The Bonnaroo Yearbook: Capturing Festival Memories

And I'll be honest, the community of Bonnarooo is unlike any other music festival I've been to.

I've been to Coachella, Dindalala Clusa, Shaky Knees, I've been to

Music Midtown, a bunch of other smaller festivals here in Georgia.

And the community of Bonnarooo is just something genuinely so special. I mean, the people there

are so full of trinkets and gifts and beautiful ideas. And so just going to Bonnarooo, the amount

of stickers I got in the first book was like, oh my gosh, I think I didn't have it in here

in this one fax page how many stickers were placed.

Hey, welcome back to the what podcast I'm Barry. That's Brian. That's Russ or Lord Taco.

Guys, I'm going to go ahead and save you the embarrassment. I'm going to go ahead and say it.

I know the haircut is awesome. I did it about an hour and a half ago myself.

You cut your own hair. Had Kelly do a little trim around the ears, but man, I'm happy with this one.

You don't have a flow be right. It's kind of anybody know what the flow is.

I know your dad used to use when he gave you the burr haircuts.

There's a bunch of people out there going to hell is a flow be looking up.

And there's also a lot of old people like me who knew if you had siblings, you did. You wanted to

go first because if you went last, that thing got hot. Yeah. Burn. Oh, shit.

Luckily, I didn't have to deal with that. Anyway, how are you guys doing?

Doing well. Looking forward to this January being over with. We're almost there.

Just because I'm looking forward to the spring and have no other reason than that.

So we'll be there before you know it. Yeah. So we got a couple of things today.

Not a lot of news news, but we have a guest that I'm really excited about.

Yeah, it's pretty fine. Amazing story. We talk on this show all the time about

the mini tentacles, if that's the right thing about Bonnarooo. Everybody has a story. Everybody's

different. It sparks creativity. You know, it really does. Somebody and you'll hear more from

Caleb, our guest here shortly about, you know, you can show up on the farm and not have any,

I don't want to say not have charisma or as well first where they came in, but not have a lot of

motivation to be really eccentric and in with a lot of different people. It's very intimidating.

It can be. It's very, very common. And Bonnarooo unlocks that out of people.

Well, I've said it and you and I have said it. It changed my life.

It sounds hyperbolic, but it's true. It's a life changing event. And you know, for me,

it was 20 years ago, but it is meaning when that first click, but there's waves of that. I can

talk to you about 07, 08. I can talk to you about 14, 13, you know, 15. I can talk to you about two,

three years ago. And there's something different in every one of those that is some kind of unlock.

That whether it's small or big, it's very, it never will cease to amaze me and inspire me even more.

Yeah. I mean, for me, it's not just, well, it changed my life professionally. It introduced me

to you too. I wouldn't know you too. Certainly wouldn't be spending, you know, an hour every week

with you too. Wouldn't be putting up with y'all dumb asses all this time if it weren't for that.

And so Caleb story, you'll hear about it. He created the Banner Rue yearbook, which is really,

really cool. And we'll get into that. But Brian, you sent me a thing. Hinterland.

Yeah. I want to hear about a show you went to here before we get done here. But, but, but let's,

let's start with that though, since we're there, because I was just looking at this last night,

this hinterland, it is in St. Charles, Iowa, which is just South, 30 miles South of Des Moines.

If you just want a quick, you know, look in your head of a triangle on the map, you got Kansas City,

Chicago, St. Louis, St. Charles. So right around there in the Midwest, getting a little further,

we call Ohio the Midwest. This is actually getting a little further West. I'd say that about,

because we're talking temperature and weather. Right. And so their new or their lineup was just

released. The headline is Tyler, the creator, of course, Casey Musgraves, Lana Del Rey. It's kind

of a boutique festival, smaller lineups, probably in the city. Didn't go that far to look at it as

far as a city's city festival. But what they have done is in August, they're going to offer refunds.

I mean, do you see this talk about that? They're going to offer refunds if it gets to 90 degrees.

Like if I just stopped there, like, okay, there's a story, move along. You'd be like, whoa,

back up, man. What are you talking about? Yeah. This was just announced in the last couple days.

Clutch the pearls. I mean, I'll read this real quick from their official site, just a short

portion of it. If on Tuesday, 729 at 10 a.m. central, if weather.gov has the temperature above,

now I'm paraphrasing a little bit, 90 degrees or above for August 1st, 2nd or 3rd, you can

request a discount, not a discount, a refund. A daily refund. A refund on your tickets if it gets

90 or above. Now it does seem like you can manipulate that. Hey, weather.gov, say 89,

please. But this is in response to last year. I watched a news report, a local Iowa news report

on this. 105 on the heat index at last year's fest. I'm guessing I didn't go this far. They must be

milder than that most years. Now here down in Tennessee in August, 90 is just getting going.

That's a Monday. Yeah. I was going to say, could you imagine if Bonnarooo offered this, 90 degrees,

it would be every day. Yeah. Nobody would go it well. Lots of people would go, but plenty of

people would consider not doing it. So they must get milder temperatures, but that's still only

800 miles from us. So for the fact that them to get to 90 seems like it could be quite possible.

But last year was an extreme case. They had water line issues, all the same stuff that a boutique

festival would have. Think Armoon River here, think Railbird in Kentucky, those kinds of festivals.

They had a flooding of social media hate and anger. Most of it was probably valid and much

of it was just people trying to make a lot of noise. Either way, this is their response.

That's what's interesting to me is that they had to think about it. Apparently it was a big enough

deal that they had to have a policy. Yeah, I guess. Last year's headliner was Hozier,

Noah Kahan, and Vampire Weekend for the year last year with the heat that we're talking about

specifically. Chapel Rhone. Chapel Rhone was on there just like every other festival last year.

She was lower down and that swelled crowds and it tested the infrastructure. So it wasn't just heat,

it was water, it was lines. And so people were pissed. It was an issue enough that they had to

have this policy. That's what's fascinating. 90 degrees. They've also had issues. If it's bad,

we'll refund your... That's fascinating. Sorry, go ahead. They've also had issues with rain and

flooding really bad. The way their campground was set up, it was kind of at the bottom of the hill,

so it got all the runoff. I remember talking to Otto who went either last year or the year before

and she said her tent just got flooded. She had to leave the campground and just go get a hotel

because you couldn't stay in it. I didn't see that part of it. Yeah, and so they've dealt with

issues like this before and I believe they made some changes for their campground to actually move

it to a more place where it's not going to get as flooded if they get rain. Let's not put it below

sea level. That's exactly... So they clearly have a history of having issues that could be

terrible. Could be a festival killer, but they've taken steps to try to resolve those and I guess

this is all kind of the same thing. They want to keep this thing going. They want people to feel

safe and comfortable. So they probably just wanted to come up with one kind of policy that would be

a little radical to make you think we are taking the problems we've had in the past seriously

to the point where if you just don't want to go now, no questions asked. So interesting idea. Also,

if it is just 91 and you wanted to go and it was going to be 87, you're still going. So they're

going to hope that that's actually not going to be something that people take them up on.

Maybe it's a stroke of brilliance of marketing and people think that they're doing the right

thing and maybe they are exactly doing the right thing. I don't know. Just wild because I've never

seen anything like it. I know that exactly. We'll have to hear from our Iowa correspondent.

Yeah, we'll get a hold of that guy. Parker will reach out here pretty soon. We'll get some more

information. I think Chloe has also been to that festival too. Chloe's been to every festival.

Well yeah, I guess that's true. She's got to try all the fare, right? Yeah, she's got to have all

the food. Yeah, you can't have a handle that says, should I eat at festivals and not be there?

It's a good point. All right, so you were going to ask me about the show that I went to. Yeah,

I saw everybody at our local theater. We have two of them. One I like more is under and Barry,

I think you're in the same boat as me on that one as far as just overall what we love in the city more.

The smaller one of our old theaters is under construction, but our bigger one.

I saw people posting all over social media the other day and the memorial was full.

