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What’s New At Roo: The Biz And Fans React To Revamped Lineup
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At first glance, Bonnaroo’s 2019 lineup seems pretty weird. Topped by headliners Phish, Childish Gambino and Post Malone, the lists of acts headed to Great Stage Park in Manchester, Tenn., June 13-16 seems to be all over the place, with a mix of rock, hip-hop, pop, funk, electronic, rap and country artists. The roster includes ODESZA, Solange, The Lumineers, The Avett Brothers, Brockhampton, Hozier, Kacey Musgraves, Cardi B, Brandi Carlile, GRiZ, John Prine, RL Grime, and Beach House.
But it’s just weird enough to work. While Phish’s booking (playing late night Friday and closing out Sunday with two sets) reflects a return to its roots – the first jam band to headline The Farm since Dead & Company in 2016 – overall, the genre-spanning lineup represents what Roo does best. From agents to commenters on Reddit’s Bonnaroo message board, folks are feeling the vibes of the 18th annual festival, which took its name from Creole slang for “good stuff.”
“When I saw [the roster] it felt like one of the more diverse and eclectic festival lineups of the year,” said Paradigm’s Jay Moss, whose clients ODESZA and Crooked Colours are playing Bonnaroo. “With all of the homogenization that happens with the major festivals now, anything you can do to stand out and be a little bit different certainly helps.”
Moss gave organizers AC Entertainment and Superfly, along with partner C3 Presents, props for the balance of dance music and hip-hop, as well as noting that he thought “they did a really good job of having a ton of women on the festival: Solange, Kacey, Brandi.” Looking at the undercard acts, he pointed out that French heavy metal band Gojira was a “cool fucking booking” and that a rare appearance by comedy hip-hop trio The Lonely Island was another awesome pick.
Paradigm’s Lenore Kinder has been going to Roo since 2003 with a group of friends she affectionately calls Camp 401K and now looks forward to seeing clients like Kacey Musgraves perform. Noting the trend toward a heavy emphasis of hip-hop and rap, she told Pollstar, ”I think Bonnaroo has done a great job of sticking to the festival’s roots and honoring the past while fully embracing the present to keep it fresh and relevant.”
Kevin Gimble and Steve Gordon, United Talent Agency’s co-heads of electronic music, are, naturally, fans of all the electronic represented on the list. In a joint email they said, “By strategically selling out hard-ticketed nationwide tours, Illenium and NGHTMRE have established themselves as top-billed artists in the festival space. Bonnaroo will be a great platform to showcase their growth and the continued rise in the genre, as almost half of the names on the lineup this year are electronic artists.”
Fellow UTA agent Cheryl Paglierani reflected on the role Bonnaroo has played in Post Malone’s career.
“Bonnaroo was one of the first major festivals that Post played back in 2016,” said UTA’s Cheryl Paglierani. “It was an instrumental step in his development and we’re very excited to see him return to Bonnaroo as a headliner.”
While it’s impossible to please everyone and the announcement of festival lineups will always bring about complaints, digging through Reddit’s message board revealed many happy Bonnaroovians.
A few fans reflected on the changes Bonnaroo has gone through since the 2016 edition headlined by Dead & Company, Pearl Jam and a reunited LCD Soundsystem, which marked the first year since founders AC Entertainment and Superfly sold a controlling stake in the festival to Live Nation and partnered with C3 Presents. After 2016 saw a record low attendance of 45,537 – a drop of more than 28,000 in tickets and $9.07 million less in ticket sales revenue compared to the previous year – the fest returned in 2017 with a lineup headed by U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Weeknd, and Chance The Rapper, bringing in ticket sales of more than 65,000, according to figures reported by the Tennessean. The 2018 edition was topped by Eminem, The Killers and Muse.
A Reddit user named malganis12 posted: “Roo went, imo, in a very cookie cutter festival direction from 2016-18 that was quite disappointing for me personally. … [2019] really looks like an old school Roo lineup and booking approach, and it’s super exciting.”
Reddit Bonnaroo message board moderator travel__time, who will attend his 11th edition of Bonnaroo this year, told Pollstar, “2019 feels like a step in the right direction (to me personally), and that’s not just because Phish is back. … Seeing the band with my favorite album of 2017 (The National) listed right next to the artist with my favorite album of 2018 (Kacey Musgraves) made it reminiscent of the old days when the lineups felt tailor-made for me. … Fans of genres that I’m not personally into also appear satisfied this year.”
Last year co-founder Ashley Capps of AC Entertainment spoke to Pollstar about how the booking process had changed since Live Nation and C3 had come on board, noting that “because there have been so many voices in the mix, we lost a bit of that curatorial vision that characterized Bonnaroo in the past. So we’re openly discussing how we get that back.”
When Pollstar caught up with Capps in January he talked about how proud he was of this year’s lineup: “I think it simultaneously captures the culture of Bonnaroo as well as being very much of the moment.”
– Bonnaroo 2019
– Bonnaroo 2019
In many ways, he says, the lineup is a love letter to Roo fans.
“If there’s one thing that characterizes the Bonnaroo audience, of festival audiences out there, they’re the broadest and most omnivorous in their music taste,” Capps said. “They’re huge music fans and they’re real explorers, so they tend to really embrace the various tangents that the wild and wonderful world of music offers.
“I consider it to be a little bit of a feast of plenty – you can’t necessarily eat everything offered (laughs). You have to make your selections and the beauty of the broad range of the Bonnaroo experience is that it allows everyone to create their own unique festival experience.”
A big part of the appeal of the beloved festival is the sense of community and overall Bonnaroo experience. Along with entertainment all night long, Roo features art installations, yoga, the annual Roo Run, parades and much, much more.
After the success of debuting the satellite installment of the “Grand Ole Opry” in 2018, it returns this year to kick off the festival Thursday night with performances from SABA, 12th Planet, The Nude Party, Caroline Rose and more.
Last year also saw upgrades to Roo’s campground experience, with elevated communal areas called Plazas including the Nashville-themed Ville and House of Yes with circus acts and immersive cinema shows. The festival also introduced themed campsites such as “SheRoo” for women and non-binary individuals and “Soberoo” for fans choosing to remain sober.
New Plazas in 2019 include Roo’s Sanctuary of Self-Love curated by Paramore’s Hayley Williams, with more upgrades to be revealed.
“She came out to Bonnaroo with Paramore last year and it was one of the highlights of the weekend,” Capps said. “I think she really embraced the whole spirit of what the festival is about and now she’s doing this Plaza activation. We’re really thrilled to be working with her on this. She’s putting a lot of incredible thought and energy into it.”
The improvements to the festival have resonated with fans, with Capps noting that Bonnaroo just had one of its best ticket presales in a decade.
“Every year we learn something new, from the festival itself to all of the people that attend,” Capps said. “Last year was one of the best Bonnaroos ever. There was this incredible surge of youthful energy that was really infectious. For me it was inspiring and it really gave us a lot in terms of planning the steps forward. It’s an exciting moment to see so many of these young new artists moving to the top and starting to headline these festivals – and seeing these new audiences that they’re bringing. It’s a really thrilling time and I’m looking forward to building on that spark.”