never

guess this person in a million years, so don't, don't go looking on Reddit, don't go looking

anywhere. You're never going to get it. But we had an artist reach out to us that said it would

really mean like, we want to do this show. How do we make it happen? And so that person will be

that person will be your Thursday headliner for, for 2025. And we're, we're, our whole team is super,

super stoked about it. Well, since you just use the word headliner and the day of Thursday, Brad,

can we expect a, I wouldn't listen Thursday will be what, what makes sense for us to put a cool show

together. If an opportunity arises to put a band on, on the main stage on Thursday. So you know

where I was going. Yeah. Like, listen, Thursday is our, is our opportunity to fit someone in that

maybe we, we have all the other headliner slots filled and something comes along and says, hey,

we want to do this show. And we're like, well, we can make it happen, but it's gotta be Thursday.

Right. It's our, so I wouldn't say always expect from now on that there's going to be a headliner

on Thursday, but if it presents itself and it makes sense, then we'll do it. Interesting. All right.

All right. If anybody's asking for another opinion, I think you absolutely should,

but no one's asking me. Yeah. I mean, I, you know, we've, we're, we're trying to like, that's another

role we're trying to decide what the fan warrants like a four day festival. They want it. They want

an act on the what stage on Thursday. That's what the fan wants. That's what they want.

You're probably right. You're probably right. But yeah, that's, I think that Thursday is definitely

going to be pretty fluid. You want me to do the, do another tease Brad? Is that what you want?

I do. Yeah. Yes, please. I mean, I know last year, like the conversation around Sunday was weird

because, you know, people expected a sort of like, uh, you know, legacy act and we didn't do that at

all. Um, and I would say that Sunday is another day that's going to sort of stay fluid and we're

not going to sort of conform to that, um, you know, model of just automatically sticking, uh, a legacy

act out there. But I think we're all really excited about fan reaction for Thursday because

we were able to take sort of two of the acts that people have been really asking for and are very

excited about and putting them both out there that night. So I think, I think that that is going to

be a very curated special Bonnarooo day. Um, and we're definitely really excited to get that one out

there. So then not Thursday, you said Thursday, Sunday, Sunday. How, uh, how much of the lineup

is booked percentage wise? Come on, Gary. You know, you know what my answer to this question is.

Well, come on, Brad, he's got to ask the question. You gave me an answer once before when I asked.

I'll just set the over under at 60%. You got to figure out where you want to.

That's fine. I'm going to go under that. I'm going to go and tick under. Yeah, I took under.

Fair enough. You know, I got to ask, you know, you can always ask. I can always ask.

All right. Uh, what else? What else? Any other? Yeah, I got just a couple, couple of, go ahead,

go ahead. I just, let's talk about Chapelrone. Well, that's where I was headed to. Yeah. Uh,

without asking specific questions, we all know what happened with, with Chapel from,

from early part of the year to, to let's say two weeks before, maybe a month before

the Bonnarooo performance. How, how were those conversations taking place within the walls of,

of, uh, marketing and, and, and festival direction? I'll, I'll take, I'll take my part

first and then Corey can answer if he has anything. Yeah, please do. Yeah.

Barry texted me about this a couple, uh, like, I don't know, maybe the week of the show. And I

said, listen, you just got to promise that we know what we're doing. Right. There's a lot of complicated

conversations that have to be had moving artists around on different stages five days before

everybody's showing up. And I didn't think it was going to be possible personally, but go ahead.

I didn't need it. So that requires tough conversations with other artists, right? Hey,

we got to kick you off a stage. We got to move you up a slot. We've got to do whatever.

And green sky, blue grass. It's very, it's very sensitive conversations that have to be had.

And then the other thing, and I'm not saying this is Chapel, so don't interpret it, but I just want

to present a situation that you all should know sometimes is what happens. And it's completely

out of our control. Like you have an artist that is blowing up, right? And they're on a stage that

might be a little too small for them. And we go to them and say, Hey, we want to bump you up to this

bigger stage. And their whole team is working with an artist that's in a whole new stratosphere that

they've never been in. Right. And their, their concern is we move them up to a bigger stage.