A lot of times they have the upstairs curtained off because it's a bigger room and it was totally

open. I'm like, how am I getting so old and not noticing what's going on in my own city?

And Barry, you're there and others. And it was the Martin and Martin show, right? Yeah, Steve

Martin and Martin Short at Memorial Auditorium. I saw our buddy Denson Lee who works there now.

Formerly of our Camp Nut Butter veteran. I think founder actually. One of the

the mayor for a little bit. He got the yeah. Yeah, they had over 3000 people there for that

show. It looked like it. I saw their first. I mean, first of all, Steve Martin. Look,

if you started playing any one of his three records right now, I could go word for word.

I mean, I was that 14, 15, 16 year old kid who knew just adored Steve Martin. I think Martin Short

can be as funny as any human being on the planet. My wife and I saw their show six,

seven years ago when it first started. It was funny, but and I didn't think about it until

after this one, that first one was kind of like the same joke told 35 different ways for an hour

and a half. You know, it's the same. Hey, you're this and you're the, you know, picking on each

other. Yeah, the other night was amazing. They've tightened that thing up in the the was it Steel

Canyon Rangers or that's the band, right? Yeah, that's his backing band. So this was a musical

and comedic blend. So what they did was they opened the show with about 10 minutes of video clips

from their movies, from Saturday Night Live, from Jiminy Glick, everything. And it just set the tone

because it was so funny. You know, you everybody knows. Well, it's in nostalgia and it's all stuff

you remember. So that's a good prime in the pump. Yeah. King Tut. I mean, just, you know,

one after another. I'm more of a Martin Short guy because he's closer to my generation of comedy.

Yeah, I like them both. But Martin Short was what was was I liked a little bit more. I like them

both. But I've always wondered, is that show, is it more driven to a belly laugh or a performance?

Great question, because the first show was not belly laugh. That's what we expected and didn't

get. It was more stories, more back and forth with the occasional quip, you know, picking on each

other. This the other night was a belly laugh every 60 seconds. Really? Not kidding.

Hate I missed it. They back and forth and then they would do some musical. They had Jeff,

I can't think of his last name, but the piano player for Fowlin, maybe one of the late night

guys is a piano player. Yeah. And so they did bits with that. And they, you know, a lot of the bits

you've seen, they did a little Jiminy Glick bit. They come out. Martin Short comes out in a kilt

with the big ginormous guy who picks him up and plays him like he's a bagpipe. Yeah. We've seen

that. Yeah. But it was still funny. And then in the middle, Steve comes out with his banjo, picks

a little and then the band comes out and they do 15 minutes. So it's a little of both. It's everything.

And it just, it moved so quick. Did Martin Short wear the fat suit for Jiminy Glick? Yeah. Yeah.

Well, he comes out, he comes, Steve comes out holding him. He's like a puppet. I almost tried.

I almost tried to impersonate the Jiminy Glick thing, but that would have not gone well.

Two of my favorite. Did he do any Ed Grimley? A little bit. Ed Grimley. A little bit. That's what I

remember. But two of the funniest lines at three actually ever. The Jiminy Glick when he asked

Mel Brooks, what's your big beef with the Nazis? Is maybe the funniest line I've ever heard.

That's cool. And the other is Steve Martin and they used it in this when he introduced Carl Reiner

at like the Kennedy Center Awards. You know, they're honoring Carl Reiner and Steve comes out and

says, I could go on for hours talking about Carl Reiner and his impact on comedy and me. And he

said, but this seems like neither the time nor the place. Oh my God. That's funny. Isn't it funny?

It kills me. It's so simple. That's why it's so good. And then the other is,

when the two met was for three amigos, which I do not find funny. I don't like that movie at all.

I can't stand that movie. Don't like it at all. But apparently Martin had to go to Steve's house

to get the script. And that's when they first met. And he walked in and he's looking around

and he's like, look at all this artwork. You've got Picasso's. This is amazing.

How did you afford it? Because I've seen your work.

Boy, we can repackage that one. Yeah. So it was that to a lot of people we know to ourselves.

It was so good. But yeah, I've seen what you do. How the hell do you afford any of this stuff?

I don't know. Usually you cannot not you. You usually one cannot recreate a comedy show

to like in this setting. Like, let me tell you some of the things they said and usually falls

flat. Those hit. Those. Oh my God. I like that. Yeah, they're so funny. I think that's a testament

to how simple yet effective the comedy that both of those guys do. Yeah. The what's your big beef

with the Nazis just kills me. That's one of those I'll wake up in the middle of the night

and just start laughing. So it was really good. And I'm glad you brought it up. And for anybody

who's on the fence, if they're coming to anywhere close, go see it. It's a great two hour show.

Well, I wanted to ask because I figured the answer would be good. And I was bummed that I

let that one just slide underneath me. Didn't notice it was I knew it was coming. Then forgot.

Well, I mean, I'm not kidding. The first time we saw him, you know, it was for me, it was I'm

going because it's my heroes. But the show was, you know, we are on the fence about going again.

Or was there a kind of doubt or kind of in fact, my wife didn't go. She was like, I didn't already

saw this movie. Yeah, didn't laugh. And, you know, I next morning she's like, what was different? I

said, it's just tight and so much better. It's just nonstop. So it's really, really good. But

yeah, it was funny. So all right. What other news? Oh, we got a contest. So we're going to play some

of our entries. Yeah, we can probably do that after the yeah, we'll do that on the tail end

when we get to Caleb and then we'll wrap up with that and we'll go from there. Let's listen to

Caleb. This is a great interview and the bottom row yearbook. What is it? Yeah. How does it got?

Where's it going? We'll find out if you normally just listen to the podcast, you probably want to

watch this one either on YouTube or Spotify. It's very visual because he shows a lot of pages from

the book. He sent a lot of pictures over to put up. So yeah, you're going to want to you're going

to want to see it. That's a great point. I'm glad you thought of that. Here we go.

Hey, there he is. There's Caleb. How are you? Good. How are you? Welcome to the show. Thanks

for doing very much. Yeah, of course. I'm happy to be here. Especially. I think Brian reached out

to you what like 10 minutes ago. It was basically it was like last night yesterday. It wasn't long

ever as buttoned up as we might seem every now and again, we're scrambling. We have no idea what

we're going to do next. So thank you very much, Caleb, for joining us. I'm excited to be back in

the cabin. I appreciate it very much. And you, as we've said, represent as so many of us,

this many tentacles that is Bonnarooo, right? I mean, this thing has gotten into our lives

in so many different ways. And you're about to share with us a whole nother way. What is it you

do? So I do a project called the Bonnarooo yearbook. This is a little sneak peek of

what it is here. And essentially, what I do is I go around Bonnarooo with a leather bound journal,

something like this, or something like this. And I go up and I say, Hey, do you like to sign the

Bonnarooo yearbook? And they go in and they find a page and they leave their mark, whether that's

through stickers or photographs or drawings. And then I take scans and pictures of all the pages.

I take photos of people as they're signing the book, candid moments from the farm. And then I

turn it into an actual physical printed yearbook. And it has scans of all of the pages from everyone's

contributions that they've added, as well as photos from around the farm. And then I also

have some really fun things like superlatives, interactive I spy pages of all the candy people

believe, you know, like award for best candy gifted at the festival. And so it's an actual printed

yearbook full of everyone's memories and moments. And it's just a really cool way to look back

at Bonnarooo and have like a tangible physical book that you can go and see everyone's contributions

in. Well, let's back up just a touch here. Caleb, you reside currently in Atlanta. Am I right?

Yes. Yeah, I'm in Atlanta. And let's back up just a quick look that I did yesterday. What, five,

six years ago, this idea started to brew. But it wasn't at Bonnarooo, right? It didn't start at

Bonnarooo. Talk about the beginning. And Festa, let's get the name out there to what it is. Festa Box.

