Bonnaroo came alive last week with a flurry of updates for 2026, and The What Podcast is back to dive into them! Beth joins us this week and we recap Bonnaroo's social reactivation after months of silence, and listen to the first Roo Clue "bread" hint. We also speculate if the lineup drop could happen earlier than ever before and what to expect for ticket sales.
Then it's off to Mexico City! Beth and Bryan outline their plans for attending Corona Capital next week, and what U.S. festival fans can learn from Mexico's sponsorship-forward model that helps keep tickets surprisingly affordable. Expect a preview of a 90s-leaning top line (Foo Fighters, Linkin Park, Deftones) and undercard curiosities, plus a compare/contrast on crowd energy, branding on stages (yes, Doritos), and production style versus Bonnaroo.
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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Inside Bonnaroo 2026: Clues, Presale News... and a Trip to Mexico City?!
Bonnarooo news for the first time since July, guys.
It's the first time since July.
I think it would be foolish to go to not do a presale and then to not have the
lineup until after Christmas.
Like I just, it feels like it's gotta be before Christmas.
Well, first of all, they stole our bit.
Welcome back to the What Podcast.
I'm Barry.
That's Brian.
That's Russ.
Joining us from all the way on the other side of the country.
It's Beth.
How are you Beth?
I'm pretty good.
I'm a little sleepy.
I'm so glad you're joining us.
Hold up your right wrist.
Oh, I got a festival.
She's got another wristband on.
Yeah.
We're going to catch up.
Beth has been very busy and is going to keep being, continue to be busy.
So we're going to talk about Beth and her world travels.
And I want to focus on Beth for a little while because the last time we had a
show, it was at cave fast and I've sort of reprimanded Brian because he didn't
let Beth talk.
And so my goal this morning is to let Beth talk.
You get to have the first segment.
That's exciting.
In the text thread, I was like, yeah, I'm already preparing my apology.
Yeah.
It's easy to get wrapped up and forget.
You're not the only one there, right?
Yeah.
Brian is used to doing a solo show and so he's not used to letting other people
talk.
So this morning for a little bit anyway, we're going to let Beth talk.
In fact, my, my goal, I was going to reach out to Russ because he has control
of the show.
I was going to tell him to hit mute if Brian started talking.
So,
I got my,
I can turn my eye.
All right.
I like that.
That's good.
So Beth, how was the festival?
How was,
the one I'm currently going to?
No, no, the one before.
Yeah, that Brian didn't let you talk about.
Oh, that one.
The cave.
Yeah.
Cave Fest was great.
It was just, couldn't have been better.
Beautiful weather.
Really good energy.
Just love that place.
It just, it feels like early Bonnarooo, the first few years of me going to Bonnarooo.
So easy to move around there and just the people are awesome.
And I really liked the lineup this time too.
I felt like it wasn't, I don't want to say anything bad about Bluegrass, but not
as bluegrass.
That's all right.
We do it all the time.
Despite the fact that we did four episodes at least.
Yeah.
I've been doing a lot of Bluegrass shows lately.
So, you know, it's kind of growing on me, I guess, but I prefer a mix of
Bluegrass and not Bluegrass, which that one was.
You can, I mean, you come across the country and you met with the dudes, the
guys that camp with us at Bonnarooo.
And of course, obviously Brian and Russ were there.
How does that one, I mean, we brag about it because it's so close, but we think
it's our second favorite venue, Bonnarooo being first.
Yeah.
And you go to a lot and you're going to talk about that a little bit more, but
tell people who don't understand what that's like, that festival, that
event.
Yeah.
It's, it's just much more relaxed is the best way I can describe it.
It's just it, there are not so many blocks in your way of moving freely
through the festival, but it doesn't feel unsafe.
It feels like they have the infrastructure.
They have the food, they have the water, every, all the baseline things that you
need, but they don't have rules for the sake of rules, which I really appreciate.
Do you think it's cause it's independent?
I mean, this is a kind of a rare thing that it's not a live nation C3 run event.
I mean, it's very much independent.
Does that, do you think that's the reason it feels a little more?
I think maybe because the festival I'm doing this weekend is an independent
festival also, and it's similarly, it feels safe, but it feels like you have a
lot more freedom.
This one's a city festival that's in lots of venues.
So you just get in with your wristband to different venues in the Ballard and
Fremont neighborhoods of Seattle.
What's it called?
Yeah, it's called freak out freak out exclamation point festival.
And this is the 13th year.
So it's actually really long running established festival.
But I mean, obviously the, all the different tiers of festivals have their benefits.
I think the festival we're going to next weekend is going to be a really big
festival and that's going to be great too.
But the independent ones, you just seem to be able to have ease of movement that
you don't necessarily with the bigger ones.
Yeah.
I should say for those who don't know Beth, I think, I think this now makes
you our most frequent guest.
Isn't that right, Russ?
Am I wrong in that?
You're wrong.
Beth isn't a guest.
Beth is a co-host.
She's now a, she's now a, I know.
She's a few times.
Well, that's what I was getting ready to say.
It's now, I need to get your W-9s and all that.
You're going to have to file some paperwork.
But you've been a, you've been a semi-regular and obviously we've camped
together and been to various festivals with all of us at different times.
But you're also a working member of the media.
You, you shoot a lot of these events.
Yeah.
Yep.
Yep.
So I shoot photos at as many as I can.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you come at it from a whole lot of different angles.
Yeah.
Right.
Literally.
Yeah.
I think you told me, I think you told me before we started that you'd been to
several events in the last, or this summer, I guess this summer fall.
So what other festivals have you been to?
Yeah.
Good question.
It's really hard.
It's interesting because I know some people really plan festivals and they
know exactly what's going to happen.
They have the lineup printed out.
They highlight all the things they're going to see.
And I am really a take it one at a time kind of festival goer, especially
after the Bonnarooo cancellation.
I'm just thinking, I'm not going to prepare for these.
I'm going to figure it out the day before the day of what I'm doing that day.
So, which means that I, I forget the ones that have happened already.