And then the crowd doesn't show up or the crowd looks too small. Not the case with Chapel, but

sometimes we get that pushback of like, Hey, we know our crowd's going to look great if we stay in

that tent. But if you put us on which maybe the, maybe it looks empty because it's so much bigger.

Right. And the content is king for these artists. Like they have to have really great content.

So there's a lot of different caveats to consider in not just the logistical nightmare that those

scenarios create, but you know, decisions that the artists have to make for themselves too, on

what it means for their career on that. Obviously we're not going to let an artist put us in a

situation that causes safety issues for our fans. Right. Cause that's the number one priority,

but there's just a lot of considerations to be had. It's not as simple as let's just bump her up and,

you know, here's a gap between these two bands. We can just spread them out a little bit more and

put her right in the middle. Like it's, it's very complicated. Did you try to have those same

conversations prior to Noah cons show and, or did the, the size of the Noah con crowd impact the

chapel rhone conversation? Of course, we're talking about the 2023. Yeah. Cause he had, he had a huge

crowd similar. Yeah. He played that tent. I don't remember the specifics around the Noah conversation.

I know that we were having it, but there was something that was making it just logistically

challenging. And I think what we ultimately ended up doing was, Hey, we're going to beef up our

security at this stage at that time. So we can keep an eye on, on everybody and make sure the

people upfront are okay and comfortable and people in the back are, are okay. So sometimes we just

have to adapt in real time and say, Hey, this is what, this is what it's going to be. And we just

got to make sure we're prepared for it. Um, but I don't, I don't remember the specifics around the,

well, and I want to hear what you have to say about this, uh, Corey too, but I mean, I'm just

a small town, small media guy for the last couple of decades. So what I have seen is not that

important, but I mean, what happened with this chaperone thing is like nothing I could look back

and quickly find a precedent for. I mean, it was, yeah, it was a pretty wild time as a fan,

as somebody who covers it to a certain degree from whatever angle it was like, can you believe what

we're seeing here? If you're looking at the Spotify numbers, you're looking at the YouTube

channels, more than just a headline. It was almost like, there's no chance that this can happen this

way. I mean, I don't know what you put her on the moon if you need to, I don't know where you put

her, but it ain't going to be here anyway. Corey, uh, your thoughts more on some of that.

Well, and I think that one was interesting too, because you know, she's obviously drawing,

you know, bigger and bigger crowds, but like. You're like the, the first really big festival

where you were able to see this happen was Gubball. And that was just right before Bonnarooo.

So we had the benefit of seeing it in action right there to know kind of what to expect.

Um, and sometimes you don't have that, you know, it's just, you're seeing the buzz online,

you're seeing the hard, the hard ticket sales are, you know, skyrocketing, but you don't

necessarily know like, okay, we got a multi-genre festival here. We got rock fans, Jan fans, EDM

fans. Like what's the crossover, you know, like, like same thing with Noah. It's like

what percentage of our fans, like, I know this guy's huge, but what percentage of our fans

is he huge too? And then you have a festival that's also like, you know, pretty much multi-genre,

like Gubball happened just a couple of weeks before they've got the biggest crowd they've

ever had for one show. And then, you know, um, and like all those conversations were already

going on because we knew she wasn't going to fit in the tent. Um, but that kind of like

ups the urgency a bit, I think when you're able to actually see it in action.

And it's cool. It was a nice, uh, yeah, I do remember that text, Brad. You're like, you know,

we, we know we're not sleeping through this. I was like, how do I sit without him thinking

I'm just being an asshole, but just get my point across that we're working on it. I got it.

But also like what Brad said though, you like it, it's almost impossible to do.

