The What Podcast
Ultimate Bonnaroo Camp Prep: Packing, Planning, and Survival Tips
Season 8, Episode 17
Published April 30, 2025
https://beta.thewhatpodcast.com/episode/ultimate-bonnaroo-2025-camp-prep-packing-planning-and-survival-tips

I think that that's a secret that's been figured out by a lot of people, possibly.

But I had never seen it until the last year or two. And as a shoe holder thing, it seems like a very

grandma thing to have that I don't know why anybody would want as what it's designed for.

But for a Bonnarooo camp, it's perfect. It's the best shelving system and you can just move it around.

And who introduced that idea to to y'all's group or was that just old news that we were dumb and late to?

If you haven't started packing your gear for Bonnarooo, you should start now. We're 46 days away.

We thought it'd be a good idea to put some people together to talk about just that.

What you should be doing now to get ready for Bonnarooo. We've got a special-

Less than 46 days at this point.

Is that the last thing?

When you hear that, that's right. When we did this, it was 46.

But we thought it would be a good idea to do a live episode and we did. We got some special guests

and we had some people join us in the chat room to talk about what you should be doing now.

Things like getting your car checked, making sure your tent hasn't been eaten by rats,

start buying some of your supplies. So you're, you know, five, 10 bucks here, five, 10 bucks there

instead of all at once. So that's what this episode is about. This is the What Podcast.

I'm Barry. That's Russ. That's Brian. How are you guys? You ready? Are you packed?

Do you have your corner? You got your pile?

I do have the section in the garage that is where things go. When Bonnarooo ends, it's a,

like an actual garbage looking pile. And then after about four months, it starts to turn into

some semblance of a, I'm putting in an order. And then by the time like December rolls around,

I'm getting ready for everything being together. Then I got to pull it all out and figure out what

got lost in the shuffle. And just like the things we'll talk about here in just a few minutes, but

man, it's getting here fast. Time flies. And I am, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm nervous. It's going so quick.

Yeah. Yeah. Me too. For sure. How about you, right? I'm the complete opposite, Brian. I come home,

I have a system. I come home, um, used to be, especially when I had a bigger tent that would

get wet, I had to let it dry. But when I come home, I repack everything and put it in the big Tupperware

things. And then it goes away. And I do that almost immediately. Cause I know that if I'm, if, if I do

what you do, I won't touch it. Yeah. I'm not suggesting people follow my lead on this. Yeah. Yeah.

No, I, I just know, I know me and I know that if I, you know, if I leave the, the air mattress over

in a corner, I won't find it again. So I know me well enough to know I need to put it all in one

place. Well, one of the things I'm not proud of myself is, is I can fall into too deep procrastination

at times. And then I can just come out of it, like just like my hair on fire and all of a sudden have

a week at some random time where I want to get Bonnaroo stuff together that day. And I'll do it for

a whole weekend. So that's, that's kind of how it works for me. I apologize real quickly. I want to

get this out of the way before I forget. Uh, with this scratchy voice, you'll have to listen to it

for the next, uh, however long the show goes. But I was in Nashville last night, uh, I talked about

last year being the Brian summer of fun. Well, this is kind of like the Brian spring of fun. Um,

I'm finding myself at shows regularly and it's been so much fun. And my Pearl Jam run

is coming up next week. Uh, I'll also a tidbit on that real quick too, but I wanted to shout out to

Grant. I forgot, um, the last name, of course you knew I would have told you I would, but I did

remember Grant and I was at the lot at the widespread panic show and a grant came up and said,

hello, regular listener. And I just always find that stuff so cool. And it wasn't just

a passing, how you good to see it. We sat around and way more than small talks, talk festival,

talk, Bonnarooo, talk panic. It was really good time. So thanks for saying hello. And then, um,

a shout out to speaking of just like kind of paying attention to live music and things going

on here in the spring. And everybody's so excited. Uh, at least a portion of the rew bus, uh, crew

has been out in Vegas over the weekend this past week for, for dead and company. And, um,

Evan Bonnarooo who was with them is going to be on with you guys next week to, uh, to talk

Bonnarooo and schedule and all those things, and probably a little bit of a, of a review of their

trip to Vegas as well. So I want to say thank Evan for that, but I will, I always want to be here.

I'll always try to make it happen, but this is my, uh, Pearl Jam split over a weekend. I'll be in

two different cities, two shows, four days. And I am crazy excited for this one because last year

when I went up to see him in New York, New York is so all in consume all consuming, you know,

like everything is just so wildly to me. Awesome. Some people might say Terry crazy. Yes. The Pearl

Jam show was fun. I was so happy to go with our buddy Brad Steiner from, you know, originally

from the show, but this is different. This is getting a bunch of Pearl Jam, but he's Brad.

Brad couldn't wait for the show to be over. Like I could tell it all the time. He couldn't wait to

leave. And it was one of the few times I had a little leverage just because he was giving it to,

he was letting me have the leverage. It's just like, we'll be done in a little bit. You just,

you'll be fine. I'm going with a bunch of Pearl Jam heads in Atlanta, Nashville. So I am really

excited about that. So Evan will be in for me next week. Thank you so much for that and hope you guys

enjoy it. And I just want to make sure you get that out there. And Hey Grant, anybody like that,

if you see us out, please say hello. It means the world does. It means the world does. We were

talking about it before the show, before we started recording. It really does mean a lot. Just like

Brock a few weeks ago that spotted us. Yeah, yeah. Brock at the Dogs in the Pile show. If Dogs in a

Pile goes places, that guy was on top of that one before we were. So we'll give you credit once or

twice maybe. And then we'll say we discovered them if that ever happens. Very cool. But yeah,

we got a couple of guests that you've seen on the show before today and looking forward to talking

to them. Yeah, we've got Beth and Abby. Beth who is a, now a camp mate. I feel, I say it every time.

I feel like we crashed their party, but they've been so kind to let us in. We did a little, but they let us.

I think it was more of a merger. Yeah, they let us. An accidental merger. Well, because I think what you mean by this,

maybe I'm putting words in your mouth. We crashed their party because they had so much more things

we wanted and then gave us food and storage. And the only thing I contributed to their camp at all

was some cold brew. I think Brad, their Brad had one cold brew out of my cooler. So there's my

contribution. One cold brew. Yeah, it counts. But I will say this. A $4 contribution. And you both correct me if I'm wrong, but

we said it before and correct me if I'm wording this wrong, but we, I felt like when we went last

year going in, it felt like, I don't know how much more longer we can do this. But when we left- A little.

It was, no, I'm in. This is not only does Bonnarooo feel like it got me back, but now we have a new camp.

Yeah. A new sort of, you know, our Camp Nut Butter changed. A lot of the same people don't go anymore.

Out of the ashes of our old camp and group. Yeah, we've kind of

reformed and gotten bigger and better, I think. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, from every angle on Bonnarooo

last year, which we won't get into now, but lots and lots of it's back. We're all feeling it. We're

all feel the same thing for different reasons. We're all feeling it. But for us specifically,

with just the anecdotes of our three and a half days that we were all like there together and

doing lots and together a lot, that as we felt like we were losing, you know, everything from our

camping aspect, from it being one of the better you'll ever see to one that's just serviceable.

Like it's just serviceable enough to get by. Well, we have crashed the party and now we have

good friends that we talk from me and Beth talk all the time. And Brad and I know you guys connect

on some other things, Brad, Mike and them. I love it. Love it. That's what this festival is all about.

And what makes it great. As soon as you think, oh, all my friends are leaving. No, yeah, then go make

new friends. Yeah. It's a whole new, it's a new, new era. Just go find more friends because they

want to be your friend. And I hope they feel that way. That's what I mean by crash. That's how I feel.

And they say, man, I hope those guys don't come back. I know what you're saying and why you're

saying it, Barry. I, and I'm the first to say, I think I'm annoying everybody here. I believe that

we are a welcomed addition to their camp. And I know they're a welcome addition to ours. I think so.