And I haven't been able to think very much about even the one that's happening
next weekend, because I'm so focused on this weekend, but I have done a lot of
local festivals.
I have a favorite venue here in Washington where I shoot regularly.
It's called the Quill Scene Lantern.
We give them a little shout out.
That's where I'm the house photographer.
So they did a full festival, 4th of July weekend.
They did a metal festival for Labor Day weekend.
And then two mini festivals, one Bluegrass and one Indie.
It was Damien Girardo and a lot of bands associated with St.
Yuma and Westmoreland who was organizing that one.
So lots of different types of festivals this summer.
All right.
I promised I was going to let you talk and I did.
And Brian, congratulations.
I'm proud of you.
I know you're great at letting me talk in real life.
I will say, just not on the podcast.
I got no problem shutting the hell up.
It doesn't bother me.
But it's good to get us all back together here, by the way, guys.
Right.
Can we clip that?
We need that to save for next time you don't shut up.
Same as the part about him talking in real life.
So that was my goal was to let Beth talk.
So let me get real quick.
We've got some Bonnarooo news that we're going to get to here in just a minute.
We've got some big news as far as Brian and Beth.
We've been offered, we, the podcast has been offered an unbelievable
opportunity that you two are going to take advantage of on our behest.
I just like using that word.
I think I've used it right.
Behest.
It's a good word.
Well, you got Beth as a wordsmith here of us all.
You guys are going to go to Mexico City to the Corona Capitol Festival at the
invitation.
That's what they tell us.
In less than a week.
Yeah.
That's what they tell us.
We're still, we're still working on those, those specifics and we'll get more into
it here in just a few.
But if nothing else, the governmental issues we're having right now and flights
and TSA and all those things are still a little bit of a thing, but overall it
looks like it's coming together.
Yeah.
Just so real quick, we did a show a couple of weeks ago with Ricardo to talk about
this event and I guess it went well.
They must've liked it well enough.
They reached out and said, Hey, we'd love to have you guys join us.
And for, for whatever reasons, mostly because Russ and I are such, what do you
lead?
It's, we don't have a passport.
Available.
That's going to change.
I'm going to get mine.
I'm guaranteed because that was a, that was a quick yes.
But Brian said yes.
And then reached out to Beth and said, Hey, we, you know, somebody's got to take
pictures.
So you guys are going to go, we're going to talk about that here in a little bit.
But so with action packed show, let's go ahead and take a quick little break if we
can and sort of reset everything.
And then we're going to come back.
We're going to talk about some Bonnarooo news and then we're going to
Bonnarooo news for the first time since July, too.
Guys.
It's the first time since July.
And then we're going to talk about Mexico city.
That just sounds weird coming out of my mouth, but I like it.
We'll be back in a minute.
All right.
And we're back.
Yeah.
Bonnarooo news.
We've had a couple of clues.
We've had some information kind of confirmation is probably a better word
about presale tickets and stuff that we've been hearing.
So who wants to start?
What a rush.
You keep up with it a whole lot better than I do.
I'll start.
Okay.
Well, like you mentioned, and I think Brian even brought this up a few episodes ago.
You checked socials for Bonnarooo.
They have been silent since last July.
Right.
So, you know, going back quite a few months, July 24th, July 24th.
Well, just this past week, they woke up, I guess you could say they got active again.
They posted a little teaser video, just kind of like hyping up the farm, reminding people,
you know, hey, you know, we're coming back.
That got a lot of people excited.
Then they dropped this news that we kind of already knew that there's not going to be
this, you know, the presale window before the lineup drops this year.
So we kind of knew that was going to happen.
And then they dropped the first Ruclu last, I want to say Friday.
Yeah.
If you're listening to this Wednesday when it comes out.
So, yeah, quite a lot.
Just in one week after such a long silence.
What did you guys think of the news and the activity?
Well, we know that our buddy Brad, you know, left to go do his own business.
Brad Parker.
Sorry.
Bonnarooo.
We've had two buddy Brad's that have left.
We've had more than, yeah, we've got a bunch.
Good.
Fair question.
Fair question.
We got, we got a lot of asshole friends named Brad.
Sorry, Brad.
And a good friend.
And Brad from the Ruclu too.
Sad with love.
Yeah.
Brad Parker, who is the director.
And he and our friend, Corey Smith, you know, we're very active, which is why the
whole, the sort of social silence thing, you know, kind of jumped out to anybody
who's been paying attention.
And so they have a new director and we've been told from, you know, the
people there at C3 and Live Nation, give her a minute, you know, give her some
time to get her sea legs and figure things out.
So, plus they had obviously, as Beth alluded to, you know, the cancellation,
the aforementioned cancellation was pretty traumatic for a lot of us.
So, I mean, I never felt like I didn't want to be pestering them every week,
you know, tell me something, you know, what's going on, what's going on.
Not, not that, you know, that they would do that for me, but I just, you know,
give them some time kind of thing is what it felt like to me.
So it makes sense to me.
It feels normal.
It feels right.
Yeah.
Oh, and speaking of activity, you guys remember somebody
posted this photo on our discord.
It looks like kind of a drone shot of some of the campgrounds.
You can see the tower, the disco ball there.
It looks like they've maybe paved some of the roads and maybe done some like
land work grading.
I don't, you know, I don't know, but it.
Yeah, that was a really good looking picture.
Whoever got grabbed that.
And it almost does look like there's some more solidification, if that's the
right word, of the pass through the GA campgrounds.
I don't know if that means concrete, but it could, I don't know, but it looks
amazing, but it always looks amazing in the off season.
They have an incredible grounds keeper there, which we have not been able to
get on the show yet.
His name is Justin.
He does a great job there.
Uh, but it was nice to see that as far as the dates go as far, meaning the,
the, the length of time between posting for Bonnarooo, which, which is very
unusual because they have taken in the last couple of years, the NFL model to
where they slow me, the NFL kind of keeps their, their news cycle year round.
And they're very strategic with it.
Bonnarooo has done that a lot too.
And I think it's worked out real well for them.
And then all of a sudden, nothing.
And so I, I'm guessing there's some strategic nature to that too.