Like, like shout out to green sky, man. Like if they hadn't been willing to change their day

and their plans and you know, I like, I'm sure they're excited to play which stage I think as

far as someone that likes that band, I would probably rather see him in the tent, especially

in the middle of the day. Um, but like shout out to them for being flexible because I'm here to

tell you not everybody's like, I'll give huge shout out where it's due to those guys because

when, when our team approached them, I wasn't a part of the direct conversation, but my understanding

is those guys were like, no, we get it. This is, this is her moment. Like we're here. We're

going to have a great time regardless. And you know, we're here to play ball. So you guys just

tell us what you need us to do. And they were, they were all about it, which is not always the

case. Yeah, I don't, I don't know that band personally, but I know some people who kind of

want to be in the band and they're like, what do you want me to do? And in that, in those circles,

that doesn't surprise me. Yeah, I was going to say that, but does it also, um, I mean, I know it

endears them to you, but do you put that back in a hip pocket and say, we'll take care of you down

the line somewhere? Oh yeah. Yeah. We got you. We definitely took care of them for sure. Yeah. Yeah.

That's cool. And as far as, uh, the, uh, performers from 20, uh, the 2024 Bonnaroo, the one that I had

the chance to play was the Guar show. It wasn't the first time they played Bonnaroo. It's been a

little while back and I'm not, I don't mean the show itself, but the, what I thought was interesting

what they've done and I knew, I know more about Guar now than I've ever known before because they

were so, um, easily accessible to everybody in the media and fans and everybody else, but they had

this huge, from what I can tell as a viewer, like a PR push for this show. I mean, they did a lot,

they're running around in their, in their, in their get in their, you know, costumes. They were

doing little vignettes take it. There was one I thought was really cool. Uh, they took over the

production team or whatever. Oh, T T with Guar. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,

I guess Brad, this might be more for you. Maybe it's both of you guys. Do they reach out to you

and say, Hey, we're going to blitz the farm. Like not they, they necessarily, but anybody who plans

on doing something like that, is that something you help facilitate or is that just kind of like,

you're on your own? Listen, those guys just don't say no. Like we, like we have a lot of teams that

are working on doing cool stuff behind the scenes, whether it's like for the Hulu stream or for our

social media or for like, you know, stuff that will release down the road. And you know, I reached

out to them for a couple of things. We did a collaboration shirt with them, which was really

sick. Um, but like, and like our Hulu team reached out to them, everything that anybody asked them,

they said yes to, I think that they just love it. They love what they do and they have a lot of fun

with it. And so I think like, you know, as different media outlets were reaching out with ideas,

they were like, yeah, cool. We'll do that. Who cares? So I mean, I love it. You said that

those guys and like how much fun they have with what they do, dude, Corey, a hundred percent,

they weren't saying no to anybody. We could have been, you know, W S dumb dummy down here.

Yeah, they reached out 1000 watt. Hey, y'all want to talk about it? Yeah, Brian. I remember Brian,

that week's, you know, we all got the email. Hey, you want to interview with

war? And he's like, yeah, they're probably going to do a handful. You don't have it, you know,

and they gave us everything we want. They're awesome. It's great. I guess I mean, I've cut,

I've touched on just about everything. I guess I'll, I'll, we'll, we'll throw it up on the screen.

The one tweet that I, that I got from you, uh, Brad, I had to go through. I was like,

I know he's been throwing some stuff out there, but I think we're cooking with gas on Rue 2025 T B H.

What is that supposed to mean? Brad cooking with gas, huh? Um, let's just say that the propane's

on and the, and the burgers are ready to go on the grill and they're going to answer.

They're going to be exactly what you want them to taste like when you take a bite. And I think, uh,

when you look at, when you look at Bonnarooo, um, going into the like 28, 2019 to 2020 lineup,

when you look at those shows that were sold out, there's two things in that equation that,

that I think were resulting in that success. One momentum of the fan having a really great

experience and two, there's no very large blow your mind names on those lineups. There's no

Paul McCartney's, there's no, what there is, is a very well rounded holistic offering of music

for the fan. And that's what we have. And you're on track for that. You're saying then,

let me, let me ask you, and I, we've kept you on here for, and you guys got to go here in a

little bit. Um, what about the, you're always tweaking, uh, what about the changes or are there

any big changes or are they minor tweaks with things like the Allah cart ticketing and the

camping experiences and, and, uh, I mean, uh, moving to Tuesday entry was big. Is there anything

going to be that sort of, uh, big? All you, Corey, this is, this is the last thing we wanted to talk

about. That's perfect. Yeah, this is just, yeah, it's just so fun. We love talking about this stuff.