Because we've also done, you know, cave fest with them before. It's not just Bonnarooo. We've hung out

with them multiple times. They're cool people. We're lucky. We're lucky to have them. It's enhanced

our experience to be sure. Absolutely. All right. So here we go. This is again, the theme, which we

don't typically have themes, but what you should be doing now to get ready for Bonnarooo. And that's

what we talked about on this live episode. And thanks to everybody that joined in. Pondo, man,

always glad to hear from you, brother, Bonadude, Dan Sweeney, bunch of other people. I don't mean

to leave anybody out, but thank you guys for dropping in and we will see you on the farm.

But here's our, what you should be doing now to get ready for Bonnarooo.

I think we've all had one of those moments where it was our first time and we wish we could do it

again and again and again, right? Whether you're Christmas at age five or you found out that Eddie

Vedder is your spirit animal or it's that first kiss or you realizing that older women with blue

hair are really attractive. Bonnarooo, that first- A lot of angles there, buddy. I know.

I was a, and you can figure out where I'm going with it, but Bonnarooo, your first time is unlike

anything else that I can think of. And it's one of those that I wish I could do over again and

again and again, uh, for many reasons. I wish I knew what I knew, uh, but it was just such an

amazing transformation. And so if you're here and you're listening, it's either your first time

or you're a veteran. I'm here. I'm Barry. I started the very first year, 2002. That's Brian.

He's been going every year since 2002. That's Russ. He started in 2018 when we started this podcast.

With us is Beth. I don't remember what your first year was. What was your first year, Beth?

So that was a long time ago. Oh, four. Oh, four. So, uh, and then Abby, who has another,

also a great story, first time story, uh, which is why you guys are here. So the point of this show

today is what you should be doing right now to get ready. So again, we assume that if you're here,

you're either a veteran, you've done it, or you're a first time. And so we want to talk about

the, the smart things we've done, the bad things we've done, the mistakes that we've made,

the, what we're doing right now to get ready. So, Hey guys, how is everybody?

Good. Good. Tired. Super excited to be here. I'm doing excellent. I just got in town, uh,

about an hour ago from widespread panic in Nashville last night. New hat, everybody. Uh,

excuse my, my terrible voice. It's not going to get better or only get worse. Thank you for your

patience with that, with today's show, but it's, I've only done, there's only been the second live

show I've done with you guys. The, uh, the announcement of the lineup this year and this.

And so, uh, I enjoy, I enjoy doing the live aspect. Yeah, we haven't done a lot of them. So yeah,

hopefully we can do more. Beth, you're on the West coast. I am. Yeah. I'm actually staying at my

friend's house in Seattle this weekend. And Abby, you are where I'm in misery, Missouri.

So we're all across the country. So we're going to talk about what we are doing right now to get

ready because now is the time. Um, actually all year, as we noted, as we do this every week, but,

uh, uh, Beth, you're traveling the farthest. Yeah, let's start there. If we don't care, Barry,

of just her, her coming from that far away. And you know, a lot of, we talked to somebody who came

from Ireland, you know, not long ago, Grenadine, uh, which was a whole wild story, but

3000 miles away or whatever it is, it's certainly a long way.

And maybe when do you start thinking about it, Beth? Cause let's, let's back up a little bit.

We know Beth because we start at the end of last Bonnarooo.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay. But let me, let me back up a little bit. So we know Beth because we randomly

were lucky enough to camp next to you and your friends from Nashville. Uh, right. Um, and so

you've become or we've become, I don't know how you want to claim it. Uh, either we crashed your

party or you crashed our party. We crashed theirs.

I'm fine. Um, but when do you start thinking about next year's Bonnarooo? Wait a minute. We lost her.

We lost Beth. Why don't we jump, why don't we jump to Abby and we can ask the same question.

You're not question. First of all, I'm going to use that misery line next time. Uh, Missouri comes

up. I don't know when it will be, but I'm going to, I'll give you credit the first time after that

is mine. Uh, what about you? Missouri's not down the road. No, no, it's about eight hours, uh, for

where I start to where I finish when I set up on the farm. And, um, I think I start planning, uh,

which of course this is only going to be my second year, but I've not had a day that went by that. I

didn't think about Bonnarooo in some aspect, uh, getting together with friends and deciding

what the camping was going to look like, what we were going to do, how are we going to logistically

make it all happen. Cause we all kind of come from different points in the country as well.

So how many, how many do you, uh, connect with? I mean, your sample size is small. We know that,

but is it a handful or are you coming from multiple States or multiple States? So, uh,

our friend Katrina comes from, uh, up in Chicago. Um, our friends, uh, Delaney and, uh, Johnny and

Tyler and Graham and Frankie, they're all coming from in the Atlanta area. Uh, my friend Madison

and I and Ray come from Missouri. So we all kind of migrate to the farm from these different points.

So how do you, how do you do it then? Uh, group chats, is it, uh, do you have like Google chat?

I mean, what are you guys using? Who's bringing what, you know, all that stuff. Yeah. So we started

mapping out and deciding how we were going to go about it. Um, pretty much the month after

Roo ended last year, we have a shared Google doc, uh, Excel sheet that lists what's needed.

People sign up for different things for those that are in Atlanta. They're signing up for those

bulky or bigger items because they have the beans to get it there a little easier than those of us

that are traveling way yonder. So we have the shared Google doc. We have group chats. Uh,

the girlies all have their own group chat together. Um, and then we have like a group chat

with everybody altogether. So, so who in your group is the taco of ours who gets mad as hell

at the ones that don't pay attention to the Google doc enough. Yeah. The one who says,

I made a Google doc. No, I, our friend Tyler, I believe is the one that set it all up. He did a

great job and we've all just kind of thrown it. We all get so excited to be honest. It's not hard

to get anybody to contribute. Well, don't be like me and ignore the Google doc. Pay attention.

Is it along those lines of seriously, is it pretty active? Everybody's, uh, everybody contributes,

everybody understands that they got to bring something. You don't have any slackers.

No, we really don't. That's it's actually like between all of us, we're all so generous that

we all want to bring everything and provide the things. So we have to like be real with each other

and go, okay, look, we don't need everybody to bring paper towels or why don't you let us bring

these bigger items and you bring, you know, the med kit and all the detail stuff that you're

looking to bring. So it's not a fight, but we're all willing to jump in and everybody's really,

you know, wanting to contribute. That's a very common theme. I would guess in most people's

groups getting together, but yeah, you don't want 50 rolls of toilet paper or paper towels and then

two garbage bags. Like that, that ain't going to work. So yeah, you got to divvy it out. You got

to, you got to delegate very well. So along those lines, who's the worrier? Somebody has to be the

one who says, like Brian just said, we already got 50 rolls of toilet paper. We need garbage.

Who's the one who says, ah, we're missing this. We're missing that.

That's me. I am the natural anxious Annie of the group. I think probably I,

I have a fear of like, I would rather have something and never use it than not have it and be

freaking out about it. So I probably am the one that will end up doubling up on things secretly,

even though we didn't need it just because I, it'll feel better in the back of my mind.

All right. You said something and I was wondering how to bring this up. Cause you can see it's three

bunch of guys. You said you have your own girl chat. Yes. Talk about that a little bit because

Bonnarooo is, as we've said, and this is important. It's a week on the farm in middle Tennessee.

These are not issues that either one of the three of us ever think about, but y'all have to, right?

I mean, yeah. So, yeah. So we, we start kind of rallying of as far as like, okay, planning out,

let's say appointments and needs and things that we want to do for our self-image that we may have

going like waxes or skincare routines and all these other things. But as a female, you do worry

about nature taking its course or different things on the farm. So everybody's kind of ready to prep

and giving each other like tips and tricks to get through it. If you are stuck with that in the heat.

And I think all girls going to the farm that are worried about something like that, there's so many

forums and Reddit specifically like dedicated to that and Tik Toks and different things that you can

look at and kind of get some ideas of how to handle the wonderful life that is the female body

and under those conditions. But also we don't want to annoy the guys in the Thugirt chat because

outfits, like we're planning outfits and themes and talking about what's comfortable, what's not.

