In this episode of The What Podcast, we break down the newest Roo Clue, take a close look at the farm improvements happening right now in Manchester, and talk through what these changes might mean for the festival experience next year. Bryan is still off in Mexico City, so Barry and Russ sit down for a quick update.
We discuss the visible work happening on the Bonnaroo grounds, including new crushed-run roads, turf upgrades, and a smaller campground footprint designed to reduce flooding and improve traffic flow. Plus, we share news of our upcoming Bonnaroo 2026 ticket giveaway! Call us at (423) 667-7877 and share your clue theories, lineup leaks, wishlist, contest ideas, or whatever else is on your mind.
Listen to this week's episode here or watch it on YouTube. As always, subscribe to The What Podcast wherever you get podcasts for weekly updates on Bonnaroo and festival news!
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Bonnaroo 2026 Updates: Farm Improvements and New Clues
You know, you're talking about the greatest music festival in the world, and we're talking about grass.
It's one of those things that if it's done right, you don't think about it.
And you shouldn't have to think about where the water's going.
You shouldn't have to think about where the power is coming from.
Welcome back to the What Podcast. It's Sunday. What day is it? November 16th,
officially on the calendar. But I think Russ, you and I both would agree.
It's home improvement day. Whatever the calendar says.
Well, home improvement day, move in day. All of the above.
Deal with your house day. I'm remodeling a bathroom. You are putting boxes, filling boxes,
moving from one house to another, aren't you?
Yeah, as you can see from all the boxes behind me, I am moving.
So that's been in process for the last week or so. And of course, I'm nowhere near done. So
yeah, lots more to do. Lots of changes. Same with this bathroom. It seemed like a really easy,
good idea two or three weeks ago. And I'm still working on it. But if you're looking at the
screen, you'll notice someone's missing. Our man, Brian, is on location in Mexico City with
correspondent Beth, who they are both there. I'm going to guess having the absolute time
of their lives. I kind of feel like that parent, you know, we've sent the kids off and haven't
heard anything except for Friday night. I know. I mean, you know, of course,
you check socials and it looks like they're having a great time. So yeah, I think they're
having a blast. It's neat to see him go off and do that. Like you said, kind of a leave the nest
kind of thing. But yeah, I have to expect to get a, you know, I need you to bail me out of jail
because he was arrested for stalking Chappellrone in the airport. But yeah,
that was pretty funny. Yeah, he apparently landed in the airport and then here comes Chappellrone
and she's got what five or six guards around her bodyguards. And Brian is like the paparazzi
trying to film it. And of course, they kind of shoo him away. Yeah, running him off. Maybe he'll
reach out. I've reached out to him this morning just kind of for an update. I know when they get
back, we'll do a full episode. But today, we'll get a full recap when they get back in and get
rested. I'm sure. Yeah, this is going to be a quick episode. We just want to update. There've been a
couple of, or another Rue clue and some updates on socials, like you said, from the farm. Looks like
they've been doing a lot of work, getting it ready. And of course we keep hearing as everyone
does that we're probably going to get a lineup sooner rather than later, probably sooner this year.
So excited about that. So really interested to see what they put together. Yeah, they've,
once again, they've thrown off our whole schedule because, you know, we usually tend to take a break
late December. But now we've got to hit the ground running with lineup and all kinds of stuff
happening before the new year. Right. I meant to say before we get to that, their lineup, Beth and
Brian today, they've got what? Lincoln Park, Weezer, James, Deftones, Monsters Man. So pretty good day.
I know they're excited. Yeah, the lineup is, I mean, it's right up there, Ali, and it's right up
our alley too. I mean, it's all stuff we love. I mean, I would have loved to go to this thing. So
no doubt, maybe next year. Maybe next year. Yeah. All right. So let's jump right into the clue,
the next Rue clue, if you will. You've got it uploaded, ready to go, right? Yeah. Did you call
in? No, not yet. You still haven't called. No, I keep forgetting. I keep thinking about sanding drywall.
I'll do that this afternoon. Yeah. Yeah. I recorded it. Yeah. Still kind of, you know,
not sure how I feel about that because we've been doing this phone thing for a while and
it feels a little, you know, remember like 2019, the logo, the Bonnarooo logo had this like dripping
kind of look to it and it really looked like camp nut butter. Absolutely. Yeah. You know, flattery
imitation, right? Well, if you're going to steal, steal from the best.
Right. We're happy to share. All right. Well, here, let's play this and then you tell me what
you think from this Rue clue. Here we go. Hello. You've reached Bonnarooo Mystery Services. Please
hold while Bonnaclare gazing in her crystal ball to see what's in store for you.
Well, well, well, you have adventure on your horizon.
I see your pulse racing like thunder from down under. You've got rebellion in your breath and
glitter on your knuckles and the crowd will shout your name. Inhale the moment. It's gone in a flash.
Yeah. Anything? I got nothing. No. Best guess from what I've seen is Amel and the Sniffers.