Yeah, Festy Books. Festy Books. Yeah, Festy Books. With two O's. Sorry, the spelling threw me off a

little bit. Absolutely. Jump back to the origins of it from five or six years ago. And correct me

if I'm wrong, this wasn't initially a Bonnarooo only idea, correct? No, no. That's where the book

came from. That's, you kind of just saw the pitch of what it's turned into. But its origins actually

start back with this. So I've been journaling since I was maybe 14 or 15. I, when I, maybe yeah, 15.

That's kind of when I started getting into smoke and read for the first time. And the way I justified

it to myself was that I could do art and draw and write and put my thoughts down. And as long as I

was making art with it, then it was like justified. That's how my brain just. It's okay to get high as

long as you're doing it. As long as it's for the art. I like it. I like it. Multitasking. So I've been doing that since I was, yeah, maybe 14, 15.

Just journaling, just writing in books. And I went to my first music festival in 2019.

I was Coachella. That was my first ever music. It's a hell of a place to start. And it changed my life. Oh my gosh.

I can't, I can't even express how fun it was. But something that I found surprisingly difficult

was meeting people or just talking to people or introducing myself to people. And at the time, I

just had a hard time. I mean, people are decked out in beautiful costumes. They're having a good time.

They're in big groups of people. And I wanted to participate in that, but I found it really challenging.

So I had my journal with me because I just bring it everywhere all the time. It's just a habit of mine.

And I decided, you know what I'm going to do? I'm just going to go up to random people. And it started

out with people that I felt like weren't intimidating. So generally like it would be someone that was

working at the festival or it would be someone who maybe was just like kind of a little bit older,

just sitting on their own, just looking at the scenery, you know, someone that I wasn't necessarily

intimidated by. But I just went up and I said, can you write something in my book? And they'd be like,

for what? I was like, no doubt. I don't know. You want to, you want to draw it. And it was, it was

super weird, super awkward. And it wasn't for any reason other than just like an icebreaker. It was

just a way to kind of initiate conversation with someone. And it was intimidating. It was so

intimidating going up to just a random person and asking them to write something random in a book.

But eventually after doing it about five, six, seven, eight times, it started getting really fun

because people would leave like cute little messages or they would draw just a random doodle

or, you know, they'd be like, oh, this is kind of a fun idea. And I remember at a certain point,

someone came up to me and said, oh, so it's like your yearbook. And I'm like, oh, that's genius.

That's exactly what this is. It's a yearbook of all the people that I met at the festival.

And I was like, this is genius. This is like, what a great idea. I would love to, you know,

next festival, like do that more. Because I maybe got like 20 or 30 people to sign this book. And

otherwise it's just my journal. And it wasn't like a dedicated project or anything. It was just a way

to meet people. And so I said, okay, that's fun and all, but I'm going to make a challenge to myself.

Next music festival, I'm going to bring a notebook and I'm going to make the goal

to fill the entire notebook, like fill the whole fill this whole thing with signatures.

And that's going to force you to meet a bunch of people to try and fill all the pages. Because I

was like still a little intimidated of going up to people at this point. And so my next music festival

was Lollabluza. So I made the Lollabluza yearbook. And I'll get you guys some video footage that you

can put in of this later. But it's a little more skin notebook about the size of an iPhone, I'd say.

And I just went up to people during the entirety of Lollapalooza and I filled the entire notebook.

And I mean, there's not a single blank page in this whole thing. And I found that the community

of these music festivals and going up and talking to the people was actually one of my favorite

parts now. It was like it became so much fun going up to people and asking them if they wanted to

sign a yearbook. Because once I changed it from do you want to write something in my book to do you

want to sign the Lollay yearbook, people's energy completely changed. It was like, oh, I get to be

a part of this like cool little yearbook and you're gonna fill the whole book. Like, you know, people

on the first day are like, no way you're gonna fill the whole thing. Like that's gonna take for

Asher to fill up that. And then it takes a long time to fill up a notebook with signatures.

But I loved it. It was so much the adrenaline and just the meeting someone for the first time

became like a really fun experience, especially at music festivals where we naturally just share a

lot of interests. So conversations just kind of came very naturally after that. And it was

originally really fun. So I was like, okay, I can see Brian, I got I got questions to go ahead, Brian.

Yeah. Well, I mean, the whole journaling thing is is I don't want to call it new,

because it's not new. But it's certainly generational. I mean, it's dear diary to a

certain degree in a new form and in a more art form in a shareable way. Has journaling been part

of what you've done? Maybe you already said this, sorry. But before this was journaling a

mental exercise for you to begin with? Yeah, journaling has always been a kind of form of

means to why I'm like I would mostly for when it started out, I would just only journal when

I was high. That was it. They were like kind of my high journals. And it was my justification

at the time. And then journaling kind of transition from that into it's just fun to draw and just write

your thoughts and just leave something on something physical or write down cool things that happen.

Because then now I'm left with like all these notebooks of like a bunch of really cool, amazing

art and drawings for myself and others over the past years. So I have a real quick story. The only

reason I bring that up is because I've been getting more and more into the idea of it. I do

a version of it. I just it's just it's on a notepad. Right? Like I just I have it a backpack. I have

a notepad. It's not in a cool looking book or anything. But we all have a notes app on our phone.

We all have an iPad. We all have an electronic way to keep notes. And I it's just not the same.

Like it's not even close to the same thing. You'll you'll change that phone 20 times in the next,

you know, 20, 30 years. If you have that long, you'll keep those books forever. I think it's

a really cool just mental exercise and practice all the way around. That's a lot of fun. How did

it change, Caleb? You said your first year, 2019, right? You were very shy. You were very shy about

going up and approaching people. How did that change? I mean, when like, how did you pick people

once once you realized that they were into it? Right? That it wasn't I'm asking, did it change?

You weren't quite as shy. How did you choose who you approached?

Yeah, that kind of thing. How did that change? So the the switch moment, the where it like

transitioned over was the group of people that I went with to Coachella. They had brought some

some party favors. And that was my first time ever trying it before. And I think it was that

paired with one of the like main people that I was there with at the time. She reacted in a very

hermit mode way. And I reacted in a I want to go meet people, but I don't know how.

What do you mean party favors?

You know what he means.

Something I had never done before.

Yeah, it was yeah, it was it was Molly. It was my first time ever. And yeah,

I was curious as to what it was. That was that was it. But I never had to get you in trouble.

I just wanted to make sure it wasn't. Yeah, actually, Barry is a narc.

I need your address and if you order your book, you'll get the return.

No, but I ask because that that's key. I mean, that changes people's minds.

That's true. And I think that was definitely the the rip cord that started that engine of like my

urge or my desire to go and meet new people. And I was teaching photography in Dubai at that time.

And I was teaching photography in Dubai at that time, actually. So I flew from Dubai to L.A. to

Coachella. And it was it was a whole big thing. And I mean, I went all out for it.

Continue. We'll come back to that.

So when I went out there and I had Molly for the first time, first music festival,

my girlfriend at the time who I was with, she was just on lockdown. We had a bunch of friends

with us in a big group of like five or six. And so they decided to stay with her out

whatever stage it was at. And then I just went off with my book and just was like,

I want to meet down to talk to people. But to answer your other question of how did I choose

to talk to you, it started off with like security guards and honestly, older people who just didn't

look intimidating. And I don't mean to like, you know, judge a book by its cover

type of situation. That's how it started. I've walked around there with a camera,

like looking for interesting things. And it's it sounds easy, but it's sometimes not.

But then it is, you know, you when you start talking to somebody, you're like, everybody

has a story and everybody's interesting. And there have been a few times where the interactions

have gotten a little bit weird or people like, you know, get overtly attached. And let's say

they're on something and they fall in love with the project or the energy of what's going on in

the book. I love you man stuff. Yeah. Yeah. You know what it is. So that was me in 2019,

but I just didn't know how to do it because I was scared. So that's how the book started. Right. So

that's how it got started. And then the Lollapalooza one where I filled this whole notebook,

that was more of a personal challenge. That was like, hey, this is something that was obviously

exciting at that time. And it was a lot of fun. I was like, I want to take it a step further

and try and maybe meet people in my age range. Or maybe if someone's, let's say in a group of people

all decked out and super amazing wave where normally I wouldn't go up and approach, but then

I would turn it into like a challenge to try and get everyone to sign the book. So I'd come up and

be like, all right guys, who wants to sign the Lollapalooza yearbook? You know, and, you know,

go through the whole thing. And then sometimes it would be more personal and like there would be

two people sitting by a tree and it's nighttime and it's kind of winding down a little bit.