So we have our own group chat to not bother them, but they, we do throw in the themes and they're on

board and they're excited to dress up with us as well, but we don't make them sit through the 150

messages a day going back and forth about it. So when y'all are doing your fit checks, right? You

don't, you don't subject that to the entire group. Even, even though I know it's very popular and

people love it, I'm being the jerk about it, but I appreciate that. Yeah. So again,

do you have in your house a corner where everything is piled up?

So my basement just decided to start flooding a lot recently with all the rainy season. Yeah. So

everything is kind of in storage totes anyway, but that's how I travel my roost stuff is everything

is neatly packed in these storage containers that just throw in the car, throw them out. They make

great tables at camp and a place to set things and store things. If it starts raining, you can just

throw everything in the totes. So I've got a stack of those on shelving and they're all kind of

labeled with what's gear, what's like accessories, what's going to be for cleaning supplies and paper

towels and baggies and all that kind of junk. So everything's very gathered at this point,

hydropacks and the shoes that you don't care about that can get muddy and stuff like that's all

packed away, ready to go. And then the canopy, I do need to go get out of my storage unit because

I don't keep that at the house. So one of the reasons that I was excited that you were going

to join us today is because you had such a bad, well, that's not the right word. You had

frustrating and nerve wracking and anxiety. It could have been bad.

Let's bring Beth on before we get started. She's coming back. All right. Hey Beth.

All right. Let's see. Way to ruin the show, Beth.

Well, this is a very Bonnarooo problem because I'm at my friend's house and the Wi-Fi's

just decided to stop working. So we started talking about the anxious groups of, of, of,

of Abby. And then we could go around the room on this and the whole time I'm thinking,

Beth, Aero, ding, ding, ding, ding. She's one of the, she's one of the anxious ones,

but she's coming from the Pacific Northwest, which my goodness, I can't even begin to,

to think about that. We were starting to talk to you before you dropped. Let's go back to that.

Just a quick, as quickly as you, as you can put it together, your thoughts and how you get together

your plans and to get from Washington state to, to middle Tennessee in, in a matter of days in,

in the first or first or second week of June every year. Yeah. It's, it's definitely complicated.

My family is on the East coast. So I try to combine trips with that, which usually makes a

lot of different legs and a lot of packing for different situations. Yeah. And East coast,

we're talking Maine. Yeah. So a lot of my friends are in Philly. Yeah. Yeah. So I usually,

I usually fly to Philly first and then go to Nashville and then go to Maine and then go back

to Philly and then fly home. But I can't do that this year because I teach and my last week of

classes overlaps with Bonnaroo. So I need to fly overnight, Tuesday night to Nashville.

So I just got my flight for that.

Part of what we were talking about was like, do you have like a corner of your, of the house

where everything is packed, your Bonnaroo stuff is packed. Like I do, I have Tupperware,

everything stays in the same place. When I come home, I dry it, I clean it, and it goes right back.

So I know where it is. Is that how you are? I, I would be like that. I would definitely be the party

planner and bring all the fun stuff and have all the backups and everything. But I can't because I

fly and not only do I fly, but my camera is a carry on. So my camera gear takes up one of my

carry ons. So I now keep a lot of stuff in our friend Mike's garage, which is amazing. I have a

whole set of camping gear that is in. He's in, he's in Nashville. He's a Murfreesboro. Yeah.

Murphy. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I've just been kind of building up my collection

of stuff there. The bar was sleeping bag. I have a tent there. I have a moon mat.

So it's all just waiting for me in Mike's garage. So along those lines, what do you do like

during the year, maybe March, February, March of last year, when you say, Oh, I, this would be

cool. I'd like to have that. Do you buy it and ship it to Murfreesboro or do you make him go to

the local REI and get it and pick it up or you have it shipped to his house? Do I? Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, poor Mike. He ends up doing a lot of the black work on this. Not poor Mike. Mike's got it made.

Mike's got it made. He would do it. I'm just wondering how you do that. Yeah. I did send a lot of stuff

last year. Now I pretty much have everything I need there. So it's just going to be packing clothes

and camera stuff. But yeah, I mean, I start thinking about it. I think about gadgets that I want. I

mostly think about, you know, when I'm taking photos, we're supposed to wear black and black's

the worst thing to wear in the heat, in the sun. So right now I'm thinking about lightweight black

shirts that I could find to bring. So I'm going to be shopping for that stuff. So we were just

starting to set the stage. So as I was saying, and then when your internet went away, we crashed your

campsite. You and the three guys from Nashville. Very, very cool people. Very cool to let us sort

of camp next to you guys and we'd become friends. I'd like to hope. But you guys have an amazing

set up. And Brian alluded to it a couple of episodes ago. You got one of those shoe racks

that you hang in the corner and put all of the condiments in. Genius. Yeah. I think that that,

I'm glad you went there real quick. Cause I was thinking about this earlier. I think that that's a

secret that's been figured out by a lot of people possibly, but I had never seen it until the last

year or two. And as a shoe holder thing, it seems like a very grandma thing to have that I don't

know why anybody would want as what it's designed for. But for a Bonnarooo camp, it's perfect. It's

the best shelving system and you can just move it around. And who introduced that idea to y'all's

group or was that just old news that we were dumb and late to? I'm sure that was Mike. I mean,

I've seen it at other festivals that I've been to and it's the sort of thing that I would bring.

But yeah, Mike is really good at thinking about the gadgets and how we're going to set it up. He

added the disco ball last year. He added some lights. He's got that. He added a black stone

so we can cook. Yeah, that black stone was nice by the way. Yeah. And we've always, we've said for

years, don't cook, don't plan on cooking. You don't want anything hot, but I mean, man, that breakfast

and that stir fry was amazing. So what's funny is he cooked a lot of that ahead of time, right? He

did the rice and had all that. So that's one of the things that I wanted to talk about is if you can

plan ahead and think about a Friday night meal or a Saturday breakfast or whatever, right? Yeah. I'm

glad you said plan ahead because I did plan ahead. Oh yeah. What's that? Oh, there we go. I knew

something was missing around here. Something was missing. All right, go ahead. And it wasn't the

second half of that panic show that left me disappointed. Any who will continue.

So Abby, I can't be happy about anything. Abby, does your group do that sort of thing? Do you plan

meals ahead or when you're going to have meals together or is it all free for all?

A little bit of both. So one of our campmates is a master chef from what I hear. And so he,

he is like, if you bring the things and you want it made, like I'll cook it. They do cook at the

campsite a little bit. I think we're kind of on that same train. A lot of people recommended

to me last year, which was like plan on like one meal a day. Once Thursday hits, like in Centro,

the food is phenomenal. I enjoyed everything I had. So I kind of budgeted for that and I brought a

lot of snack. I'm a grazer. I don't like heavy meals when it's hot. Yeah. Protein snack, snack it up.

Yeah. So I like beef jerky and stuff that was in the cooler. That was just easy. Yeah. Stuff that

wouldn't melt, which my poor nutty bars, they did not make it. That's something I won't be bringing

this year. Rookie mistake there, Abby. Rookie mistake. All right. Well, what I'll say about my,

my camping over the last 20 some odd years, it's, it's changed so many, many times. And it's kind of

so much like everything else in my life. About 20 years ago, I was a little head of the curve.