Really nice to see them being active again.
I love the new logo, by the way.
It's not a big change, but just the kind of metallic looking kind of
color change on the, on the, on the rings.
Yeah.
It's got kind of a shiny translucent look to it.
Not selling tickets.
We knew this was coming, but it's now actually, you know, in, in the, on the
books here, they're not selling tickets until the lineup is, is being released.
I don't, I don't know how to, what to think about that because it feels like
they're leaving money on the table, but there's gotta be a, a reason why.
And I can't guess what that reason is.
What do you think?
Well, that was going to be my part, part of my question.
Do you think it's strategic or do you think it's kind of like what I was
kind of trying to say a minute ago is give us a minute.
We need to catch our breath.
We, I mean, what happened last year at the end of COVID, at the end of rain
outs and hurricanes and all of that kind of stuff to me felt like, and plus again,
Brad leaving is no small thing.
Brad Parker is no small thing.
It felt like just give us a minute, you know, this is a good time.
Let's regroup, you know, rethink everything is what it feels like to me.
They did say, you know, they're not doing the presale, but they are extending,
people who bought 20, 25 tickets will get a chance to buy early.
For sure.
I don't know how they're going to enforce that, but that's, that is one of the,
part of the announcement was no presale.
But if you came last year, we're giving you a bone.
So, yeah.
Yeah.
The break is, is one thing, but the not selling tickets, because people will
gladly buy tickets in advance.
I mean, the proof is there.
They, the people, thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of people will buy
tickets without knowing who's on the lineup and strategically decide, or at
least maybe it's not as strategic as we think.
I guess that's kind of my question that I'm just kind of thinking out loud is,
is there a strategy to this or is it, hey, like you kind of just said, Barry, is
that we're, just give us some time to breathe on this one.
And maybe that's all it is.
But I also think that big organizations, corporations like this don't do anything
just sort of, and kind of, right?
Like they, they know they sitting around in board meetings and they have, and make
decisions and make decisions for very specific reasons.
I think we're saying the same thing.
That's what it felt like to me.
Anything they would have done quickly, you know, just to put something out there
felt, would have felt to me like they were just putting it out there to, to put it
out there versus taken.
Yeah.
I was just going to say, I think they're managing expectations too.
So if you, if you say you can't buy this until you know exactly what you're
getting, then the sentiment and the buy-in, it's not like a bait and switch
sort of situation.
So if they're telegraph and that's going to be different, I think that's
smart of them to do that.
Yeah.
I could already see a Reddit post saying, look at Bonnaroo selling tickets already,
trying to make money and they don't leave after they screw us last night.
And exactly.
Exactly.
I think we're all saying the same thing.
Yeah.
Especially since they've scaled it back so much.
I mean, they've cut Thursday completely.
Right.
They've cut Tuesday.
Give us a minute to rethink what we're going to do and how we want to package it
and how we want to sell it and present it.
Yeah.
And right now everything they post, they're going to get backlash from the cancellation.
You know, that's still fresh on everybody's mind.
So it is kind of a way of limiting that type of, you know, negative interaction.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think so too.
And I want to come back to that when we talk about Mexico City a little bit, to
put a pin in that, I guess, but what else?
I mean, I'm excited.
I, did you guys have a guess about the clue?
Yeah.
I never.
Well, first of all, I mean, terrible.
They stole our bit.
Yeah.
Give it, give us a call.
Yeah.
Where do you think they got that from?
I know.
I thought that was one of the best things ever.
It's a great, it's great for us.
It provides content.
Plus you get to hear from actual people.
I love everything about it.
Yeah.
So did you guys call in?
No, not yet.
Did you?
Did anybody?
Yeah, I did.
Here, I'll play it.
I'll play the recording for you.
Yeah.
Ring her up.
Ring her up.
Yeah.
Hello.
You've reached Bonnarooo mystery services.
Please hold while Bonaclara gazes in her crystal ball to see what's in store for you.
Ah, I see your fortune rising.
Slow, golden, impossible to rush.
The air feels thick with memory.
The kind you can't quite name.
But when the beat arrives, it'll taste like comfort and sound like home.
The rhythm you think will rise in some time.
So am I supposed to know who the band is because of that?
Well, combined with the visual, because they posted, you know, a little graphic and
inside her crystal ball is like a loaf of bread.
So the first thought that everyone had is Daily Bread, who was an EDM artist.
I think they've played before, so that's pretty likely.
And then the other guest was Sophie Tucker.
They have an album called Bread and then another album called Butter.
So, you know, it could probably go either way.
I don't think we've had confirmation, but those are the two most likely guesses.
I like it.
I like the multimedia.
Yeah.
Daily Bread is the one I saw the most.
But I mean, when it comes to, you know, Barry, we're the same on this.
Every time I see one of these rude clues, I'm like, what the hell am I looking at?
But also know this is coming from a guy who looks at a crossword puzzle and loses his
damn mind and looks at any kind of board game that needs to be understood.
And I get like, I don't do well with connected dots through various
out of the ordinary ways.
And all of my guesses are all of my guesses are going to be 60s English bands.
It's going to be the Kinks or Led Zeppelin or whatever.
I just prefer not to embarrass myself.
I guess we'll get another one next week or maybe this week later on when, you know,
maybe they're doing an Every Friday thing now leading up to does this sound like
the lineups coming out?
Not in January now.
I mean, if they're starting this early with Rue Clues.
Yeah, you know, you make a good point.
We've sort of I've sort of, you know, like I said, I'm going to give them some space.
But I mean, here we are now in middle of November.
It's time. So we need to we need to probably reach back out and
start asking those questions.
Like exactly because it's coming.
This this seems like it's lining up for an earlier release
than what we're used to.
Everything in corporate America and really all Americans is kind of follow the leader
and copy what you see near you or at least emulate it in some way.
And everybody's releasing lineups early, it seems.
Yeah. Coachella dropped their lineup like months ago at this point, right?
Very early. Yeah, very early for Coachella.
Hinterland, who we have a little bit relationship with, has added a fourth day
and they have not mentioned they have not released their lineup yet, but they're that
I believe that's coming soon, too.