And I would just go up and I wouldn't say anything. And I would just

and just hand them the book in a pen, not saying anything. See what happens. See what they do.

See if they ask me any questions or anything and just let them contribute. I've had people

at 2 a.m. just sitting writing their heart out. Like it's their own journal in the 2023

Bonnarooo yearbook. It was just amazing, which leads me to Bonnarooo 2023. So well, after

Lollapalooza, I made an Instagram page with pictures of all of the pages. So anyone that

signed it could see it. But I was like, I want there to be a physical version, which is when

I started the concept of like, I'm going to make an actual printed book of this. So that way,

if people want to have a copy and flip through the pages, they can also see not only their own

contribution, but also the contribution of everyone else from the festival. And that's when I started

going like, oh, I want to make a book. I think that'd be really fun for my next festival, which

happened to be FHRU, which is the evolution of that. Yeah, Brian, you'll remember, Russ, I think

you've seen it, the fence going into the wet stage where people would write stuff, right? That was,

yeah, and they paint over that every year. So this is an actual, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's like a

book version of the wall. Exactly. A little bit. So real quick, though, let me, I got to jump back

to Dubai. First of all, this is where in the world is Caleb, right? Like we're in California,

we're in Illinois, we're in Manchester, we're in Dubai. Let's jump back to that real quick.

Teaching photography in Dubai. A few sentences on it. If you only had a minute to tell somebody

what that's about, I'm just curious myself. Yeah. So I'm a photographer by trade. That's my profession.

That's what I do. So in 2018, I got the opportunity to go out and teach photography in Dubai.

And one of the main reasons I did that is my dad's a photographer. He's been doing it for

as long as I've been alive. And in ninth grade, I dropped out of high school to pursue photography,

or I guess in 10th grade, I dropped out. 10th grade, I dropped out to pursue photography. And

when I was 18, I flew to Dubai for three and a half years and was a photography instructor

out there for a company called Gulf Photo Plus. Shout out to Gulf Photo Plus. Three and a half

years. Wow. But yeah, three and a half years. And then I moved back in September of 2020. So a few

months after the pandemic, I decided I want to go back to the States, let it go home. And then I flew

back here. And then, yeah. Started this journey. It sounds like most of our, I mean, so it's

taken you some time to, even though you've traveled pretty well and you've been around

a lot of people, to get comfortable. And that's not unusual. I mean, we talked about this on the

front end when we were before the show, the pre-show meeting. I was like, it's not a failure at life

to not be good at easily communicating with other people. I mean, that's not like some horrible

thing. People have trouble with that. And this is a really cool way for you personally.

So you start in Coachella, you move on to the Lollapalooza. So you've hit some of the big leagues,

you know, the big time here. What, Bonnaroo gets on your, clearly you know what it is, if you know

what festival life is beginning to be in your life. What brings you to Bonnaroo? Other than we all want

to go if we're a festival type. Right. How does this transition to now you're into, you know,

we're talking just a couple of years ago. How does Bonnaroo get into something that now

appears to be something that you're pretty passionate about? Yeah, well, I was looking

for festivals near me because I live in Atlanta, Georgia now. And I currently don't have the money

to go and go crazy Coachella big trip and everything. So I was looking for festivals kind

of closer to Atlanta. And I've always heard Bonnaroo was like the Coachella of the East Coast.

And so I was like, well, that sounds like fun. And the lineup for 2023 was great. I mean, I was

just like, oh, this is going to be amazing. So I decided to kind of go all out. I got VIP. It was

my first time ever buying VIP ticket to anything. And I also got the six day car camping. So I was

there from Tuesday to, I guess, Monday when we leave. Yeah, you and Taco are going to be new best

friends. Yeah. That's the way to do it. Yeah, go all the way out. And it was my first time ever

solo camping. So I just only brought my car home. So first time you've been to the festival,

you're just flying solo and you already have a little social anxiety. Wow. Good luck, buddy.

Jumped right in. I prior to going to Bonnaroo knew I wanted to do this book project. And I knew I

wanted a way for people to get a copy of it. And so I had no idea how much it was going to cost.

I had no idea how big the book was going to be as I had never done this before. So when I went to

Bonnaroo for the first time and I was doing this, I was telling people to go to this website I had

made where I had like pictures from other festivals that I had gone to. There was like

no product photos because I mean, there was nothing. It was like there was no product.

Yeah, it was a product. Right. So I had you had the concept already. I had the concept. But

yes, two things. Let me jump in. So you had the concept and I think Brian kind of

touched on it a little bit. How have you changed since that first, you know, shy guy didn't want

to approach somebody in that interim time. It sounds like you kind of got over it. Like,

yeah. I mean, big time, right? What was the unlock? What was the click there?

You had no problem with people. Yeah, it was through just doing it a lot. I think forcing

yourself to and not even forcing yourself, but just being curious and interested in other people.

And there are so many people at the festival you walk by and you just go, man, I love their energy.

That guy got a story. Everybody's got a story. Yeah. And you just want to and you just may want

to talk to him. He may be shy, but the only way I found to get better at talking to people or

introducing yourself to people is to just do it a lot. And the format of the book makes it really

easy for anyone to just take a notebook, write down the festival name and year and just walk

up and ask if they want to sign their yearbook. And you even saw with Boneroute last year in 2024,

they gave everyone on the little promo things, a little yearbook encouraging people to go

and make friends and use it as a way to meet people, which I think maybe they saw.

I'm going to say copyright infringement.

I did make it to one of the promo videos on their Instagram page on Boneroute's official

Instagram. Like the book was featured in it, which I thought was really cool.

Well, Boneroute is one of the most innovative entities in the world. But I will say after

this podcast launched, guess what? Boneroute did. Yeah. Oh, exactly. Yeah. Anyway, that's it. We'll

leave that sitting. They're very good at paying attention. We'll leave that sitting right there.

So you're going into your number three then. Yes. This will be my third year

doing the printed Boneroute yearbook. And during the first one, which was really, really cool,

I got Portable Demand to sign it. I got Remy Wolf to sign it, which was really cool,

which was happening because of someone who was signing the book at the time.

Her friend came on. Right place, right time. Yeah. We're getting on the golf carts to go see Remy

Wolf officiate a wedding. So I was like, okay, that's amazing. But they were signing the book.

So they were like, can you bring the book? And they were like, yeah, let's go. So we hop on to

the golf cart. We get from Ware in the Woods all the way transported to House of Matrimony inside

Senru. And then all of a sudden, 15, 20 minutes later, there's a flood of people. Remy Wolf comes

out. There's like a bunch of couples lined up. And I'm like, what the, this is incredible.

So Remy Wolf officiates. She goes off to a little corner and I'm like, oh, this is the perfect

chance to get Remy Wolf to sign the yearbook. And I start walking over towards her. And would you

believe it? Someone who had signed the book the day prior, she was like one of the coordinators

for all of this. And she was like, oh my gosh, Caleb, hi, how's the yearbook going? I was like,

wow, what are the odds of this? I believe it. At Bonnarooo, I believe it all day long.

And she was like, oh my gosh, how's the yearbook going? I'm like, it's going great. I've still

been in my pages since you last signed it. I was like, I'm actually trying to get Remy Wolf

to sign the yearbook. She was like, oh, Tom, yeah, he's good. And like gave like a little

nod to security over Remy Wolf. And just like they ushered me over and I was like, oh my gosh,

how are you, Wolf? Nice to meet you. I think I have a photo of it somewhere here in this one.