10 years ago, starting to get behind it. Now I don't know what's going on with the latest and

best and greatest. I think a shoe thing hanging on the side is like the greatest innovation I've

ever seen. And it's like, well, yeah, where you been, man? Um, and I, but to reset it slightly

where we were about 10, 12 years ago, Barry, and then taco, you were around about three or four

years after that, you want to see a great camping spot, just come by and see us. We were the gold

standard. Now it wasn't because of what we were doing as much as so many others. We had just,

our network had grown so huge and a little bit of what you guys have already taught, especially you,

Abby, we're kind of talking about the delegation nature and we did that and it works so well until

it just fades off. Things change and move along. And, and now we're kind of wayward lost without a

home crashed with Beth and the, and, and Brad and Mike and the, and the dudes as she often refers

to. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, I think we're on the preface of a, of a new great camp this year. And,

and I am really excited about getting back to not just hoping I make it through the night without

something falling on my tent or the weather taking me out or something like that. Something falling

on your tent would be the best thing that could happen to that tent. Just to ruin it, just to ruin

it. Start over and have a real tent. I have a little hikers camper camp thing that, you know,

like hiker would take with them that he can set up real quick. He crawls in a shoe box,

but it's so comfy once I get in there, it's tiny, you know, it's like a cocoon. They all come out

as a butterfly along those lines. This is one of the things that I wanted to do. So Abby, especially

in both of you, you both have somewhat similar stories though. Their timing is different. You

both had occasions where you showed up and you didn't know anybody, right? Or Abby,

you had your wristband stolen and you got, you got sidetracked and you were alone and you got

separated, I think from your brother, right? And then you managed to find whoever you were going

with and you found it. So, so for that person who's coming for the first time, what is, what is your

best advice? Maybe it's somebody who's coming alone or even for the first time. Or meeting

people from another state or something like that. It's gotta be stressful. I mean,

Brian and I have laughed about it. We've, we're stressed and we're 55 minutes away. We are the

last people on earth that need to be stressed, but we are. I can't imagine eight hours and, and Beth,

I don't even know how you do it. And coming from Ireland, no way, not even, not even in this

lifetime am I doing that. So what is your advice for those, for those people who were coming for

the first time? They're super excited. They're coming to a farm. They're coming for a week.

I mean, what do you tell them? Yeah, let's start with Abby. You go ahead with that one. What do

you think? So one of the things I wrote down outside of like the, what to do to get ready

physically and what to prep for like those long car rides and getting ready that way is to come

up with a plan B like now. And I don't mean plan B like you need it very detailed, but consider like

if it's raining or cold or what you're going to do. And I guess if you're someone that would be

coming alone, the expectations I think come back into play of like, have the idea of like

finding people with similar interests, go to the shows you want and maybe be willing to reach out,

get to know people, link up. And I guarantee by day two, you're not alone the rest of the

festival. Everyone's just so welcoming. And then another plan B situation for like, kind of like

what happened similar to me or some of my group last year. What if your phone or wallet gets

stolen? Like have something kind of in the mindset of like, if this happened, here's what we're going

to do. Maybe have your password shared with somebody you trust that you can get ahold of and

be like, I need to log into my bank. I need to get ahold of so-and-so because they have access

to send me money to a win-mode. It's like a lifeline. Yeah, a little lifeline there. Just have that safety net so that

those things, if they happen, because inevitably they will to some people,

you can continue on with your weekend and have a good time and move past it.

Beth, what are your thoughts on first timers or first, second, third timers that are coming in

different variations and best ways to be at least not let down as much as possible?

Not have your whole week ruined. Yeah, I mean, along with that, I think the best thing that we

started doing was to put all of our phone numbers on our lock screens or phones. So if you drop your

phone, somebody picks it up, they can't get into it. But on the lock screen, I have the dude's numbers

so that somebody could then call my phone. If their intentions are good, then call the dudes,

get my phone back. I think I'm going to start putting some glow in the dark sort of stickers

on things because just for camera gear and everything like that, I've been finding that

I drop things and everything's black and I can't find it. So I'm going to put more neon or

glow in the dark stickers on things, which is not about meeting people. So meeting people, if I lived

closer, I would bring a lot of gadgets that people wouldn't think of that they might need,

like the mallet that Russ has for stakes for your tent and just a lot of little random camping

things that people who don't camp don't always think about. And that's a really good way to make

friends because you see that somebody needs something, you have it to offer them. And that's

how you kind of start conversations with camping neighbors. That's a good one because after 20

years, I still don't have that mallet and I still don't have the things, the simple things.

That's a good one. Yeah, nobody has everything. I like to think that's me, but we also had Denson

in our group. Denson, as I've joked many times, Denson is the guy, you know, you'd say I need a

hammer and he'd say, what do you need, a ball peen or you need like a 20 ounce roofing hammer?

I mean, what are we talking about? Because he's got it. Yeah, he's the classic, the guy that gets

the nickname, the mayor. Yeah, he was our mayor. He's the hunter, the fisherman. He's got the knife.

He's got the extras, you know, stakes for. So yeah, if you're if you're somebody who lives close

and therefore you can, you know, bring that kind of stuff. Duct tape, rope,

extra camp stakes, police tape, tarps, caution tape, caution tape. We have that.

Yeah, what else? People think twice before they tear that caution police tape. Yeah, what else?

But tarps, extra tarps, bungee cords, zip ties, warm clothes, because a lot of people don't know

that it gets cold at night. It can. If I could, I bring extra sweaters and stuff for people.

I'll give you a perfect example. Yeah, exactly. Extra warmth of all the way around. It doesn't

happen every year, but it happens a lot. And I'll give you a good example. I was in Nashville last

night. It's a very warm day, almost 80 for the high, working about 10 degrees lower than we're

expecting, you know, in a month and a half. But it got down about 65 last night. Well, 65 doesn't

sound that chilly. We've had a fire. We've had a fire in the chimney all day. Except for a little

bit of a wind. A little bit of a wind comes through there. Yeah. And all of a sudden the whole damn

place is freezing. Yeah. So it's just, it's just your body temperature just dropping and a lot of

factors there too. So yeah, people have trouble. They like, oh, it's a, oh, thanks, mom. I don't

need a jacket. Actually you do, son. Get a jacket. Yeah. Russ, you're the one for this. You do this

every weekend pretty much. You have the bus, you camp all the time. So you're, you can literally,

you know, if, if I called and said, Hey, let's go camping, you could do it. Yeah, I could do it. I

get in the bus and drive off right now and have pretty much everything I need. So what, what do

you have? What are your, what are your go-to essentials? I have everything you just mentioned.

I've got tarps. I've got bungee cords. I've got zip ties. I've got tools. I've got a hammer,

like the mallet, you know, I've got extra tent stakes. I've got rope. He's got alternate power

in that bus too, by the way, that he can run a whole separate power. Yeah. Yeah. I've got cables.

I've got adapters. I mean, it's all stuff that at some point back in the past, I was like, oh man,

I really need this. And then I'll come home and I'll get it. Yeah. Yeah. Or somebody else needs it.

Yeah. It's not always necessarily what I need, but just stuff that has come up. And I'm like, okay,

well I'll put that in the bus and then it'll just live there. Luckily it's got tons of cabinets,

tons of storage stuff under the seat. So I can really pack, you know, everything. So at this point

it's like, well, what's not in there might be an easier answer, but see Russ is very, very valuable

to the, but Russ is very valuable to this show and to our campsite and to our entire experience.

Unlike me who understands all these things as it's happening, like, oh, we could use all these things.

Hmm. I'll, I'm done. I'm off. And then I never think about it again. He makes a mental note,

fills it in kind of like it's, it's an, it's a symptom of the pay attention to the Google docs,

bro. Yeah. That's what you also, and when we were talking about doing this show a couple of days

ago, Russ, and I think you wanted to make the point and I think it's very important car maintenance.

Yeah. Beth, you're flying. Abby, are you driving? You guys are driving. So let's talk about

getting the car ready. I mean, how important is, and when does that start? Again, I think now is

the time, right? Now is the time. Now is the time. We're a month out. Make sure your tires are good.

Your engine's good. Your oil's changed. Whoever's driving, you know, is ready. Right?

Keep track of your keys. Bring an extra key. And write a note where it is. Yeah. That's a good one.

Yeah. Don't put it in the glove compartment. No, my recommendation for an extra key is on Amazon.

You can get like a magnetic box that's just big enough to hold a key maybe. And you can just kind

of stick it under the frame of your car. Like under the wheel well or something? Under the wheel well.