Yeah, we got just a couple, like it's not, there's not a lot of big changes this year. Um,

we're going to do, so looking at moon colony, that sort of like reserved primitive camping has been

very, very, very popular. Um, so we're trying to expand that program a little bit and just squeeze

as many primitive campings into those, that area as possible. Uh, we're also going to try out

something new down there. That's pretty exciting. We're going to offer, and it's going to be a very

limited amount of spots this year, uh, because, you know, want to make sure it works and everybody

likes it, but we're going to try some power campsites. Um, so you could camp in your tent

and, you know, have a power strip where you can hook up box or charging. Yeah. So just kind of

like you're at the KOA, but you know, again, that's, you know, it's more generators you gotta

bring in and those, those power boxes are, you know, pretty expensive. So, you know, they, they

will be a little bit pricey, but that's not, that's, that's, that's one of those things that

we're like not adding to try to make more money on. We're just adding because it makes the

experience easier. So, and it costs money as you do it. So there you go. But, um,

electricity is like, like ice, you know, out there. It's like, it's precious, precious currency.

Well, to that point, and I'm glad you brought it up because we've talked about it before,

and I think we talked about it with Matt again from Huntsville the other day.

One of the things that we've learned, and it sounds like you guys have in this a la carte

thing proves it is people have money and they're willing to spend it on comfort, right? I mean,

if they want something, they're, they're willing and able to spend it. Again, it may not be for me,

right? But it's for somebody, right? Yeah. Just trying to offer what people are asking for.

Yeah. Um, and then I think, you know, the, the, it's kind of a good segue, like, yeah, I'm in my

thirties now. I'm not that good at sleeping on the ground anymore. I'm a fairly large human and it

doesn't always go well. Um, so I, I may be down to spend, you know, some bucks on getting an RV out

there. Um, but then like, you know, looking back at my first few years, like my first year of honor,

it was my freshman year in college and I was sleeping in a one man backpacking tent.

I did not have an awning over it. Uh, every night it collapsed in the middle of the night

and I would just kind of like, like be roasting at like 8 AM and just like desperately trying to

find the zipper and just like push it off of me so I could get out. Um, but like at that,

at that stage of my life, like price was the most important thing, you know? And I think,

I think that, that part of our audience, you know, we have to try to keep those prices as low as

possible. Um, so one thing me and Brad came up with this year

was just to come out with a student ticket right from the start. Um, so we're going to have a

really, really reasonably priced student ticket. Uh, we'll have a few thousand of those available

during the presale and then we'll kind of like proportionally bump them up, uh, for when the

lineup comes out and they'll still be, you know, way cheaper than the regular ticket and you'll,

you'll have to verify that you're a student and all that. But what about a senior citizen discount?

Come on, we gotta add that in there. That's called reading an RV.

That's called have a good pension or a good 401k. Right? Yeah. I'll get, I'll get it. We're excited

about that. We're excited about that. But I would say like, you know, otherwise, you know, we're

trying to just keep all the costs of the fan just like flat this year, like try to try to keep,

keep those tickets as low as possible. What were you going to say, Brad? I was just saying, I'll

give, I'll give a 65 plus discount Brian, when you get there. Yeah, I'm still 20 years away. But

speaking of that, uh, your primitive awful camping setup you just, uh, talked about there, Corey,

I'm 44. That's still my damn, uh, we'll have to get Russell put his tent up. It looks like, uh,

it looks like the display model in the store. It looks like a cardboard cutout of a tent

in my defense back before y'all stole nine, three, one away from us. All my friends had

everything I needed. I didn't need to bring anything else. I was kind of, that's, that's how

I always went to, I was like, he's going to have this. Yeah. Somebody's going to take care of me,

man. Well, good neighbors, I'm sure. Get a bus. This is the best Bonnarooo vehicle you could have

right here. True. That's pretty cool. Uh, one more thing we're going to try out this year. Um,

you know, obviously like Bonnarooo, I don't know like comparatively, like how much better

we do than other festivals, but the, you know, recycling and like food, uh, diversion, uh,

from landfills and all that are, are, are program that we run at Bonnarooo is like unlike any other

festival in the States. And so like, you know, staying green and recycling and composting,

like, you know, uneaten food and like, uh, you know, sort of like diverting resources

after the festival is like a huge priority. Um, but we've noticed over the years, like

the cars, like you used to have four or five people rolling in and then it's three or four.