This was the first one I made. It's a 12 by 12, so it's a little bit bigger. But yeah, so, but

there's a bunch of photos and stuff like that. So Remy Wolf is in here. Portugal is in here.

How did you stumble on the guys from Portugal? How did you stumble on the Portugal the Man band?

Yeah, so that was actually right before Remy Wolf. So Portugal the Man was at Wear in the Woods and

he had just done his listening party. And I saw that there were a bunch of people. If you looked

at the fence of where that like big UFO stage thing is, it wear in the woods. Everyone was like

in this little huddle over on the left side of the stage. And so I was like, oh, let me go check out

what they're peeping at. And I walked over to like the very far right side and I saw Portugal

way down at the end, just signing stuff and talking to people. And I was wondering if he was going to

come down over, but I was just like, no, I got to go for it. So I just kind of made my way into the

front of the fence. It's like, sorry, guys, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Portugal, would you like to

sign the bottom of your yearbook? And then got inside it, took a picture of it with it. I'll

send you guys that photo too. Think about the transition guys. I mean, this is the shy guy who

wouldn't approach anybody to now all of a sudden he's, you know, paparazzi. Getting waved in by

security. You're right on the transition. But I found it opened up so many doorways, just talking

to like even security or event staff or people working, doing like spicy pies even just asking

them like, Hey, do you have any secret knowledge or anything else? We've had anyone say no, we've

had maybe one or two people say no. Everybody likes talking about it. Yeah. I mean, you're

already in a place where people are pretty open to just about anything. So if you've got any kind of

drive or motivation, like you clearly have built these years that I can see how that works out

to the level it has. When did you get to where you wanted to make it more of a,

not just a signature, you wanted some pictures. Yeah. You want it. That's, that's a big leap.

That's my question. I love the superlatives too. I was, I forgot what that was handwriting.

Best signature. We have in there. Best, most likely to what? I don't think I made the superlative.

Yeah, probably the most likely to drop out complain. Yeah. But when, when did you want to

make it more visual? Was that all part, was that, was that part of it from the jump or did that

come later? I think part of it came with time. Um, you know, so when I first started with the

Lollapalooza and filling this one out, the only pen I had was just like a micron 08 pen. And so

it was like basically all black and white. And I'll be honest, the community of Bonnarooo is unlike

any other music festival I've been to. I've been to Coachella, the Lollapalooza, Shaky Knees,

I've been to a music midtown, butch other smaller festivals here in Georgia. And the community of

Bonnarooo is just something genuinely so special. I mean, the people there are so full of trinkets

and gifts and beautiful ideas. And, um, and so just going to Bonnarooo, the amount of stickers

I got in the first book was like, oh my gosh, I think I didn't have it in here in this fun

facts page, how many stickers were placed. Um, and let's see here's, let's go fun facts. So

total signature count 1074, legible signatures. Um, most frequent names were David and Jack,

which each appeared six times. So you even have the whole thing cited and everything in the back.

I have, I have all the names alphabetized. Oh my God. So every single name that I could make out,

um, the sticker count, the first book was 65 stickers were placed in the first book. And then

the sticker counts in the second book. Let's see if we go to our fun facts page here.

Let's see. We had way more stickers this year. We were fully decked out. Hell of a passion project.

Yeah. Oh, I made the Bonnarooo logo out of candy. That was really fun. That's pretty neat. Yeah. We

got, we had candy in our mailbox. We had candy and cigarette. Okay. Here we go. Here's the, uh,

the fun fact age and the list of all of the names over here alphabetized as well. Um,

total pages 242 pages, uh, six Polaroids added 154 stickers place. Uh, I took a total on my camera of

1190 images, uh, 1011 unique contributions, uh, 328 trinkets gifted. And those trinkets that were

gifted were all completely photographed. Uh, every single trinket, except down on every single

trinket was photographic. He's given to us, which is really fun to go through and explore. Um, but

yeah, so it's more than just the scans of the pages and, uh, you know, pictures of the people.

It's also stuff that would maybe be akin to an actual yearbook yearbook or at least as much of

a yearbook as it can be in, um, in Bonnarooo terms. And then I have the, someone had a good idea of

putting the lineup on the back of it, which I thought was really cool. So that's really fun.

Um, but yeah, so this, this is the first, first one. And then this was last year's 2023

and then 2024 I'm planning on doing it again, but I've learned a lot from both of these years.

And I think next one's going to be the best one I've made so far. We should have given every year.

It will continue. Should have given you a heads up with this question, but I'm, I'm guessing you've

been asked before. What are the memorable, uh, stories? What are the ones that stand out?

From last year in particular, uh, I got to meet I am Bonnarooo, uh, David Bruce from I am Bonnarooo.

I have it on my list to get to it. Go ahead. Yeah. Love me some David Bruce. Yeah. David Bruce. I

found out about his work the first year I went to Bonnarooo and I was like,

oh no, he's already doing the yearbook. Like I'm too late. The Bonnarooo yearbook project's

already taken up. Um, but his was different. He was shooting everything on film and stories.

And I love his work. And the first year I was trying to find him or I was going to go and find

him, but something happened and I ended up not seeing him, but I messaged him on Instagram after

Bonnarooo was over. And he was like, come find me next year. And so I was planning on going to see

him, but I was at, we're in the woods. I think it was honestly like Wednesday night. So the festival

hadn't even started yet. And someone signed the yearbook and they were like, have you met David?

And I was like, who's David? And he was like, I am Bonnarooo. And I was like, no, he's like,

wait right here. He runs off to like towards the stage at we're in the woods, comes back with David

Bruce, someone who I've been trying to meet for like over a year at this point. And he's just like

right there. I'm like, well, hi, nice to be at you. And so I got him to sign it. And then I just

talked to him about the project a little bit in the elevator pitch of what it was and what I was

doing. And I got some high praise from him and ended up messaging him on Instagram and was like,

hey, I would love to feature some of your work in the Bonnarooo yearbook. I think it'd be really cool

if I could get some photos of yours to, you know, add to the book and of course,

write a little blurb about you if you're okay with that. And he said, yes, which is really cool. So I

actually have right in here. Yeah, Evan Bonnarooo is, is I noticed in your gallery. Yeah. Yeah.

So I have a little page about him, what he does and what he represents and everything. And some

of his photography and his photography is just amazing. And so there's some yesterday or the

day before. Some really cool. So cool. Yeah. Yeah. I guess for those that don't know a real, just

Dave's, he, I mean, it's, it's all about the people, right? I mean, he, he, he shoots the

shows too for, for fun, but his, his main thing is, is looking at, right? Yeah. It's kind of what

you're, like you said, he kind of doing a similar idea of what you were doing. I see why you at

first were like, God shucks, but yeah, it's a different concept and there's room for everybody

to play in this creative space. That to me, it's not a competition. That's the thing about this

festival. There's so many different things, Avenue, whatever. I mean, you got this thing.

I am Bonnarooo. David has his thing. We have this podcast now going on eight years.

I'm trying to get like you guys, I'm trying to get like you guys go eight years. It takes 20 years

but it's, it's well worth it. It's a ton of fun. So, um, what about, uh, is this going to be a

yearly thing for you with Bonnarooo? Because it didn't start here, but it looks like it's kind of

settling here. And I don't mean settle in the word, like, cause you don't want to get bigger and

better. Just mean it feels like you've found a place where this might be where you can utilize

it the best. Yeah. And the thing with Bonnarooo is I want to make it my home base for this project

because I'll be honest, I love attending use of festivals also. Um, and I'm completely funding

every single aspect and doing every single aspect of this book from the photographing the pages with

sparkly glitter pens and reflective stickers and trying to figure out how that all works.

To, you know, concepting and designing and putting all the images in. I mean, it's,

it's a big undertaking and takes up festival time that I could just be going around, you know,

watching shows, but I really do enjoy the process. And I think it's a lot of fun. And I think the

ability for people to contribute to a shared artwork and then be able to see it in print,

I think it's just so cool. Just it's so worth the effort that goes into it.