Not that any of us hardly care about that, but it's just another example.
And so it just feels like Banra will fall fall along with that.
At this point, I would agree that that would be a good a good move.
Yeah, just to you don't want to be last.
You go into the holiday. Right.
Yeah. Go into the holiday.
The final Christmas season there and and and and have some tickets for.
I mean, I think it would be foolish to go to not do a presale
and then to not have the lineup until after Christmas.
I just it feels like it's got to be before Christmas,
which would be the earliest that I very I don't know.
Help me remember.
I don't think they've ever done December drops.
It's almost always January.
Used to be February.
Yeah, it used to be the first week of February.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Like right after the Grammys, right after the Grammys was usually right
about the time that you would you would get that.
So it's been going backwards earlier, you know, over the course of 20 years.
And I would guess we're going to get the earliest drop that we've ever seen.
And I hope so anyway.
I think so. And I think probably as part of what we've been saying is,
you know, they've got to get out in front of it
because of what's happened, you know, last year even.
They need to.
They need to confirm to all of us who are fans, who are going to go anyway,
you know, for the most part,
that we are glad we're going type of thing.
So I also wonder as far as pricing as we, you know,
the guy in charge is not in charge anymore.
When we talk to Brad, he's like, oh, they're going to stay the same.
Well, he doesn't work there anymore.
So I don't know.
You can pretty much.
Yeah, but the prices of all festivals are creeping up as they everything is.
And Bonnarooo is still staying at one of the best values of a ticket price
that out there, I think it would be in their best interest
to not make a drastic price change.
And I miss remembering, though, that he even said if there was a price change,
it would not go up.
It would be down as in because you're doing fewer days.
That sounds like the kind of thing Brad would say.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, there you go.
But prices never go down.
You guys deal with it.
Yeah, no, it was sort of a they're rather rethinking, you know,
it's fewer days
and smaller crowd size and that sort of thing.
So if anything, it might go down.
But I think that was I wouldn't hold him to that.
But well, they could they could have some kind of tear on the front end.
Sure. That's a little cheaper or something.
And that way you can get away with saying, well, we went cheaper.
Well, for like 10000 people, you went cheaper.
Right. Like I'm not concerned about that at all.
I'm not concerned about that at all.
I think pricing is going to be as at the same baseline that it's been at.
And that's just one guy making some stuff up on a podcast.
Right. I don't I don't know that.
But I feel like that's probably where they'll be.
I'll ask you, Beth, especially, how you feeling about it now?
I mean, you're the one that has to make the long track.
The three of us mooks.
I mean, we get in the car and roll down the hill.
We're there.
Twenty five hundred miles, twenty five hundred miles, for those that don't know.
And that was obviously that was traumatic and everything.
You're excited about coming back.
And I think you said before we we hit record
that you ran into a Bonnarooo fan out there where you live.
What's the vibe?
What are you feeling about the 2026 Bonnarooo?
Yeah, I I'll go back.
Happy to go back, especially if I manage to wrangle another photo pass,
because that is unfinished business.
I feel like I really want to go back and shoot it.
I I probably would still go even if I were just in G.A.
because I have done that before.
So, yeah, Bonnarooo is always a given.
I'm going to go if they have it.
But yeah, we were at dinner the other night, two nights ago in Seattle.
And we were seated at the bar talking about Bonnarooo
because we were talking about next weekend's festival.
And a guy just perked up next to my friend John and kind of looked over.
And he was almost like trying to get our attention.
Like, you really want to talk about Bonnarooo.
And he was wearing a shirt.
He had a Bonnarooo shirt on.
It's like a tie dyed shirt.
And of course, you know, we talked a bunch.
His first year was twenty eighteen.
They bring a whole crew.
It sounds a lot like Church Bonnaroo's crew,
where they come from all different places.
And yeah, it sounds like he's really excited and ready to go.
We were saying like the cancellation was sad and heartbreaking,
but it seemed like the the joy and excitement, like we're almost there.
We're halfway through the year.
Whatever was was there. So that was great.
Well, hold on, Beth. Now, don't leave out the best part here.
Yeah. So I said as we were leaving, I checked back in with them
and said, oh, yeah, my friends have a podcast.
And he's like, oh, yeah, which one?
I said, the what podcast? He's like, oh, I know that one.
So you are famous in Seattle even your rich stretches.
You want to know what my first response was when she when she told me that?
You can guess. You know, people lie a lot, right?
Sure. Oh, I know that one.
Yeah, right. It didn't seem like, oh, yeah, that one.
It didn't seem like that. It seemed more definite.
I couldn't even take a compliment. I had to question it.
Yeah, I get it. Right.
Well, I ran into somebody, too, that we'll we'll talk about that on the end.
Speaking of being recognized. So we'll go there.
But I didn't get that guy's name, but he did tell me their totem is an almond
breeze, a lit up almond breeze, toto totem.
So we'll look for him at Bonnaroo.
The nut milk. What?
Almond breeze, right? Yeah.
What is it? Yeah. Yeah.
I think it's I think it's almond milk. Yeah.
Almond milk. Yeah.
Well, I guess it makes sense if he's a Seattle guy.
That sounds like.
Well, that's what's out there.
Those Seattle people in their.
The Seattle people.
There's nothing wrong with nut milk.
All right. Any other Bonnaroou news that we need to touch on?
Yeah. Well, I do also want to shout out Pondo.
Longtime listener. We've had him on the show.
He's said on social media that he is coming back.
Yeah. That means he's feeling better.
He's one of the best.
Yeah. I think he's missed the last year or two because of health reasons
and just wasn't advised, you know, to to to go through it.
But he is working on getting healthy and making sure that he is in his best shape
so that he can return to the farm in twenty twenty six.
So he comments all the time and, you know, love to see you on the farm again.
Nobody represents Bonnaroou as well as Pondo.
And his hat with horns and his giant clock is flavor, flavor.
I mean, I've mentioned it before, but as soon as I figured out
we had a common love of Dave Perner and Soul Asylum
of the long lost bands from the 90s.