Yeah, somewhere up there just so that if your keys do get lost or they get locked in or something,

you have a way to actually get in. That could save you a lot of headache. AAA has been a huge one for

me just from, because it's, I've got the, I guess the Platinum or whatever, because I actually end

up using it just about every year. I remember a couple months ago, I got stuck on the side of the

highway with a broken accelerator cable. AAA had to come out and tow me out. But even if you don't

need a tow, AAA will bring you, they'll come and jumpstart you. They'll unlock you too I think, right?

They'll send a locksmith if your car's locked in. You know, they'll come bring you gas if you run

out of gas. I mean, they'll pretty much save you no matter what. And it helped me, I guess, a year

ago now. I was shaking knees in Atlanta. I was parked in a parking garage. I wasn't camping.

But I stayed in a hotel. I got out Sunday morning and went to leave. Battery was dead. So, you know,

AAA came out and jumped me off. So yeah, I would say now is the time to get ready. If you're close

to an oil change, go ahead and get it done. Especially if you got a long trip. Check stuff

like your tires, tire pressure, tire tread. If you don't, you know, you could take it somewhere. If

you don't know how to check all that, you could take it to a shop and just tell them, hey, I've

got a big trip coming up. Can you just go through the checklist? Because if you need a tire or you

need a, you know, something, rather get it done now than go down the side of the road and end up

getting stranded. Abby, I saw you shaking your head. Is it worth prepacking just to make sure

everything you guys think, you know, if you're bringing four people, is it worth prepacking

to make sure it's all going to fit? So I got a new car in January that has a third row,

even option. So I don't think this year I'll need to do that. But last year I definitely did because

I drive about two hours from where I live and pick up others. This year I'm only picking up one other

and then leaving from there. So by the time all of our stuff gets packed in, it's like, okay,

is that how are we going to do this? Now I have so much room, but yes, it is worth it and you should

do it because you need to make sure you can see while you're driving and that you're going to be

comfortable. Because last year I rode in the back seat like this for eight hours. And for eight

hours. So because we had like cases of water and by the time you get it all in there and it's like,

well, we already have it. We need it. We got to go. So definitely pack it, unpack it. Another tip

would be check like your windshield wipers and like little things that you maybe wouldn't think

about. Make sure that those function because it is kind of scary to be driving in a new place and

not really know where you're going and having crappy visibility. And also make sure you check

laws of states you're driving through as far as like having things around your license plate.

Or hanging from your mirror.

Hanging from your mirror. Like stuff that's legal in my state is not legal in Tennessee. Like I have

to take my license plate cover off.

Yeah, Tennessee is getting weirder and weirder about that. It's bothering us a little bit. Another

topic for another podcast. But yes, check the laws, especially also too with alcohol laws,

state by state, how much you can have. Most people don't get bothered with that. Meaning from law

enforcement, but it is very much a law. State lines, alcohol changes. Every single state has

their own alcohol laws. So do at least understand that and know that if you have 50 cases of beer

and you get in trouble, if anything, 50 cases is way, way, way, way. It's smoking the bandit

like style. And if you've got a cop that doesn't like it, you're going to have a bad time there too.

But yeah, that's a very good point. Thanks for bringing it up.

You're not supposed to have anything from hanging from your rear view mirror in Tennessee and not

that you will get pulled over just for that. But every every cop in the state trooper knows

it's Bonnarooo weekend. They're going to be looking at every car closely. Yep. Revenue

enhancement week in Tennessee and the Tennessee department of transportation knows this and takes

full advantage of it. The more you can do to blend in with traffic and so don't paint, you know,

Bonnarooo or happy or anything on your car. I know it's so hard to not do that. Put a so eat

marijuana leaf. Yeah, don't on your window. That is a suggestion. Pull me over, pull me over.

That almost none of you listening to this. God bless you for being fans and being here for this

show today. So many of you will not listen to this because 10, 15 years ago, I wouldn't have

listened either. Don't paint your car up. It is. Yeah. When you get there, go nuts. But yeah,

once you get there, it's fine. But but you want to be incognito. But it is fun. But guys, but

it's so fun driving down the road for 10, five hours and then you see the Bonnarooo people and

they're your people just as much as if you were in center route. There's our Bonnarooo people.

That's fun. Yeah. But still, you know, all right. So speaking of speaking of Bonnarooo people,

do you want to read a few comments? Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, I'm sorry. I forgot

we were live. Dan says, I think Dan Sweeney was one of our patrons at some point. Or he says,

keep it out and an eye out for Memorial Day sales. It's a good idea. That's that's a good point.

Oh, before it prior like what? Yeah, yeah. As soon as it says memorial day is over,

you're going to get you're going to get a bunch of different many, many things that could work

somehow in any way in any creative way on the farm. Along those lines, I'd like to ask Dan,

what what is he looking for? What's he hoping to go get? That's one of my questions that I wanted

to ask everybody today. What's the because Russ, you and I've talked about like I brought a fan

last year. That was awesome. Yeah. Battery. And then we saw, I guess, Brad Parker told us about

a mister, which you can add like with a five gallon bucket or something. Yeah, water to those

fans and it shoots. Yeah. So yeah, Barry, that's kind of Beth. Beth was impressed with the fan.

Yeah, the fan was awesome. That was that was key. Yeah. So that's what I want to I want to ask

everybody what's your what's your REI or your you know, whatever. What's the thing you're getting

this year that you're adding to your camp? Beth, let's start with you. What do you got? Anything

new that you're thinking about? I don't know. For me, it's always just packing efficiency and

figuring it out because you can or a wish list or a wish list for someone else. What do you want us

to bring? Maybe I could do it. Yeah, I mean, we should. Please don't ask me more than one fan

would be good because it's that cross ventilation. So so hot last year that you kind of need to have

some kind of fan situation. Not just a fan, but a way to power it. Right. Because remember,

the yeah, this battery battery is importantly. Yeah. Have a few extra batteries charged up that

you can swap out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm always thinking too about I mean, I think packing

efficiency is an art that I'm always working on. Last year, I did a couple of Instagram stories

about trying to pack as much as you can into a small space and how to do all that. So I use those.

I tried using the space saver bags where you suck the air out so you can get more stuff into a

duffel bag. But note that that makes it incredibly heavy. So it doesn't really, you know, and you

got to carry it back. Yeah, it doesn't necessarily. Well, then I just left it all at Mike's.

Oh, that works. I could leave more and more stuff at his house. Yeah, I'm going to start expanding

to your houses soon too. There's not too much in his garage. Yeah. So what's the next?

You want to go back to comments? Yeah, sorry. I hijacked the comments. All right. Johnny says

first time going solo this year. He's been using us as his main resource to get ready. So. All right.

Thanks, Johnny. I hope you have a blast day. Year one. It's going to be a wild one. It's going to be

a wild one for you. No matter what, it's going to be a wild one for you. Adam and Anastasia says

first time in twenty four. Also from Missouri, Missouri, about five hours and came all you

miserable people, miserable people. Yeah. To save your soul. Daniel says love hearing Bonnarooo talk

on a Sunday. So do I. Yeah. All right. So we got says at least says love the pod. Excited to be

back this year for my second rule. Hope to be back every year that I can going forward.

And then I like another one of this from Dan on talking about driving in inconspicuously as

possible. Dress like you're going to church. Drive like you're going to see grandma.

There it is. Yeah, that's the answer. That's the answer. It's not sexy. It's not sexy, but it's safe.

I love it. That's all. Thank you, Dan. Yeah. And he does mention backup batteries, too. That's oops.

Wrong one. There we go. Yeah. Backup batteries. The Ryobi, especially if it's it's a kind of gear

that you can use, you know, the the common batteries on that you can swap mix and match and stuff.

And Ryobi is the very fairly decently priced stuff for sure. Abby, we were talking, we got started

before we went to there. Things you're thinking about this year knew that maybe you're going to

enhance the camping experience. Have you and your group chats talked about that?

So yes and no. I feel like we've kind of had such a great setup that they had. They I'm camping

not under a canopy this year, but they have an RV. The look at Abby over here. I know.