Along those lines, where did the book, I mean, had you done, I know you said somebody said,

Hey, it's like a yearbook. And you went ding, ding, ding. But had you done books before? I mean,

No, I have no experience. Is it about the book for you? Or is it about the process?

It's, it's both. At this point, I think I'm trying to refine my skills at making the printed book and

just try and make the best actual finished product as I can. Because I think as I start

to think about this concept more, it'd be really fun to have festivals either, you know, pay for

me to come to the festival and do this project, or, you know, be able to at least help pay for

my ticket and you know, how expensive a bar can be just all the things you need and,

yeah, blah, blah, blah. I mean, I see what you're doing here a little bit and I do the

exact same thing and I have for years. Yeah, you find, there's no shame in that at all,

especially if you're doing something you believe in, which clearly, clearly you are. So,

I definitely love the process. Does this, does Bonnaroo, do you see it being on your June calendar

going forward for the foreseeable future? My brother, I already bought tickets. Me and my

girlfriend are going VIP. So, we brought it as soon as those dropped. We got the earliest,

earliest possible. So, you're hooked, man. You're hooked. I love it. Yeah, of course. I'm obsessed

with Bonnaroo now at this point. So, it'd be hard not to go. I know Russ has the question. Go ahead.

How do we get it? Yeah, you do. You're always the one that's like, how do we, is there a dedicated

PBR page? How do we find your book? Yes, so, if you go to festybooks.com or Bonnarooyearbook.com,

you can go to either one, F-E-S-T-I-B-O-O-X dot com. And I also made a special promo discount code

ahead of time for you guys. So, if you're listening to this right now, the What Podcast gets you 50%

off the book. Look at this guy. I love it. I just wanted to give that to you guys. Look at it. I'll

apologize now for what you don't know. We're not sure if we want this guy on or not. We don't know

if this is going to work out or not. Yeah, one thing I said to Brian is, I don't want to be this

guy's marketing, but I love it. That is great, man. Good work. Good work there. I just wanted to

do a little bit of that. So, 502. You said 50, 50%. Yeah, well, I'll be really transparent,

actually, and let you guys in on kind of just what's like the operating costs of getting the

book printed. Sure. So, the design software that I use, it only lets me use one publisher,

which is Blurb. Now, it's like the easiest design book software. I mean, a monkey could use it,

me, aka. It's like the only thing I could really get my head around for making the book. But,

I ordered 50 books, and it came out to like $70 per book, which is like around three grand.

I sold, I think this year, like 30 something copies. So, I still have like 20 copies left that I'm

just kind of sitting on. The thing about it is it's limited edition, so it's only ever going to be

printed ever 150 times. So, that was kind of where I put it for marketing. I did, if you were

signing the yearbook, it was on presale for $69.99 plus $10 shipping. So, it's like at cost,

completely. And even I did $10 for shipping, but like it costs like $12 to $15 to ship it per.

I think so. I basically have lost money still on this. But, the caveat is after the presale ends,

I put it up to $200. So, hopefully any copies will at least get me back to net zero. But,

for the What Podcast, if you love bomberoo, if you're about the project, I cut in half,

so it's $100. But, it's limited edition, and it's super cool. It's got a bunch of really

high-res photography. Doing photography for 10 years. So, do this for me. You answered my question,

which was something memorable, and David Bruce certainly. But, grab one of the books and just

open it up and read. Sure. Good call. I really want to hear. Yeah, I'll get the original book out.

There was one that like basically made me cry. Yeah, I mean, I can only imagine what people

wrote. Yeah, you get them at the right time or the wrong time. You never know what you're gonna get.

And, that could be a fascinating exercise itself, whether you're looking for you. I mean,

some people are just gonna want to see their name. I think I want to go back and relive their memory.

Yeah, I mean, and then some people are gonna want to relive others or learn others. If I open my

high school yearbook, it'd be like, never change. Stay cool. Stay cool. Never change. I mean, here's

just like a couple examples of some like, you know, just some sweet messages. So,

the universe is beyond thankful that you exist, Meg Hahn. I'm so happy you're here to read this.

I love you and you are doing so well. I'm proud of you and everything you do. And these are people

you do not know, right? These are just randoms. This entire book is completely filled out.

It's the most popular guy in the South.

Okay. And there's this one. I don't remember exactly. I should have

put more specific sweet messages. We should have asked you ahead of time to.

It's okay. There was one. Oh, here we go. I don't really care. Just open one and read it.

Okay. Dad, you would have loved Rue. It's my first time taking Oasis. I know you're here with us.

Kate Dillon. And when I read that for the first time, like sitting in my car at the end of the

day, after like going around, getting hundreds of signatures from people, just reading that was just

like, yeah, yeah. I got a little over-clemped right then. Just, you know, it's just like crazy.

We got engaged on the farm, Haley and Beth 2024.

Let's see. This radiate positivity sticker. Someone here wrote this phrase,

parentheses, and place the change my perspective on life. Radiate positivity, spread love,

show love. Tiffany at Olive Moon, the Tanacles. You are loved and treasured. Keep spreading your

light. Year seven and three here. I fell in love on the farm. There was a really cool page.

There was a really cool page about vultures and like talking about how vultures don't actually

spread disease. And it was like a kind of PSA about vultures and like save the pictures. I

thought that was really cool. Speaking of MDMA, right? But then there's, you know, also just like

really random funny stuff, you know, like someone just wrote squirting contest.

There's like a whole range of various legible, illegible. Oh, I bet there's some ridiculous

ones. Yeah. There was this guy, flow away 10 K who made these like Polaroid Pokemon stickers.

Yeah. So that was like trading cards. Yeah. And all individual stickers here, which was really cool.

But he's his whole project was giving away 10,000 Polaroids, which I thought was really cool.

But there's just so many fun, intricate little, there's like a whole page about jellyfish,

pretty much babies first grew. I don't know if this is all completely backwards to the camera,

but we can say, okay. But that's so cool. It's so full. And I mean, if, if, if only it were a

keepsake for you, right? If that was the only thing that it was, that's pretty damn cool. It's so great.

Here, like for example, this page right here, right? This one reads, this is Sultra Kitty.

Sultra Kitty has a quest for you. Show pleur wherever you may go. Show compassion and be kind

to all kinds. I was just like, that's cool. So I said, I wrote back in the book and I said,

thank you Sultra Kitty for your pleur requests. I will not fail. Sultra Kitty. Yeah. Yeah. Time is

the only real currency. What better way to spend it than at woo and then like a really cute little

clock. Um, but I mean, you could just go through for so long. Uh, you know, like

printer ink is an aphrodisiac, but what, who brought that to the fest? You know what I mean?

Like there's so many stickers in here. So good printer ink is an aphrodisiac. Yeah. What the hell?

Then my brother who this was, I brought my brother Joshua actually with me last year too. And it was

his first time ever at a music festival ever, ever, ever. So that was really cool. Good to bring

him in. He put this one in and then someone put this one in like a couple of days later.

And so that became the bookies page. Um, your brand hasn't made it. If you haven't become a

dead Steely at some point. I mean, it's just so cool. The stuff people put in. Um, and sometimes

I would like leave the book with someone and they would just like go to town for, you know,

30 minutes, just writing stuff or people would write a little something and then go on. And the

interactions last anywhere from like a couple of minutes to like close to an hour sometimes. Um,

and it's just so fun to meet the community, uh, hear people's stories. And then at the end,

just go through and just look at it. I mean, it's just like, you know, we got the SpongeBob page,

the crazy SpongeBob's. It's just so much in here. Um, and it's, it's just great. And so I'm really

excited to be able to share it and talk about it. And if you see me, uh, and my girlfriend,

who will be walking around the farm, I'll probably be wearing something similar to this.