I was like, this guy's all right in my book.
I like this guy.
We need him back on the show.
So you and Brian, so you and he can talk about 90s bands.
Yeah, together. Yeah, that would be fine.
Nothing hits home like getting a Pondo approves.
Yeah. The discord.
So glad to hear he'll be back. That's awesome.
All right. Well, let's take a break and we come back.
We're going to talk about Mexico City and a couple of topics that I
that came up during our interview with Ricardo.
That I want to explore a little bit deeper with you guys after thinking about it.
So we'll be right back.
All right. So again, like I said, we had Ricardo on to talk about
Corona Capital Festival in Mexico City, which is next week.
And fortunately for you guys, Brian and Beth, you're going to go
as our representatives.
I know you're excited.
I can I'm trying not to think about it, to be honest with you.
Jealous. I'd say you got to be a little disgusted, right?
I got a little disgusted.
I can't let myself think about it, because if I do, I'll just get mad.
But there's no way I was going.
So I'm happy for you guys. I'm super thrilled.
I'm I'm excited to be on believe, but this will shock nobody.
Barry, when you were trying to arrange the the the the interview for this festival,
I'm down for anything.
I don't almost ever like veto any ideas.
Let's just do whatever. But I was the whole time.
I think the hell are we doing this for? Yeah.
Like, what exactly is this?
And I am what country?
Oh, OK. Sure. Why not?
And then two weeks later, it's like, hey, all right.
International trip. Here you go, buddy.
I'm like, oh, what a great idea.
Oh, my God. This is the best show we ever did.
Yeah. Oh, geez. What a wonderful show.
Funny how those things work, isn't it?
But now I knew it would be interesting
because I wanted to compare and contrast type of thing.
And I'm mostly joking, but I know there was a little bit of a.
To that point, I mean, we get pitched a lot for, you know, hey,
have my guy on as a guest, he can talk about
every, you know, all kinds of things.
People normally trying to sell stuff.
We get a lot of that. Sure. It's just part of the ethos. Yeah.
And, you know, the criteria for what interests me is one
does it interest me and two, does it fit our show and our show?
You know, we try to focus on festivals
and live music in general and trends.
And as we've said many, many times, the sausage making.
And so, you know, I thought this was a great opportunity to say,
how do they do festivals in another country?
It's it is a live nation, you know, event.
But it's in a completely different other country
and a lot of similarities, not that different.
I mean, just real quick, you guys are going to see Chaperone,
Foo Fighters, Linkin Park, Deaf Tones, Vampire Weekend,
Queens of the Stone Age, Weezer.
So of my monsters and men.
So as we noted, Alabama Shakes, a lot of acts that you would expect
to see at Bonnarooo, but also a lot of deeper dots.
A lot of deeper dive sort of what you say, Brian, 90s, a lot of 90s rock.
They're they're very guitar oriented rock, right?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, there's well, it's one of those and Beth can speak to this
a little bit more. The the undercard, I don't I don't know almost any of it.
The top of it for just from my my my experience and all this,
the top of it's just top heavy as it could be.
And then the undercard, I just I'm not saying it's bad.
I just don't I don't know.
And Beth can speak to more of that.
But definitely a lot of the headliners are are world renowned.
Yeah, I just had to pull it up.
So I have the I have the printed schedule of the festival I'm doing right now
because my French, Jéris, is like Brian and printed things
and highlighted them for us.
So that is actually really helpful.
Our woman blame it on your friend.
Sure. It was actually really helpful when I'm on my phone doing this.
If I'm going to be a co-podcaster, I'm going to need some equipment, I think.
But I have it on my iPad for this.
Send you a printer.
Yeah, yeah.
You can fax it to me.
You just fax me a schedule.
Undercard. Yeah, there's I mean, it's going to be fun to see for non-blondes.
I guess that falls in the 90s category. Absolutely.
Yeah, I just saw them at Shakin' Nees, too. You're going to love it.
Yeah, I'm excited about that. Jet would be fun.
I forgot about. Yeah, I've seen Kaiser Chiefs before.
A couple of these were actually I went to Live Eight in Philadelphia.
So some of these bands were on that lineup, including Linkin Park.
So it was Linkin Park with Jay-Z on that.
Yeah, Waxahatchee, Lucy Dacus.
I think that's how you say her name.
And Hollow Cove, I'm excited about.
Grizzly Bear, Jelly Roll, which we saw at Bonnarooo with Three Six Mafia,
which is great.
Let's see, just go in.
Samia, I saw there's a festival called Thing here in Washington.
And a lot of these were on that lineup also.
So I just see TV on the radio.
Never seen them.
They're at the very bottom of the schedule, which is funny.
Well, they do it alphabetically because we noted that.
Oh, I think Brian pointed that out because I thought the same thing.
I was like, wow, there's some great names at the bottom.
And then Ricardo was like, yeah, we just decided to do headliners.
Big, bold. And then everything else is alphabetical.
Got it. Yeah.
So I'm so I'm prepared for this festival that I haven't even listened to the podcast.
The what podcast episode about the festival yet?
Because then I thought, well, if this doesn't work out,
I'm going to be so bummed listening to this.
It's just going to make me more excited.
And now that it feels like knock on wood, it seems to be working out.
Now I'm going to listen to the episode.
This is Beth at one on one all day.
She is not going to even until it's like stamp sealed and ready and we're going.
She's not going to preview it.
She's going to spend her time on it.
Smart. The it's PTSD in a way. Right, Beth?
I mean, exactly. Exactly.
There's only two.
I think I mentioned this on the podcast before.
Only two Bonnarooo's have I really say the schedule
and looked up all the bands and figure out out what I wanted to see.
And it was the hurricane cancellation.
And this year.
Oh, there you go. So don't do that ever again.
You're the one. You're the one.
Well, you guys were wearing the shirts.
You pre-bought shirts, which I think is even worse.
Yeah, there's no you guys. That was Brian.
But you were wearing shirts of canceled, canceled festivals, though.
And I think that's kind of bad luck.
Oh, yeah. Well, you've got a long, you've got a long air.
You've got an airplane ride.