Year two. She's already are being it. Well, but listen, I also bought a camping pass. So I will

have with the other half of the group that is still tank camping, like I'll have a plot with them. My

car will be there and my satellite there. I can kind of like see whatever mood I'm in and go. So

I don't know that there's really many improvements. I think that the wonderful world of Reddit and the

experienced roo goers in the group kind of had it down. Other than maybe this year for the RV area

we are adding. We're going to make sure that we pay for a backup generator to make sure devices

and things and everything stays charged, which last year I camped the neighbors that were

wonderful and had something like that. So my stuff always stayed charged and I got a new

hydro pack. So I'm ready to drink a bunch of water and say, I have a feeling that your satellite camp

over there with your buddies, with the tents and stuff are going to be.

I wonder where Abby is. I haven't seen her in a while. Once you sit down on that,

are you never going back to your car camp? Yeah. So let's talk about, let's talk about the,

so the first timer, here's how it's going to go, right? You're going to travel, whether it's one

hour or 10 hours or whatever, you're going to be super excited. You're going to get in line.

You're going to be confused. You're going to pull in. It's going to, they've thankfully,

they fixed the time, you know, less than an hour. You're going to get out of your car

and then what? And that's kind of what I'm looking at. What, what's your,

I mean, I have my list, bring a good attitude, bring a very positive attitude, get to know your

neighbors immediately, take a minute, get set up, right? Get somewhat set up. Yeah, it doesn't have

to be fast. You don't, it doesn't have to just pop right up. You can spend some time on it.

We, we always kind of did, but we, but we've done it. So, I mean, that's like in my mind,

I want to get my tent. I want to get all that. And then I want to sit down. I want to then pop

a beer, whatever, drink, whatever. But if I'm first time, I mean, I gotta think I'm, I gotta go,

I gotta go. I want to go see everything. So anxious. So anxious. Take a minute.

Take a look around, get oriented, right? Not just who's next to you, but landscape because,

and here's the thing I guess I'm trying to say is it's going to change. You think you're, you know,

you, you've got your landmark. It isn't going to look like that. Oh, you mean like your environment's

going to look different. Yeah. It's going to change. It's going to change.

Oh yeah. This will be easy to find. And then like 24 hours later, it looks like you're in another

state. New festival all of a sudden. Right. And, and you want to, you're pent up. You want to,

you know, shotgun beers, you want to hit the tequila, you want to do whatever. And you can do

that. And you can do that. And I'm not saying you should slow, but again, as we've said many,

many times, it's a marathon. It's not a sprint. If, especially if you're getting there on Tuesday,

you want to be there on Monday. Right. So talk about that. How you guys sort of, uh, in your group,

how do you deal with the whole thing? You know, that first day, trying, trying to keep excitement

and check enough to get things effectively. So you're with us. So you're, you're in a different,

I assume. I don't, I assume you don't get out of the car that way. I'm going to be working. Yeah.

I can say though, the first, the first year, my first Bonnarooo, um, I, I think we flew, I can't

remember if I flew or drove, but anyway, I, whichever it was, I wasn't wanting to go to the

bathroom all the time. So I was dehydrated. I didn't drink enough water that day. And I didn't

realize it was night. It didn't seem very hot, but I ended up in the medic tent the first day.

I was at Bonnarooo because I was so dehydrated. They had to, they had to inject fluids or whatever.

So that's my number one thing is just drink a bottle of water. As soon as you get there,

even if you don't feel hot or you don't feel like you're sweating, because the travel is just going

to dehydrate you and that can really mess up your experience. And at the beginning,

um, also things like watermelon are good. They used to sell those big salted watermelon slices

and, um, that's what finally brought me back to life in that situation because I just ate some

watermelon with salt on it and it rehydrated me enough to be able to enjoy the experience.

Should we bring a big watermelon this year? I think, yeah,

it's also, you don't plug a thing of vodka in the back of it. I'll be fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Stuff like that. Or you can just tell me which one's what. Or two watermelons.

Yeah. I do think salty snacks too. You got to remember salt because you're sweating so much

that you're getting rid of all that. So I eat Fritos all the time when I'm at Bonnarooo because

I just need that salt. Um, yeah. And so I think Abby said beef jerky earlier, one of you did.

It's the best. It is the, it is the power packed protein and salty, uh, necessity for me, uh,

Bonnarooo. Let junk food be, let junk food be your friend and this week, junk food with protein.

And if you have any downtime at all, if you're back at camp, if you're just sitting in a chair,

you need to be drinking water. You need to be munching on something protein, salt snacks.

Crackers and peanut butter for me is a simple one that, uh, that's good. Yeah. Don't rely on

spicy pie every time you're hungry. Don't do it. Right. Liquid IV, bring liquid IV or Gatorade,

something like that for liquid IV. That's the stuff you, you put in the water. Yeah. Which is

the type of thing I can bring. Cause it's just a little package that you add to your water.

Super loads of electrolytes and those kinds of things. Yeah. Propel makes a good one too.

That's what I did last year. Every morning I woke up, drank a 16 ounce water bottle with one of

those propel, uh, electrolyte packets. And that pretty much kept me going for the six days.

You know, I like what you just said, the routine. That's another thing. Maybe,

maybe, especially if you're not used to doing this kind of thing, like I don't camp. I mean,

this is the only time of the year that I camp. Uh, this is me and Barry both. This is it. Outside

of that, give me a double tree hotel and I'm ready to go. Yeah. So try to get into a routine.

When you wake up, you know, hit a bottle of water. When you go back to camp, hit a bottle of water.

When you go in, if you're like in center room and you've got the backpack, fill it up, uh, drink

the water, take a sip, that type of thing. Um, get a snack. Cause you, what, to your point, Beth,

what happens is you don't realize and it's, you know, nighttime and you haven't eaten

or you haven't had any water. Right. And it's, you know, it's happened to me. Yeah. Yeah. It

happened to you. Yeah. You're getting ready to go hard because, uh, you know, somebody's coming on

at 2 AM and you're in center room and you haven't eaten. Well, sure. I mean, like think alcohol,

um, any kind of THC consumption, coffee consumption, and then snacking on protein,

those can all mask your hunger for many people. They can make you think you're not hungry. Now

the protein is good for you for, for a little bit of energy, but you don't want beef jerky for your

dinner either. Right. So you, you gotta keep that in mind too, that that spicy pie is good later on

when you need a full, we need some food in you, like some actual nourishment. So that's another

thing I forget about it all the time because I don't really like to eat. I'm having fun. I

don't want to stop and eat, but you gotta keep that in mind too. And along those lines. And

here's another thing that's, that's part of the code. Look out for your buddy and look out for

somebody. You don't know. I mean, if you see somebody sitting under a tree that doesn't look

right, you know, get them a water check on them. Sometimes that's hard to tell because some of those

people are peacefully asleep. I know they don't look like they are. And it's also, I mean,

you'd like to think it's normal, but not, we don't always do this, but at Bonnarooo, that's the code.

Take care of, take care of other people. So if you see somebody that looks like they're struggling,

help, you know. And I think that's something that's resonated really well over the years.

Absolutely. You know, are you okay? You need a water, you know,

Yeah. We want to pull up some comments. I see them coming in there.

We've got more comments coming in. Yeah. Let's check a few out.

And I think this one's for Barry, cause I think he's done this. Jay says, how do we feel about

air mattress on a bed of a truck underneath the canopy versus cots for sleeping? That is Barry's

account. Barry, you go for it. Yeah, I've seen both, man. My first or second year, man, I parked

next to a guy who had a, he had his truck all tricked out. It was awesome. He had to put tarp

over it and slept in the bed. It was, it was great. I've done the air mattresses. I like them as long

as they don't leak. Last year I bought one of these big boy, fat boy,

cots. Works pretty well for me. Slept like a baby. That was a, that was an extra buy. I also bought

one of those tents that clips onto the easy up. Yeah. Got that last year. I'm pretty excited about

that. So the easy up becomes your living room and your place to hang out. As we all did, we put your

bath, you guys have yours, and then we clip ours, mine next to yours. And then my tent clips right

onto the side of it. I like that a lot. So there's lots of different ways. I don't know what's right

or wrong there. And we got Pondo in chat too. He says, uh, Pondo approved camping ideas. So

shout out to Pondo. Looking to, uh, meet up with you again this year. Now that you're back on the

farm. Throw up John's there. I want to let in case anybody doesn't know, uh, this stop, the Buc-E's

one. Yeah. Yeah. Love going to Buc-E's on the way to Rue and loading up on jerky. Highly recommended.

