TOOL, POLICE ANCHOR BONNAROOS MOST DIVERSE LINEUP YET

Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival has gone and out done itself. In Roo’s 6th year of existence and holding true to their successful formula, diversity is the key word for an outstanding lineup that boasts The Police, Tool, Widespread Panic, Ben Harper, The White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, Kings of Leon, Bob Weir and Ratdog, Gov’t Mule and The Flaming Lips to name just a few. One of the main reasons, out of many, that set Bonnaroo apart from all other festivals is it’s the only US Festival that has 13 stages held during 4 days with music around the clock. While most other festivals are clearing out the parking lots by 10:30pm, Bonnaroo is still immersed in some of the best music the world has to offer. Bonnaroo packs an unprecedented amount of entertainment options into its four days, offering attendees the amenities and community spirit of a small city, with 24 hours of activities including a comedy club, cinema, silent disco, arcade, Internet cafés, restaurants, yoga classes and hundreds of high quality craft vendors.

We caught up with Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips, who just took home two Grammy Awards earlier this month, to discuss his thoughts on performing at the summers premiere musical event.

“Any band that gets to play Bonnaroo, it’s one of those great honors, one of those great moments of the summer so to be part of that it’s always going to be good. But we just look at different things that we haven’t done before, look at the bands that are playing, look at who is putting on the shows, what’s the scenario and we’re looking to entertain ourselves as much as the audience, so you take chances sometimes.”

We also talked with Dave Schools and John Bell of Widespread Panic, who played one of the most talked about all star jams in Roos history, which featured Herbie Hancock, Warren Haynes, Robert Randolph, Steve Winwood, Bob Weir and Colonel Bruce Hampton, who each took turns performing with Widespread Panic in 2005.

(Bell) “That’s what makes the Bonnaroo thing really hip for us. I mean, not just us going up there and doing our set and hopefully play our best but here’s a thing where you have a bunch of high quality musicians famous throughout the ages in the same place together and to be able to get into something like what Dave and Herbie were clicking on is just gone man.” (Schools) “Well that Herbie Hancock Bonnaroo jam I know for me was one of the highlights of everything I’ve done onstage up until now because it was happening, it was real, it was in the moment and I knew that Sonny our percussion player felt that it was just as cool as I did, because I looked at Todd our drummer and it was happening and it was pretty serious.”

We also caught up with Bob Weir at a press conference in 2005 to discuss his thoughts on Bonnaroo’s unprecedented level of diversity.

“I like the variety here and you know I like hearing and seeing what people are up to and how they do it. It’s kind of like for me a seminar you know. I get to steal licks like crazy and also it’s entertaining. It’s way entertaining.”

Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment will be bringing Bonnaroo to the masses once again on the same farm in Manchester, Tennessee from June 14th-17th. The lineup will feature over 100 bands and 20 comedians performing on 13 stages over four days and just a few more artists rounding out the lineup will be String Cheese Incident, Ziggy Marley, Regina Spektor, Xavier Rudd, Lily Allen, Ween, DJ Shadow, The Nightwatchman AKA Tom Morello, Paolo Nutini, Galactic, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Keller Williams, Hot Tuna and many more bands soon to be announced. Tickets go on sale exclusively through www.bonnaroo.com on Friday, February 23rd.