I like your boy scout looking. Yeah, I was going to, you know, I got your, uh,

oh yeah, your whole, the whole thing. And I got the shorts on. Oh my God, this guy,

look at this guy. I'll probably be wearing a matching outfit of varying patterns,

but something along these lines is what you can, what you can expect to see.

Big difference from the shy guy that didn't know how to talk to anyone.

Yeah, no shit. Big difference. Yeah. It just takes doing it thousands of times. You get really good

at it turns out it's just like a muscle, you know, you need to practice and just get out of your

comfort zone and just talk to the people that you're energetically drawn towards. And you have no

idea what doors will open from that. Um, and that's actually how I met my girlfriend was through

the racing, just going up and talking to people, not with the intention of dating, but just

to meet people. Um, and yeah, so I think it's, it's a great skill and it's really fun at festivals.

It's really easy to go in with a book, write the name of the festival, the year, and just say,

Hey, do you want to sign by yearbook and see what goes from there? Last one for me real quick. Do

you have anybody, any ideas to put people on the ground in other cities to do another Coachella?

I mean, you can't probably run off to Coachella every year or like a coalition of any kind or,

or the one man band at this point. It's currently one man band. I've been teetering back and forth

on the concept of whether I want to get like a full team and actually make this like a full on

business and like go the full route or if I just want to kind of see what it is, you know,

which is just me at a music festival, going around, dating, saving your trees and making a

cool one off book if you want to copy of it. You know? Um, so it's been, it's been a lot of fun.

Well, I will, from my perspective, we are doing exactly what you're doing. That's why that we

started this. I just like talking to people about Bonnarooo. We figured out everyone that we know is

talking about Bonnarooo year round. And so let's do it. You're doing exactly what we're doing just

in a different way. I love it. That's awesome. Hey, Caleb, thanks so much for jumping on. Um,

I guess if you want to throw out just people, way people can get ahold of you, the little mini call

to action here on the way out, if you want to do that. Yeah, sure. My personal Instagram, if you

want to reach out to me directly is at Carious, C-A-R-I-A-S. Um, the project is at Festy Books on

Instagram and the website is bestybooks.com or you can go to Bonnaroooyearbook.com as well. And also

if you put in code the what podcast at checkout, you get it's percent off. It's one guy's got it

all taken care of on the day of man. Caleb dude really appreciate it. Uh, the, all of it coming

on the last minute, being ready, being prepared and having it together for us. What a cool project

you got going with. Let's wish you all the luck. Thank you so much for that. I really appreciate

it. And I will see y'all on the farm this year. I want in that book. I'll be probably posting either

in the Reddit, uh, or on my social somewhere, uh, places to meet up as we get closer to the date.

Um, we'll make it happen for sure. Yeah. I'd love to love to. Thanks, man. Awesome. Thank you guys so

much. Appreciate it. Yeah. So, uh, I mean, what do you say about this? This guys, I keep being

surprised by this festival. Me too. You know, and it seems like I could say why Barry, or you could

say somebody could be like, why are you surprised? You've been doing it's just because it's just it,

the fun and innovation of people's minds at this festival, the creativity unlocks, the imagination

that people know they have deep down that sometimes has to be just beat out of them. Sometimes it

happens there all the time and is usually on accident. And that's what makes it so, so amazing

to me. So yeah, I I'm always surprised you shouldn't be bright. No, I am. I still am too.

Very much. And I was glad to hear him bring up David Bruce, cause I could tell all three of us

are thinking this is a lot like I am Bonnarooo and then he brings it up and. Yeah, I cheated

cause I saw his, uh, his photo gallery last night and I was like, Hey, there's our guy. I am Bonnarooo.

So we'll, I'll, we'll probably go down that road and he, he brought it up and his excitement to

meet, you know, I know, I know, uh, Bruce is loving that loving it and, and he should cause he does

great work and he deserves it. So how cool is that? The degrees of separation always are just like

really? Is it just that it's that close? Huh? That's pretty cool. It is. Yeah. We should

probably get him on back at some point, have him back on the show, catch up. Yeah. I am Bonnarooo

for sure. Yeah. I mean, David's story, if you don't know, if you're new to this show, look up,

I am Bonnarooo. It's he, his story is just like Caleb's is just like ours. You know, just go to

this thing and fall in love and have a sparkle, you know, whatever, I have an idea and then it

becomes a thing and the Bonnarooo people are quick, um, to jump on it and help in any way they can.

And the, you know, the fans are love it. Yeah. If you think, if you've got an idea and it's,

and it's got, and it's not just some throw away, I'm stoned and drunk in the middle of the night

idea. You got a real idea and you really push it and you, and you put a lot of energy and effort

into it. The somebody at Bonnarooo is going to notice. Yeah. They pay attention to all the

adjunctive ancillary things going on. Um, we've got to know some people, uh, early on through the

industry. Most those people from my, in my circles, they're long, long gone. And the handful that are,

there's a couple still skeleton types, but the rest are, you know, are people that I still have

to remade. Who are you again? Yep. You know, I could be like, well, I've been doing this for 20 years.

Like, okay, well you can do it. You want to keep doing it? So if you just have a great attitude

and continue to do what you're doing, Bonnarooo themselves will notice because they pay attention.

Absolutely. That was a lot of fun. And, uh, to say we, I don't know when you actually first

heard from Caleb Bryan, but I mean 20 hours ago, that's what I've, what a great, uh,

what a great find. Uh, that's awesome. So very cool. So we need a question for next week and,

uh, we're still getting, um, uh, getting, getting your entries for our ticket giveaway entries. Yeah.

And thank you so much for all that. And we'll, we'll be dragging that out as long as they'll

let us honestly. Um, yeah, we do need to find an end point for that. Yeah. And we'll, we'll get there.

We got it. We still got a long way to go. It'll go fast, but we still have a long way to go. Uh,

we got a new question. Let's get that after we go ahead and revisit what we've got from, um,

from taco. How about that? Yeah. Rush, you've got some

entries already. What was the question last week? Is it, I've already forgotten.

Just make it up, make one up. Well, we've just piggybacked off Brian's, uh, assertion that the

2025 lineup is as good, if not better than 2020. And, uh, so we got some answers to that. I think

I'll go ahead and play one now. This is, uh, this is from Lena. Hello friends at the What Podcast.

My name is Lena and I unfortunately do not have any awesome Bonnarooo decor behind me because I'm

in a temporary college apartment, but I did hang up my flip turn memorabilia collection and I'm very

excited that they will be on the farm. As I talked about in my voicemail a couple of weeks ago,

I'm coming down here because I have both lineups pulled up next to each other and I'm going to

take the unpopular opinion here that I do think the 2025 lineup beats the 2020 lineup for a few

reasons. It was hard for me to say this because I absolutely love that this lineup has Tamenpala,

Lana Del Rey, and Miley Cyrus. And we all know that everyone has been wanting Miley Cyrus at the farm

for a very long time, as well as Tamenpala. And the fact that Lana Del Rey is not even the headliner

for that day is pretty incredible. I also am a huge glass animals girl, but we get them this year,

so that's great. But this 2025 lineup, I think has a lot of special features that's going to put it

ahead of 2020. Uh, first of all, the fact that this King Gizzard residency is just hidden up in the

corner over here is crazy. You can miss it if you didn't look close enough. And I only know a few of

their songs, but I'm very excited to experience that live. I think it's going to be amazing.

We also have some amazing headliners, multiple very big names in every line that aren't even

considered the main headliner. On Thursday, I think this is another thing that really puts 2025

ahead is that Thursday is becoming a mainstream day. And we all know that real Bonnarooians are

going to come on Thursday. Anyways, sorry, not real Bonnarooians. That was a little aggressive.