You can catch up on all the what podcast, which, by the way, all of you people can.
We go back to the what podcast dot com,
and you can listen to all the past episodes going back to 2000 or 2018.
I always do on airplanes, actually.
Feels like I'm hanging out with my friends
while I'm sitting there on the plane by myself.
I will be doing that.
That's where we're givers.
We're here for you.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Quickly, before Barry, I know you have a couple of things you want to go to.
Just as far as the bands day by day, I just want to run through quickly
what I'm looking at. Friday is the day here for me. Corona.
Do we even call it capital?
Am I trying to be too too?
Yeah, I don't do it.
We're from Tennessee.
I'll get that. Yeah.
Capital. Corona capital.
But anyway, Friday is the day it's loaded up for me.
Saturday, which was the same way Banra was this year for me.
If it happened, was kind of a little bit there.
I mean, Chapel Rowan on a Saturday night in an international city.
Like probably the first I'm guessing the first time she's played Mexico City.
That's going to be a spectacle of nothing else.
And everybody who is regular here knows that I'm a big Chaparone fan.
So that's a big time with Vampire Weekend on Saturday night.
But overall, that day doesn't have a lot for me.
And then Sunday picks it kind of back up.
So it's just like any other festival.
You pick your days, you see where where your your highlights are and what what.
It's just like American festivals, just in Mexico City.
That's what makes it that so exciting.
But yeah, Friday is action packed.
But of all the the bands on this list that I like a lot,
I'm really looking forward to Jerry Cantrell speaking of 90s.
And this is my role.
This is an eye roll by a lot of people I know.
But the primary songwriter and really the I mean,
Lane Staley from Alice in Chains is what everybody knows,
the voice and everything else.
It's Jerry Cantrell. He's the guy.
And he's playing on the second stage
at five o'clock on Sunday, which means the crowds will probably be light
and it'll be good classic 90s rock show.
So I'm really looking forward to that.
I got to fly from Seattle to Mexico City to see Jerry Cantrell for the first time.
It's pretty funny.
Which is what she is going to enjoy.
Oh, I'm very excited about that.
I love this. This isn't a I'm making her do it thing.
Oh, not at all. No, no, I would make him go.
That's fine.
But then also that night is James, we the English band, James Weiser,
Deftones, Linkin Park.
So that is a 90s day.
Yeah, I'm really looking forward to that.
All right. So garbage, too.
By the way, we have garbage. Garbage is great.
I've seen them. I saw them open for Smashing Pumpkins in 98.
So I'm excited about that, too.
So just a quick recap.
You could go back and listen, but
it was fun to talk about.
And Brian, I think you brought up and Ricardo pointed out that Mexico City is,
if not the number one city for music streaming in the world.
But I think he also said it's number three as far as like live music.
So I'm I'm very excited to hear what you guys
encounter and see as far as crowds and all that.
But the thing that I wanted to talk about that that
he mentioned and Brian, you noted it.
But I've heard other people talking, talk about it in relation to other festivals.
And that's this idea of sponsorships.
They're pretty upfront and open about
the fact that there are stages and you will see branding,
you will see sponsorships.
And that's what helped keep the ticket price down.
And we have said from the very beginning of Bonnarooo that you don't feel that.
And I mean, my comment is always I've never felt like Bonnarooo
had their hand in my pocket.
There have been moments
maybe where that's changed a little bit.
Yeah, it's picked up over the years.
But just to your point quickly, Barry, the secondary stage,
the two main stages, Corona, of course, is the first one.
The second one is the Doritos stage.
Yeah. Yeah. All right.
I mean, Doritos.
Now, it's already working on you.
You're eating a lot of Doritos lately.
I love Doritos.
I think that's why I have no problem with that.
Who doesn't love Doritos?
Well, and quickly, before we move away from that, Barry,
is the idea and we talked about this with Ricardo is that Americans do tend to have
this this negativity towards sponsorships and too much of that signage
and too much of that in your face.
And I understand why.
And I should be that way, too.
Like the like as a baseball fan, you know, and and and stadiums
and ballparks are very important to a diehard baseball fan.
And when they start naming them progressive field instead of Jacobs
field in Cleveland, you start to think, well, this is just annoying.
This is like NASCAR. I don't like this.
I'm mad about NASCAR.
I am over. I am so far over that, though, these days.
These things need money. Money.
These things. There it is.
That was that's the question.
That's the what I wanted to ask you guys.
I mean, if it's the difference between your ticket being three hundred dollars
and five hundred dollars because Doritos is on the stage, how do you feel about it now?
And I should go back.
There are some bands and I haven't really heard this in a while.
But 10, 15 years ago, there were some bands that wouldn't play.
You know, under a corporate banner for whatever,
they were anti-corporation or whatever.
I haven't heard a lot of that anymore so much as, you know,
wise, you know, and Ricardo even said, you know,
they try to find sponsors that are at least music adjacent,
you know, versus like Bill's Bank or, you know,
whatever Tom's insurance company,
you know, and then they try to incorporate that into the event.
You know, like I can't remember what his example was, but,
you know, Pepsi will do or Coke will do something.
Have a tent that's music related. Yeah. So
back to my original point, if if if again, it's the difference
between a five hundred dollar ticket and a three hundred dollar ticket
to have Doritos on the up above the stage.
What are your thoughts?
I did convert the pesos to dollars.
This festival is about a two hundred and fifty dollar ticket.
Sweet. That's as cheap.
That's as cheap as you're going to get in the world for a festival of this magnitude.
But Beth, go ahead.
I was going to say, if they want to send me to Mexico,
I will gladly view some advertising for Doritos and Corona.
Because those are also not not brands.
I mean, I haven't fully researched them, but they're not brands.
I feel terrible about supporting at this point without knowing more information.
Is that the difference?
Is that is that a difference?
Is it is it the fact that there's any branding on it?
Or is it the corporation behind the branding or some level of all of that?
I think ideally you have time to check that out and see what you're supporting.
I think it gets very complicated now to try to parse all of that.
And we are also in doing this, supporting small bands
or at least bands that we don't know on the smaller stages.