This is a rock band. They're from Australia, which the thunder from down under. Yeah. And of course,
you know, there's a, if you look in a crystal ball, there's like a nose and then you can hear
like sniff. So that kind of aligns. People were also thinking Rufus Dusoul because they're also
from Australia. Well, either one's good with me. Yeah. Either one's great. Yeah. That's fun.
I guess we'll get probably two or three more Rue clues. Would you think? Yeah. I usually do
a what? Four or five. Yeah. Sounds about right. And then we'll, like I said, I think we'll get
probably a lineup next month. Seems likely at this point. Yeah. And that way they can do the
ticket sales around Christmas. Would make sense. Yeah. Yeah. Just like we talked about. Yeah.
Cause they're not going to sell tickets until the lineup comes out. So the sooner they get the lineup
out, the sooner they can sell tickets. I do know. And I can, I can, I can say this. We will have
tickets to give away again this year. That's right. Good, good call. Yeah. We, we did get reached out
to and like always, we're going to have a contest to give away a couple of tickets.
I'm guessing probably GA and a camping pass, right? Yep. Absolutely. It's a full package.
Absolutely. That's awesome. That's been awesome. We've been doing that since 2018. We've given
tickets away every year since we started the show. Our friend Dan was very helpful. He actually
reached out this year and said, Hey, do you want to do it again? And I was like, of course. Yeah.
Awesome. That's Dan severs. Dan severs. Yep. Shout out. Works mostly with radio people.
But they include us in that even though we are a podcast, it's always,
I mean, it's the way inside baseball, but you got to fill out that application. And it's like,
how many radio spots will you do? And I'm like, none. None spots. But we'll promote it.
We'll have to wait. Yeah. Get subscribed because we're going to announce that contest pretty soon
once we figure out what we want, how we want people to enter and what kind of content we want
to do with that. So I'm looking forward to that. I always like the contest. It's always neat
hearing from everybody. So, and we usually pick some pretty good winners, right? Yeah. That's what
I was getting ready to say. We got to see a couple of them this past year at the meetup.
And then the beer exchange. So yeah, this year, our contest winner was Lena. And she brought her
friend Mary, I want to say that was the two. And yeah, we've got the previous year's winner,
I think was there too. So that's really cool. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. That's very cool.
So we'll wait till Brian gets back and we'll figure out what the contest will be. But I'm
sure we'll use the telephone again, because it's such a cool thing. Well, I don't know. It's not
cool anymore. Everybody's stolen it. Yeah. We'll have to think of something else. Well, yeah. And
the fax line is gone. So that's done. Oh, no. All right.
Yeah. So socials, we saw some pictures of the farm, right? We kind of alluded to that last
last week, but it looks like the improvements continue there. Speaking of home improvements.
Yeah. Good, good segue. Do you remember Brian talking about this guy, Justin, that he's kind
of befriended? Justin is the groundskeeper there. And, you know, we've wanted to get him on the show,
and we probably will still at some point. But you know, it's just been hard to get that lined up.
Well, Bonnaroo posted a short little video featuring Justin talking about like kind of the stuff they've
done to improve the farm. And so did you see that? Yeah. Yeah, I did. Yeah. Yeah, it was cool. Well,
I figured we'd include it here just to be complete. So here we go. My name is Justin. I've been with
the festival for 20 years. And during the off season, I help manage the property out here at
the farm. So the top three priorities this year on the farm in the off season are going to be
improving our grounds through turf management and the newly seeding of 135 acres of Bermuda grass.
We're also going to be improving some of the stormwater management systems site wide,
not only in the venue, but in some of the campground areas. And then we're also significantly
expanding the road system and the pads that host some of our back of house areas, as well as our
plaza services where we have showers and bathrooms. Cool. There you go. Yeah. All right. I just heard
from Brian, very short message. It's been great, but absolutely exhausting. We're basically at the
fest all day long and lots of small fires that have complicated things. Some plenty of pics and
video for a good recap with good stories. Awesome. He has nice things to say about our friend,
Chris Vineyard, who put all this together and has hooked us up with some great guests, including
Ricardo from this festival. So glad to hear that. Glad to hear they're having fun and glad to hear
it's complicated. Very cool. Yeah. I don't want it to be too perfect. Mostly because, you know,
he has to have something to bitch about or he's not happy. Yeah. If he comes back and says,
everything was great, we'll be like, did you really go? Yeah. Because he's got something to
complain about. That's not right. But interesting to see. All right. So I have laughed. You know,
I've written about the Bonnarooo since the beginning for the Times Free Press here in Chattanooga. That
was my job. And I always every year made note that I was talking about infrastructure,
things like grass, trees, shade, roads. And it seemed so, what's the word, anticlimactic. You
know, you're talking about the greatest music festival in the world and we're talking about
grass. And you're writing about grass. Yeah. And it's one of those things that if it's done right,
you don't think about it. And you shouldn't have to think about where the water is going. You
shouldn't have to think about where the power is coming from and all the logistical things,
because it should all just get out of your way, right? It should all just kind of make it more
magical because you're not having to think about that stuff. But it's important. And if it's not
done right, things get out of hand quickly. Yeah. So the grass, why that's important. Shade,
obviously, I think people can, and probably water runoff. I mean, especially, you know, last year,
but the grass is, I don't remember what year, Russ, it was either eight or nine or 10,
but it was early on. And when you've got 80,000 people stomping around, if it's wet,
it becomes a mud pit. But if it's super dry, like it was that year, it becomes a dust bowl.