So, I mean, I'm guessing most people are getting pretty aware of the Buc-E's thing, but if you're

not, there are a couple of them on the, in the, you know, a thousand mile radius of Chattanooga

going in a circle. If you want jerky, if you want snacks, if they're, I mean, it's, it's, it's a wild

store. If you've never checked out a Buc-E's and they're nowhere near where you live, I go ahead

and give Buc-E's a look on your way in. We're going back to earlier and Russ, I was hoping you

would, you had mentioned it because I think it was a, it's one of your notes. Um, before you get to

Manchester, stop at a gas station and fill up your tank. Don't, don't pull into that line on a quarter

tank. Uh, or even a half or a half. Yeah. You fill up, uh, you know, make sure everything's working.

You got gas. I mean, yeah, because that uncertainty, if you're just sitting there thinking,

oh, am I going to make it? That's just going to add to your stress level. And it's probably already

high if you're trying to get in and get set up. So one more thing to give you peace of mind is a

full tank of gas. And that way, you know, when, then when you leave Sunday or Monday, whenever you

leave, you just roll right out. You just roll right out. I mean, there's memes about it. This, these

days of the needing gas. Oh, I'll just get it in the morning. Yeah. No, you won't. You'll want to

kill. 80,000 people. Stop. Don't do it. I mean, do it. Don't not do it. And along those lines. Yeah, do it

outside of Manchester if you can, because Manchester only has so many gas stations. Yeah. That's right.

And along those lines. And I heard, uh, Brad Parker, I guess he was on with, uh, rew bus guys. And I

never really thought about this because of course we tend to do it differently, but

everybody focuses on the going in and the time, but we don't really talk about leaving

on Monday morning and that wait time. Um, his advice was, you know, if, if you think you're

going to leave 10 minutes after the last note of the headliner on Sunday, you and everybody else,

is going to leave at that time. So you're going to be stuck in traffic. Maybe give it a minute,

give it an hour or two, or if you're going to leave, you think you're going to roll up when you

wake up at nine 30, casually have a little breakfast. So is everybody else. So, you know,

don't schedule a flight for Monday because I've, I have accidentally done that before because you

think, Oh, the festival ends on Sunday. I'll just fly out on Monday. Do not do that.

That's a good one. That's a real good one. What else do you got along with those lines? Cause we

don't, it's not something I think about. I was just going to say, I think that for people who

don't live in that region, if you don't live in Tennessee, cause the first time I went, I was

going from Maine. Now I'm going from Washington, very different climates. So do everything you

possibly can to acclimate to how hot that's going to be, whether it's turning the heat on in your

house and making yourself uncomfortable because you can't really think of what you need to pack

when you're not in that environment. And then it's shocking when you get into that heat.

So that plus walking and walking in whatever shoes you will be walking in at Bonnarooo because

you'll walk a lot farther than you would ever expect. And just because you might, you might

have some super awesome running shoes or whatever, and then you walk around here, but you're not

wearing your $200 running shoes to Bonnarooo. You're going to wear those concrete sold new balances,

which are fine too, but make sure your feet are used to them and ready to put possibly 80,000 steps,

right? Maybe 70 to 90,000 steps over the course of four days. And I'm just making up numbers,

but it's going to be a lot. It's going to be a lot more than you think. Yeah.

Yeah. Let's talk about that. And it's an on a farm. So you're talking now they have paved a lot.

So you're not quite as gravel road as it used to be, but it's still bumpy terrain. It's a farm.

Shoes was the big topic 20 years ago when I was first going. Yeah. Because it was like, don't wear,

you had to have Chaco's, don't wear flip flops because you're going to get it stuck in the mud.

Don't wear your Birkenstocks. I don't know how the coolest, the coolest look ever. A,

you're going to ruin them. B, you're going to lose them. You're going to lose them.

Beth will like this because she just got back from fish the other day. And I've dropped this

many, many times because it's one of the only fish lyrics I can remember. Whatever you do,

take care of your shoes. Yep. That is a song lyric worth living by.

So I have done cheap $10 Walmart shoes and they're not comfortable. So Brian, back to your point,

I'm almost like my, my $200 Hocus maybe where the old ones, you know, and they don't care if I lose

them. If you're already going to get me getting, you know, that's in your rotation stuff. I just

meant it. Like you have your one nice pair. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I, you might not, I guess the point

that is just whatever, you know, you're going to wear while you're there. That's what you,

and Beth, you were saying it. That's what you need to be get acclimated to.

Cause it can easily think, Oh, there's no big difference. Trust me. There's a difference when

you're, I mean, what a hundred fold at the amount of times you're normally going to walk. You can

walk on a treadmill every day until you get there. You're, it's still, it's good. Do it.

But it's still not the actual reality of what you're doing. That also kind of goes back to,

isn't a bad idea either. Kind of goes back to Abby and the girl talk and the, you know,

the dressing up and the kit or whatever. If you, if you think glitter is a great idea at noon,

think about it, you know, or whatever your costume is, you're going to be in that thing all day long,

whether it's hot, cold, sticky, sweaty, runny, think about it, you know,

well, and a lot of people don't think about that. If you're not somebody that drinks 40, 60

or more ounces of water a day, but suddenly you are, your body's going to swell and so clothes

that maybe fit you when you're in, like Beth said, you're comfortable AC home. They're going to fit

a lot different when your body is trying to save itself from dehydration and heat exhaustion. So

either make things a little bit more comfortable for you size up or think about that when you're

planning these outfits that you're like, I can handle it for like two or three hours at a typical

concert. Sure. But can you handle it for 15 hours in the heat, sweating, chafing, all the things that

go along with those things and start drinking water now. So your body's used to that and isn't

waterlogged a week or two out from the festival. Start now. I hadn't thought about it like that.

Chafing sunburn, those are real. Uh, then they make for a long, horrible time. You know, we talk about

the sun's screen and sun all the time because every single person alive knows the sun can do

damage to you. That shaping thing. Yeah. Yeah. Woo. That will ruin a weekend. Monkey. But it's been

a long time since I've let that happen. And what, but when I did, I mean, I was, I was like,

I've ruined my life. If somebody, my life, I've ruined bar room. If you're listening and if,

if monkey, but is not on one person in your group's list, it needs to be well, and beast in our

chat, I want to give you the credit for saying it with powder is the credit for beast put bringing

it up. Gold bond, gold bond, monkey, but whatever. I mean, yeah. The gold bond is, is my, always been

my festival performance enhancing drug. And so that guy, that guy's the hero. You don't know it,

but that guy on Friday, when he brings out the gold bond is the hero in the group. Yeah. B says

gold bond and Tums are a must. And that is very true. Bring the, bring the antacids as well.

Excuse me. I'm so sorry about my voice. Uh, you said, uh, clothes that reminded me, Abby, uh,

yeah. Prepare for that sort of thing. Um, and, and we talked about it, Beth, you did prepare for hot,

prepare for cold, uh, prepare for rain. Um, you know, all of those kinds of things. It's hard to do,

but you have to, when you don't want to overdo it, but you'd rather overdo it than underdo it.