So there's a lot of cost benefit analysis.
And at some point, at some point, you just throw your hands up and say, OK,
this seems like a good trade off.
Yeah, I don't have any proof other than just an inclination.
But I have a feeling we're going to start seeing it more and more
at things like Bonnarooo.
Probably. And and to the thing, the difference with with Bonnarooo is
it's just such a different place as we've talked about every 100 different ways,
you know, over and over again on this show.
It's the what stage, it's the which it's that it's this, it's the other.
That's what it was. That's what it is.
If you change the what stage to the Corona stage,
I am going to have a problem.
OK, there it is.
And I think everybody has it.
Because you get to Bonnarooo, you are sealed inside this bubble, right?
And you want to forget that the outside world exists.
You only want to, you know, be in the festival.
And if you see what's basically a billboard, you know, as a stage
that takes you out of that bubble, that reminds you, oh, yeah,
there's still the real world out there.
City Festival, I think it's different because you're not in that bubble.
You're in a city.
And as you know, as soon as you walk around the fence, you know,
you're right downtown.
So, you know, I think that's part of it.
Where does everybody go when they go to a tourist for one of the few
first five places they go? Times Square.
That's all Times Square is.
Yeah. And people think it's wild and interesting to see.
So like, I think it's varying degrees and it's a case by case with a lot of people.
But, you know, if this Corona Capital Festival had a early start of a grassroots
kind of thing and it had its own culturally important to the indigenous,
to their area stages and locations and all these things.
And then all of a sudden one day it's Corona Doritos, Corona Sunsets, Nivea.
That's the other, the smaller stage is Nivea stage.
I think people might have a problem with that, but this is where they started from.
And it's also just a very different cultural place, which we, which we talked to Ricardo about.
Yeah, exactly.
Is that this is also they're not this is part of why they're sending people like us there.
We just got lucky because they there weren't bigger corporate entities
that could take up the the allotted amount.
But is this is a Mexican festival that just has American acts at it.
I expect to see Latinos almost predominantly at this festival.
Yeah, I just I wanted to bring it up.
I want you guys to be aware and I'll be aware, but, you know, make note of it.
How does it feel? Is it different?
Yeah, I mean, NASCAR is the thing.
I mean, it'd be one thing if like, you know, all of a sudden, Jim James is coming out on stage
and he drinks a big old glass of milk or something like they do in a NASCAR race.
Yeah. And wearing a jacket like 20 logos all over.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I don't see that happening, but I I do see something happening.
Maybe the what stage stage, but there's there's branding around it somehow.
I don't know. But the prices are going up so much they're going to have to figure out something.
And I think that's my point in bringing it up.
And speaking of the 90s, like that was a really 90s thing that the bands sell out.
Oh, that band sell out.
That was a really like five or seven years of that decade.
And it was so foolish to to give these bands such a Metallica got the worst of it back in the day.
I used to be that guy, too.
And I remember Jason Newstead, their bass player.
I saw an interview with him one day 20 years ago.
And and it was something like, yeah, we're we're sell outs.
We sell out every single show we play.
Yeah. Yeah.
I was like, that's a really good way to put that.
Good point.
Yeah. That's exactly what I was going to say, too.
We're 90s grunge kids.
So we grew up with that.
But we also went to Woodstock 99, which, you know, I got my first credit card at Woodstock 99.
So I think we also kind of have seen this corporate thing happening and as good and bad effects.
Yeah, that was a corporate sponsorship barrage.
And that was part of the big I mean, of all the things that were awful.
And we won't relitigate.
We don't need to get into that.
But of all the things that were awful about that, that was just as big of one of them
is how gross this place looks with all these, you know, pizza hut boxes or whatever it might be.
And so that's a lot of leftover from from that decade.
Most people have moved on from that.
Like Foo Fighters, about who are the Friday or Friday night.
Headliners had a commercial for one of their better songs of the last decade for a Ram Truck.
And I was like, that's the coolest commercial I've ever seen.
I love this commercial.
That's great. It's working.
It's working. Yeah.
15 years before that, I would have said that son of a bleep Dave.
I knew he was a sellout like and that's weird.
That's just weird.
And I'm glad to be moved past it.
Most of us now are like, man, I just want to get paid.
Yeah. Right.
Yeah. I want to go get cool things.
And I do think there'll be a big cultural difference.
I think there'll be a big cultural difference based on my guess.
And the way Ricardo talked on the show is
this is just a different place of the world.
And they don't think about these things like we do there.
I'm guessing they're just really happy to be able to do something really fun.
Yeah. It's not going to be a bunch of what does it say?
Corona over there. Yeah.
You got my panties that's a snit over something that you can't control.
Yeah. That's an annoying American ism for you.
Exactly. I'm mad because Taco Bell is on my cup.
All right. So theoretically, you're listening to this on Wednesday.
What what is what's the itinerary?
Do you guys have any clue? When do you leave Thursday?
Thursday at nine thirty a.m. from Seattle.
And that's direct, apparently.
So but we're going to knock on wood with all the flight stuff
because it might take us a while to get there.
Yeah, there's I don't know if this is just a product of also the
the way this is coming together in a different
foreign way to us.
Is they didn't release as a festival the line at the schedule,
like the actual hourly schedule until like two weeks ago.
And can you imagine getting ready for a festival here in America?
And it's two weeks out and you don't even know what times the bands are playing.
I don't think that's I can imagine that.
I have already not today.
I have told today, I don't know who's playing.
I have a harder time understanding that.
But the information is usually there if you want it.
And so it's just there's just a lot of little things so far that are that are very different.
I find all this stuff fascinating.
I can't I I can find the inconveniences of it.
Fascinating. Brian, is your point because they don't know because they're trying to figure out
everybody's flights.
I mean, remember, we talked to Ricardo about that.
They getting everybody to Mexico City.
I mean, think about that again.
We laughed about, you know, Manchester's just up the road.
It's pretty much the center, almost the center of the country,
or at least the southern part of it.
I mean, you're coming from Seattle, you're coming from Chattanooga.
Yeah. Where are these bands coming from?