And then sometimes you got people showing up just by themselves. Um, and that's, that's been

something where we've, you know, tried to encourage our fans that, you know, save resources and,

you know, do, do, do that, like, you know, try to carpool. Um, but that's not really working

super great. So what they were introduced this year is, uh, we're going to try out a carpool,

uh, primitive camping pass. So if you show up with, uh, three or more people in your car,

uh, your camping ticket is going to be significantly cheaper.

Okay. So, so I would encourage fans to, you know, interesting idea. Yeah. Get, get together

in advance and plan that out and, you know, buy that when you buy your ticket. Um, it'll,

it'll be a decent amount of, yeah. Yeah. I think, I think that's just, you know, the,

the next step in that program. I think that's a good way for us to, you know,

encourage fans to get involved in some of those initiatives too. Well, very cool. All right.

Yeah. That's pretty much does it on, does it on my, uh, pertinent list. You promised, uh,

you're going to come back on here with jokes and, and I, I think I told you my terrible one already,

right? About the, uh, why didn't, why didn't the lifeguard, uh, uh, why did the lifeguard

let the hippie drown? I know this one actually too far out until my favorite. You already knew

that one, Corey. I think I've actually, that's been my go-to, uh, like for on, on stage at shows.

Shut up and play. We'll cut it out. I don't want to take your stick.

No, it's a great show. I live real quick speaking of playing, uh, uh, Corey speak to the,

to the who stage. Um, I saw it this past year for the first time that I remember in a couple of

years and the upgrades, uh, sound wise seem to be really good just as a fat, as a, as a patron to

the show. Uh, if you speak to the stage real quick and it's on it. Yeah. Yeah. I was, I was ripping

a solo on Sable horse ride a cowboy. I think that they were hearing it over at the witch stage.

It was pretty sweet. It really feels like they took, they took the tent and just, you know,

made it a much small down scale down version with really good sound. I thought so. Yeah, I agree.

All right, Brad, anything you wanted to mention we didn't get to? I think we touched everything.

I think in general, like people are going to really like our lineup. I think there's going to

be some things much like with Fred again, that people sort of not questioned because it's not

like people are going to look at it and say, this is bad, but I think they're going to question it

because it's different. And I think, I think the point is just what I was saying of like,

we've always offered the best there is to offer out there. And that has no label of genre.

It has no label of age. It has no label of anything. It simply is the best that's out there

for fans. And I think we're bringing that next year for the, for 2025 from the headliners all

the way to the bottom row. And, um, I'm really excited for people to people to see it. Well,

so are we. And this is a really cool, uh, and cool, you know, time to carve out for us and

everybody who wants to know more about, and we're, I mean, we're right around the corner from the

dates starting to hit, right? We're looking for that date, the, the pre-sale date, then the,

the new year hits and the lineup drop and all that kind of stuff. So thank you very much.

Yeah. You got new clues coming out soon, right? Yeah. Yeah. We'll be sharing some information

about the pre-sale, um, really soon. So everybody just be ready for that.

I always appreciate your time guys. It's always fun talking to you. It's always a good laugh.

Yeah, it's a pleasure. See you guys later. We'll talk to you soon.

All right. So there you go. Like I said, that's a lot to unpack. Um, I need a nap after all that.

Yeah, definitely some snacks. Not just because of the clocks, right? Yeah. Yeah. Find your way back.

Um, I mean, look, we're into the sausage making, so we love this kind of stuff and there is a lot

in there and, uh, they're very forthcoming. Uh, obviously Brad is, you know, being coy and,

and, uh, you know, leaving some hints, which is fine. That's part of the,

Yeah. Brad's got a style to them that I like actually. Yeah. He likes to, uh, yeah, stir some

shit up. His Twitter account, which I just been looking at here recently. We talk a little about

that and, uh, yeah, he's got a style that is, um, very deliberate and I like it. Yeah. You know,

he just joined the, uh, he just joined the discord too, by the way. Hey, welcome. Maybe I'll join

someday. Yeah. Along those lines and, and, and, uh, Brian, you, you touched on it several times.