Yeah. And I've told this story many times. The photographer and I went on Saturdays. They used
to have a parade. And Saturday evening, people would go back to their camp, kind of eat, clean up,
get ready for a big long night, which we did. And we went back into Centauru. And I looked around
and I was like, wow, they take this parade seriously. They've got like smoke machines everywhere.
It wasn't smoke. It was dust. It was horrible. And so, you know, to hear them say that they planted
the turf, that it puts up with the foot traffic batter and keeps that dust down,
as does paving the roads. Yeah. And speaking of that, Corey posted this drone video, and I'll
just go ahead and play some of it. There's no sound. We can kind of talk over it, but just to kind of,
you know, so you can kind of see an idea of what they're doing. This is kind of a
first-person thing. But yeah, they've, looks like a lot of gravel they've put down.
That's probably crush and run. It doesn't get dusty. And it holds up.
That's my move. I do the crush and run.
You do crush and run. Yeah.
Yeah. But yeah, they remember they used to have to come around a couple times a day with like water
trucks and water down the paths there to keep the dust down. So this will be very helpful. So cool.
Yeah. And it's, you know, once again, it's neat to see Bonnarooo kind of back alive after a hiatus of
no updates. And now we're getting all kinds of stuff. I'm trying to orient. Where are we?
I have no idea. This looks like it's probably out in the campgrounds. Yeah, I think you're right.
Yeah. Make sure you watch this on YouTube. If you're just listening, you can kind of see what
we're talking about. There's a looks like the freeway must be traffic. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay.
Big improvements to the campgrounds, which I know that's part of the problem is it gets
really soggy when it rains and, you know, tends to flood. So, yeah. So we've got a lot of questions
coming up. Line up obviously being one. I don't know if we'll get an actual number. I don't think
Brad Parker ever said how many. I know they were going to reduce the number of attendees, but he
never gave us a full number that I remember. Never gave us a hard number. Yeah. They're
squirrely about numbers anyway. But I know they're also fewer people and fewer,
a smaller footprint, right? They're not going as far back on the campground. So,
yeah. And that's one of the things last year. Well, I say last year, it's technically still this year.
Back in June, when I got there on Monday or Tuesday, I met up with Evan and picked him up
and we just rode the bus around the campground. We said, let's just do a lap and just kind of see
what they're up to. And we were amazed at how far back they were building campsites, like right up
to the freeway basically, right up to, you know, it's right there against people's properties.
People live right there. So they were really like going really far out with camping, which I guess
they were expecting a lot of campers. So, but, you know, it's good that they're having a smaller
footprint because that means they've identified the places where it's going to flood more and
they can keep people from camping back there. Right. Yep. Yep. All right. Like I said, this is
what we record usually on a Sunday. So we're in middle November. So within a month, I would
guess we're going to have a lineup and we'll have a report from Brian. I don't know if he'll be
ready next week or not. Hopefully. Hopefully he might need some time, but I'm sure he can't wait
to come on and tell us all about it. It looks amazing. Just the pictures and video and the
pictures Beth has gotten. I'm sure she's having a great time with the, you know, she got the photo
pass and all that. So I'm excited. It worked out great. I'm excited to hear from them about that.
And really the comparison. Can't wait to kind of see how a festival in another country
might compare. Yeah, me too. And I know they had a lot of extracurriculars too,
or planned during the day in addition to the music part of it. So yeah, he said something about,
I guess a brewery tour down there and he said a lot of chamber of commerce,
chamber of commerce type city stuff. Yeah. So it's a travel trip. So yeah, well, they've been working
so good. All right. What else? Anything else? I don't know. And then on top of this, I'm moving
and you're renovating a bathroom. So not the most ideal time to be start talking about Bonnarooo next
year, but here we are. Yeah, I'm excited. It feels like it's, it's on top of us. So, all right. Well,
good deal. Thank you guys for listening. Like I said, this is a shorter episode,
but please still subscribe and hit like and all that stuff. And if you've got any ideas for a
contest, you know, give us a call. What's that number again, Russ? That number is 423-667-7877.
And that line is always open if you like to give us a call with your ideas, your thoughts.
You can email us comments at the whatpodcast.com. So multiple ways to get in touch. We love to hear
from you. Yep. And like you said, yeah, please stay subscribed. We're hitting the ground running
with lineup news and improvement news and all of the above. All right. Well, good luck with your
packing. I would rather take a beating, but I'd almost swap you for sanding mud off of a bathroom
ceiling. So I was just saying, I was just thinking, I'm not sure which is worse moving or renovating.
Yeah. Sanding and painting and yeah, all that. Yeah. It never seems to end, but all right,
guys, we will talk next week. I hope if not, it'll be shortly after that and we'll hear about
Corona Capital Festival and then we'll have whatever more Bonnarooo news. So see you guys.
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