You know, so I guess they're logistically it probably is the reason that they haven't
put the hourlies. Maybe, maybe I would that very well as part of it.
I don't know. This is going to be a very big learning experience all the way around.
And I don't I don't I don't travel outside of this continent.
I mean, Beth has touched basically all of them.
I quite many of them and many of them.
Yes. Mexico's where I've gone the most.
I love the country.
I love everything about Mexico that I've ever experienced and that I've learned over
the years. So I'm excited regardless of any of it.
But yeah, it's it's with a lot of just different variables.
It is, you know, we're we're recording a few days before you hear this and leaving
the next day. And I don't know my itinerary yet at all, but I will.
And I feel good about this.
You all will love this. So I'm talking to our point man, Chris
Barry that you've known who worked for Bonnarooo for a decade.
Yeah. Yeah. We talked for a while and boy, he like you think I'm a talker.
He likes to talk and it's good.
I we it was great because there's a lot of information and everything.
But one of the people who are having the opportunity to do the same thing that
that fortunately for me and Beth, we get to do because you guys legally can't
with the passport issue is Festival.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Festival is on the list here.
I was like, oh, my God. So I'm going to get you going to sneak me in to meet this guy.
Am I going to get the am I going to finally be able to I mean,
is it Brad Parker with a mask?
It's Brad Parker. Yeah. What happens here?
And he's like, I don't know, man.
The guy hasn't even sent me his information yet.
Like, I still don't know his name and I don't know for sure.
And I don't know if he was playing it up, playing up the stick of nobody knows
or if he actually did.
But one of the people on the list that are getting this great opportunity
is also Festival.
So one of my itinerary just on my little list, you know, clipboard
guy over here is find out who Festival is.
Yeah. And I want to have a little bit.
No, you can't exploit.
No, we don't want to expose them.
No, we don't want to.
I do want to have them on.
I want to have them on the show.
I want to interview them and we can do the whole 60 minutes like
yeah, you know, darken the camera and obscure the voice and all that.
I think that'd be fun.
I'm heard that we don't even know gender.
I have pitched that.
We don't know it's a guy.
Festival, if you're listening, come on, man, we will hide your identity.
We just want you to know she woman.
Yeah, whichever.
If it's multiple, we'll do whatever you whatever you want to do.
We'd love to have you on.
I think that'd be fun.
Listen, I'm kidding.
I'm not going to expose Festival.
I just think it's funny that Brad Parker, a less is Brad Parker
than I'm supposed in the world.
He's sitting next to you on the plane.
He's going to fist bump me like I told I got him.
I got him.
Yeah, I think that's funny.
All right. What else, guys?
Ross, you said you had some other news.
Yeah, we had some Bonnarooo related story.
Sort of. I mean, we've been off for a couple of weeks,
but you guys missed an awesome Bootscootin Boogie Night Show.
They played in Chattanooga.
It's been a couple of weeks now.
Corey wasn't there.
I was hoping to run into him, but they said he took the night off
and then he had major FOMO for not being at that show
because it was an awesome show.
They put on a great performance.
The female singer, I don't remember her name.
She was kind of new.
She wasn't at the Bonnarooo show, but she said she recognized my voice
once I started talking.
She was like, oh, you're from the What Podcast?
And I was like, yeah.
So there you go. Awesome show here in Chattanooga.
Yeah. And I did get the official Bootscootin Boogie Nights.
Oh, my God.
Yeah. So they must be making some money in that band.
They had a bunch of merch.
They had a bunch of sheet t-shirts and hats and the.
Hold that up again.
That is cool.
We need something like that right there.
That's yeah.
I'll tell you what for y'all in Knoxville, they have started.
Bootscootin Boogie Nights has been doing I don't know how many years in a row.
Maybe it's just two or three, but it's become a monster show in Knoxville
at the Mill and Mine, I believe is what it's called on Black Friday.
So Black Friday Black Friday night, Bootscootin Boogie Nights
is one of the biggest shows in the whole town in Knoxville.
So they have done amazing things with that band.
And I saw them at one of they were here in the summer festival
we have here or concert series.
And that's right. Yeah, they played Riverfront Nights.
Riverfront Nights. If you enjoy that kind of I mean, you know, you know me,
you know, me and everybody you're talking to are 90s children, Barry.
So even the stuff we didn't like back then, we now like with with.
What's the tagline? You both have said it.
I didn't know I knew that many of those songs.
Everybody says I didn't know I would know every word to every song.
Yeah, I mean, you know, if you if you ask me to just name any 90s country song,
I don't think I could do it.
But they get up on stage and they start playing and then it's like, oh yeah.
Oh, yeah. It's like something unlocks.
And now it's like, yeah, I know every single word to every single song
for some reason. So it's a lot of fun if you get a chance to go see Bootscootin
Boogie Nights. Go do it.
And as us, you know, aging hipster, you know, 40 somethings
romanticize everything about the 90s now, right?
Like it's the greatest decade that could have possibly, you know,
and other generations roll their eyes at that.
Yeah, you're wrong. You're wrong.
You're wrong, of course. But I get I get what you're saying.
I was I was indirectly talking about you.
Yeah, no, I get it.
You're 100 percent wrong, but I get it.
Well, it was a fun show nonetheless.
All right, guys, that's our show.
Thank you so much, Beth.
Thank you for getting up and joining us on a Sunday morning.
Yeah, thank you. Festival Day.
You've got more music. One more day.
Yeah, you want more music.
And then I can't wait to hear your report from you and Brian in Mexico
from Mexico City.
I know you're going to be taking a lot of photos.
That's going to be a huge part of
whatever we present in a week or two or three.
I have no idea when it'll be.
And just to follow up, we will need to check out with the
the folks at Bonnarooo because things will be happening
pretty soon and we will want to present them.
So be sure to hit that like and subscribe and share and do all that stuff.
And we can't thank you guys enough for listening and being a part of our show.
And as we noted, if you see us out and about,
please stop and say hello means everything.
So all right. That's it.
See you guys. Thank you.
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Why You Should Attend a Mexican Music Festival