The fact that they do read Reddit and they do look at the social media stuff. They're idiots

if they don't like I have always anybody. I don't look shut. Get out of here. I know,

but I mean, that's not a, you know, that's no small thing. There's a lot to be learned and gleaned

from doing that. And, uh, I think you've got to be very, you've got to be very disciplined to be able

to go through the comment section anywhere online and, and get good information from that because

there is good information there, but you've got to be disciplined when you go to look at it. If

you're highly emotional, it ain't going to work, you know, and that's a difficult thing for everybody.

I've had to deal with it myself. Yeah. And they did mention, you know, they read it all, even the

ones that hurt their feelings, but, uh, I'm glad, I'm glad they admit that because they should look,

they should take a look. It ain't gonna hurt anything unless you're solved. If there's a

blind spot, if there's something they know, they don't know what's going on. They can't fix it,

but I thought it was interesting that they sort of, uh, delineate if that's the right word,

the five year and plus versus the newcomer. I mean, I think that's really important.

There is a difference, right? The first time guy has a completely different experience than,

you know, those of us that have been there several, of course. Yeah, definitely. And I

thought that was important. Yeah, it is. I'm now, I'm now the five year guy. I'm happy that I've,

uh, you know, graduated from new, I guess I'm no longer. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I mean, you're,

you're either going to get for like first year guy, you're going to get, I'm never going back

ever, ever, ever, ever, or I can't wait, start it tomorrow. I'll be there again tomorrow. And, um,

yeah. And, and I don't know what my point was there other than there's just a lot to keep in

mind and they, and they're doing that. Yeah. It's a, I mean, expectations are, um, I, I, I,

I can't imagine doing it as a first timer now. I do remember, you know, my first time I, like I've

said before, I thought I was going to the moon, you know, I thought I had to pack everything as if

it was a survival, you know, test, but that's completely different. And, and, you know, just

go into a show versus the whole experience. So I think that's really important. So I, I, I think

the, the camping carpooling thing is certainly an interesting idea. I'll be really interested to see

how that actually plays out. Like, like how accurate they can do something like that. So sometimes

organizations will do conglomerates, big company, whoever small companies will do things just for

the sake of doing things. Uh, Bonnarooo doesn't really work that way. I mean, they, yeah, the

things they implement are designed to work. I mean, they're not just like facades. So that'll be

interesting. And I thought the other thing, and again, we'll probably unpack this more later,

as I'm sure a lot of other people were, uh, but he kind of dropped it. Brad did that. This is not

maybe going to be a lineup of wow. Headliners. That's right. And lost over that one, you know,

and, and when he said that I could, for some reason, I could remember that when we were talking

about it and I don't know if it was me that brought it up, but one of us, and we all agreed,

it feels like there needs to be a wow year because there hasn't been one, not that, not that it needs

it all the time. Um, that's just three people's opinions sitting on a podcast talking about it.

Right. But, um, quality over quantity, quantity over quality. I mean, you know, depending on how

you want to look at it, we'll see. And I mean, I, I always say it doesn't matter who plays,

you know, I don't care who's on the lineup, but that's exactly right. Like I said, that's,

we will, we will definitely dive deeper into that in the future. I think as well, everybody else.

And, and again, those are always subjective. The lineup is so subjective. If it's your favorite,

it's the best ever. If it's not, then you hate it. So it's just how it works,

but it's never not great. Never not great. And, uh, man, I can't thank those guys enough. Um,

it still blows my mind. They gave us that much time and I can't thank them. Um, I just appreciate

it. So, all right, guys. Um, well, we got presale coming up soon. I mean, we're already in November,

so, uh, they're having a save the date on the 12th and then the presale begins the 21st.

And we may have some stuff to give away in that regard. So we might, we might hear pretty soon.

So we still have more episodes planned and, uh, looking forward to it again.

Can't believe we're starting season eight. Here we go.

Okay.