Um, everyone's welcome to Bonnaroo, but if you're a big Bonnaroo person, you're going to come on

Thursday anyways, but I think it's amazing that they're pushing for these bigger artists on

Thursday. And I'm also very excited for the infinity stage and the undercard is just fantastic on this

lineup. And of course flip turns on it. I'm going to keep bringing them up. So yeah, that's, that's

my opinion. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Wow. What a great, that's exactly what I'm talking

about right there. As far as, you know, just something to come and have fun with. And I just,

I don't think it's that outlandishly crazy and hot take ish to say that this one is, is a little bit

better. And I, she agrees and I love that she does. It might be a simple- She brought a PowerPoint

presentation. I love everything about that. That Thursday is so strong and Thursday just didn't

used to be. And now it is. And so that's for me. She, she came with, she came with points.

Very good work. Thank you very much. That was awesome. What else? I got one more video. This

is from Andrea. This is from a couple of weeks back. We can play this one here real quick.

All right, Andrew. When the first thing I heard about this year's lineup was that Justice was

going to be performing, I already knew that I didn't know what to expect. Bonnarooo has

outdone themselves this year, in my opinion. There is an undercard three to four deep that is just

insane and impressive, let alone the headliners. Not all of them are my cup of tea, but that's part

of Bonnarooo is getting to learn what other artists are there that you like. But with Hosey are closing

out. We've got Dom Dalla, Glass Animals, Foster the People, Marina, Tape, Bee. I mean, it's just

unreal. Queens of the Stone Age are going to be there. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.

Love it. It's just going to be an incredible year. So I can't wait. Looking forward to it.

Awesome. Very cool. That's so cool. We all agree it's a good lineup. We all agree. I don't mean

us three. I ain't heard a person. Well, there was that one guy. Oh well, the one guy. Yeah,

I forgot. The one guy. Worst lineup ever. Worst lineup ever. Sounds like me 15 years ago.

The point of this is we've got two tickets plus camping to give away and we're asking a different

question every week. Shameless just because we're trying to get activity and plus we want to hear

from everybody. That was cool. I love that too. That was both very good jobs there. At the end of

the day, it will be just kind of pick one out. But we are going to go through everything. We talked

about this a few weeks back. I mean, these are submissions we're going to see and we're going to

go through them. Starting to think in addition to the two tickets, we need to maybe come up with

some other prizes. I'm running out of my cool swag over these years. I've had a couple people

ask for t-shirts. We need to get some merch. We need to come up with stuff like that and I'd love

to send something to everybody because it's really cool. Maybe we get with Caleb and throw a Bonnarooo

yearbook in or something. Maybe. How about that? Just popped into my head. How about that for idea,

guy? That's my man right there. That brain doesn't ever shut down. It never stops. It's not necessarily

churning out good info. I like it. So what about our questions? Gary, you had it this week.

Maybe next week, I will ask you two because we've running long but it occurred to me. Spend some

time on it. I would love to know which shows you would like to do over. Which Bonnarooo set that you

attended do you wish you could do over? I love this question. I love it and I do want some time

to sit on it for us. We will revisit this for us next week. Please bring us some of that and we'll

include it in the next week's show because I think this is an incredibly simple yet effective question

because boy, I could do this one for a while. I will give an example. Beastie Boys. I was just

not in the right headspace and I would give almost anything to be able to revisit that show.

Well, knowing what I know now, yes. And I would redo that show because I wasn't there at all.

I was there and I wouldn't like a bad attitude. I just was not in the right headspace.

It happens.

Anyway, so I'm sure we all have them. I will work on this list. I'll start it this big and

work it down for Brevity for the show. I love the question and would love to have y'all's

feedback and interaction when we do this next week. Maybe we'll make a whole segment out of it.

Exactly. Yeah, please do. Go to the whatpodcast.com. It's got all the ways you can enter. We are

accepting voicemails, emails, faxes. Yeah, faxes. You want to bang out something on words only? We

can do that too. The video and stuff, that's clearly for what we do on the YouTube platform.

It's fun when that happens, but we know everybody can't necessarily do that. So whatever you got,

we'll take it. Yes. We have other news. Russ, you went out of town. You had a meetup. Tell us about

your trip to Nashville. Yeah, this week we recorded this on Sunday mornings. They come out Wednesdays,

but last week after we got done hanging up with this show, I hopped in the car and went to Nashville

and made it back to East Nashville for the Totem meetup. Yeah, that math on time looked like you

were crunched. Did you make it? Did you make it on time? Yes, it worked out perfectly. Got everything

all set up. It was back at Rosemary Beauty Queen, which is where Bonnarooo did their little meetup

thing a few months ago. It was much, much colder this time. We weren't outdoors. We were indoors,

thankfully. But Daniel and Sharla, they put on that thing with the Totem board. Shana came down

all the way from Indiana. Overall, there was probably about 20 or so people. They gave a little

presentation, just kind of the state of Totem and how they've done over the past year, what they're

planning to do next year. If you don't know, this is a nonprofit they started to help enable people

that might not necessarily get to go to Bonnarooo to actually attend. They have a program where they

partner up mentors and mentees if you've never been and you don't know what to do. They can

get you set up with somebody that can kind of walk you through it. They're working on a scholarship

program. They've got people picked out for that. Their long-term goal is they want to do an

international cultural exchange. They want to reach out to maybe a group from Haiti that plays music,

bring them to the farm and actually get to kind of experience that. Yeah, it's not just,

I mean, I've been involved with it. I've been on the board since the start. It's not just like

giving people who maybe can't afford tickets. That's not the idea. It's more about-

A little more educational, maybe. Is that the right way to put it?

Well, more about getting people who can then take what, you know, and grow it, become like us,

become regular goers and not just for Bonnarooo but other festivals. And pay it back and pay it

forward. Yes, they're looking to spread it forward for sure. Exactly. So it's a big deal.

Yeah, the pictures look good. You guys, from the Instagram view, it looked like you guys had a big

time in East Nashville. And East Nashville is one of the coolest communities you're going to spend

time at in the entire state of Tennessee. Yeah, super fun. After the little presentation,

we walked down the street, which was probably dumb because it was like 18 degrees. Yeah, we

walked to- Killed with cold here recently.

That was awful. Yeah, I walked to a little taco place and had dinner there. So

it was good catching up with everybody. I did meet Amy, who I remember last week, she

sent us a voice memo of some recommendations, including, what was it? Joey Valance.

The one that she described as Gen Z Beastie Boys. Oh, right. Right. Oh, that's right.

Gen Z Beastie Boys. Speaking of the Beastie Boys. And I looked them up and that's exactly

on point and it looks super fun. So that's on my list of shows now. I don't know how deep in the

lineup you all have gotten. I haven't even started yet. And I kind of am waiting for when we do our

jumping off discovery episode whenever we decide to do it. We have time. And I'm going to see

Billy Strings in a month. So I've been catching up with some Billy, but I'm going to dive into

that, but I have not yet and I'm looking forward to it. Cool. Speaking of artists, I want to

mention too Flip Turn just released their second album just this week. Yeah, they are going places.

Yeah. They played Kimmel the other night. I think they're making the whole late night talk show

circuit. They look like they look even more the part than they did just two or three years ago.

The last time we talked to them and they're, you know, they they've been dabbling everything,

video games, music, maybe they're getting music towards maybe even like jingles commercials. I'm

not sure about that yet, but that would tend to maybe lead that way. They're going places and

that's cool because it's fun music. It's good stuff along those lines, just to tease a little bit.

When we do maybe not the deep dive, but one of we're going to have a special guest,

our own Brad Steiner. We're going to have him back on to talk about. He'll give us his picks.

Brad's going to at some point, he's going to grace us with his valuable time. So that will either

please some people or piss off some people, but we're going to have Brad back on.

We need the commanders to lose first because he is, he can't focus. He can't think any outside of

except NFL. He has beat me into the corner about dragging me to Mets games and convincing me that

to stop hating the Mets because I'm a big Braves fan for anybody didn't know. And I've, he's,

he's converted me to a not hatred of the Mets. I can't do this for every one of his teams. I don't

Yeah. I mean, by the time you hear this, the Superbowl will be set. So I'm sorry about this.

I hope it's not Washington.

Anyway, so that's coming up. So, all right. I look forward to that a lot. Yeah, that's gonna be fun.