Let me ask you this real quick, Abby, do you and your, and the girlies and any, anybody in your

groups, it is, are just costumes a big part of your experience or, and I don't, maybe not costumes,

but just extravagant dressing up that you wouldn't normally do for your, uh, your regular

extracurricular activities? Yeah. Um, good question. So I think that we kind of go with themes a little

bit. Um, there's a lot of websites that offer clothing that is specifically geared towards

festivals. So it's made to be comfortable and a little more extravagant, but it's still simple,

um, in the foundation of it. So there's a few different websites you can go to that will offer

that. And so you get the best of both worlds, but there also is a lot of rave wear or what that EDM

crab wear for sure. That is not made for Bonnarooo. Like it's cute in theory, but it is not made to

be outside and in the elements, let alone jumping around, walk it around for five, six,

10 miles a day. So, uh, we do plan that, but we do kind of more of like a bug theme day or a referee

day or a cyber Tron day or so we're able to, yeah, I like it. I like it. I like it. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

Go ahead. I'm just, no, no, we have fun with it, but we do keep in mind, uh, being comfortable and,

um, taking care of our bodies to yes, get through the marathon and not just for acute Instagram

pig. We're making sure that we're living the best of both worlds there. Russ, I think you used them

in Atlanta, right? But the idea of lockers, uh, they have lockers in media, Beth, and that's,

I mean, that's, you know, that's inside baseball. Game changer. Yeah. First world stuff. We just

used them last year for the first time, but there's lockers all over the farm. Well, yeah,

you can rent them. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. What a great idea, right? So you come in and in

the morning and it's 4,000 degrees and you're not thinking about rain or cold, but you can put a

jacket or a different pair of shoes or whatever in a, in a locker. They're, they're not cheap,

cheap, right? Aren't they 60, 70 bucks or something? No, but I bet it's worth it. No, they're not that

much. I don't think they're that much. I think they were about $70 last year. Wow. It's probably

worth it. If you take full advantage of it, Abby, do you know anybody who's has used that? Um,

use that luxury? I'll basically call it a luxury. No, I did see on Reddit people that were like

in their groups, like they'd all split it as a cost and just put their jackets or things in for

that night, especially people that were Thursday or Friday arrivals that were way out, further out

on the farm and had a trek. Those that were kind of closer to center didn't have to worry about

if they needed to run back to camp. Um, I carry a hydro pack that has a lot of room. I mean, I can

put half of my wardrobe for the week in there, um, if I really finagle it. So it's all also about

like how your storage walking into center and making sure you have what you need. And then

it's on your person and you're not missing a show to like run back and get anything.

Yeah. You can make a list to make a list of what you're going to need now, not when you're in the

heat or hungover or whatever that is, have a list of what you need to bring into center. Well, you

can, we have the time right now to think about this stuff. So I think that can be helpful.

Just remember what you need. What are you going to say, Russ?

I was saying you could split a locker with someone too. I mean, they're, they're not huge, but

you know, if you just need one or two things, you could split the cost and both have access to it.

Yeah. I mean, I'm thinking, I mean, again, there's so many uses, but sunscreen, just some bottles of

water run open that they'll be hot, but they're still just, Hey, we, you know, I mean, that's

just two that pop into my mind. Gold bond. You know, all the things we're already talking about.

You got to take a, you know, a twice a day med or something. I don't know how that works, but

along those lines, sorry, someone mentioned Dollar Tree for picking up all that stuff. You know,

you can get a lot of stuff cheap for just, yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The Walmart has

two aisles of like $2 shampoos and all that stuff. Go now. That's another good point. Now's a good

time, which is the point of this show. Now is the time to go start buying that stuff, maybe five,

10, 20, $30 now, you know, instead of a $400 in five weeks, you know, start packing it up now,

put it out on a table, lay it all out, take a picture, call your friends. I've got this,

not everybody needs to buy a bottle of Advil. You know, one person brings the Advil. One person

brings whatever wipes, you know, body wipes or, or whatever. So that's not to be discounted either.

Just a big old thing, a cheap baby wipes. Put them in your cooler. Those are awesome. Put those baby

wipes in the cooler. Oh my God, Abby. Oh my God. Keep them in the cooler. Why didn't I think of

that? My whole life is why didn't I think of the best ideas in the world? Abby, what a great

suggestion. And along those lines, somebody bring a gallon of water, the two gallon thing of water

and a bar of soap so you can wash your hands. I've told this story before the first couple of years,

I did the sanitizers and thought I was clean. And then I left on Sunday or whatever Monday and

went across the street to the gas station and went to wash my hands. Oh my God, it was like a film.

The stuff that came off of my hands and I'd been eating. Yeah. You want water, that little gallon

thing that has the squeeze thing on it, that kind of stuff. Get one of those. My best tip,

I've always said go buy a case of bottle of water. And I hate that they use the plastic and then

recycling, but start freezing them now. Use those as your ice. Definitely part of our do's and don'ts

every year, but that is a, that is a, I mean, you can't say it enough. Abby, you had something to

say it looked like. What do you got? Yeah. Well, when Barry mentioned the sanitizer, it got me

thinking. One of the things I did last year and I plan to do again this year is start boosting your

immune system before you get on the farm, drinking emergency or different things like that, vitamins,

you're going to be exposed to so many germs and different people's germs. And just polygen,

poly, you know, not enough sleep. Yeah. What's the word? I was going to say that, just as a side

notice, if you're coming from far away, bring allergy meds because you're going to encounter

things that you're not used to in whatever your home region is. So I get allergies immediately

when I get to honor. Yeah. I wish I could go early. Different region. Yeah. Yeah. So bring

that even if you don't usually, you're going to think you got Legionnaires disease because I'm

convinced that, yeah, it's so yeah, start hydrating, start walking,

get used to, I don't know, Beth, I don't know how you get used to the heat and humidity, but.

Yeah, it was rough last year. It was really rough last year. Real people, you know,

everybody jokes. Oh, the heat in middle Tennessee. It's unbelievable.

Um, so what else? What are the other, um,

again, bring that good attitude, uh, acclimate yourself when you get there, start looking for

landmarks, especially at night, because it looks completely, oh, that's what I was going to say.

It is huge. The farm is massive. You don't, you can't understand how big it is until you

get there. Um, yeah, we're talking about, especially from like a first timer or a new

timer. Once you get to know it very, very, very well, it doesn't feel so big. But when you are

just laying your eyes on this place, if, if you've been told a lot about it and you're

anticipating a really magically, you know, wonderfully wild time, it is all of those things

and those and every, it's, it's a lot of stimulation and it's going to easily just

distract. Oh, look at this. Hey, look at that. Hey, look at this. And next thing you know, you

won't remember you were in pod seven. Yeah. You'll think, was that one or seven or nine,

seven, but not just that. If you're looking at the schedule and you think, oh, I'm going to see this

act and then I'll pop over and see that act. And then I'm going to go out the house of yes and see

that act. And then I'm a pop back and see the what state you're not. It's too big. Um, yeah,

as we've said, make your plan right now, get your schedule, write it down, plan for it. And then when

you get there, throw it away. Cause you're never going to do everything you think you're going to

do. And that that's not being snarky. You just can't. Yeah. It's still fun to do though. It's

like fan. It's like fantasy sports, you know? Yeah. I usually don't even plan. I mean, this year I've

planned it a lot more than I have, cause there are a lot of bands I want to see, but I'll often just

go not even knowing who's there and just plan day by day. Cause it's like whatever you can, cause you,

you may think, you know, I saw a Michigander last night and it was so great and I wish I had seen him

at the farm, but it was at 2 PM or something. And there was no way I was leaving camp when it was

that hot. So some of those afternoon ones, it's just not going to happen. So I don't want to get

too excited. And then the situation just doesn't allow me to go to these things. Well, I mean,

we're saying the same thing. It's like just let it happen and you'll be happy. Yeah. Whatever

has happened is going to be great. It's never not great. Never not great. What do you got,

Russ? One thing you don't want to miss is Thursday at 4 PM in the Planet Roo on the house stage. You

can see us live and figure that's worth the plug. We can, you know, have a meetup there at Planet

Roo and we're going to do a live podcast with Brad Parker, with some other special guests.

We're going to have a musical guests that we're working on. And then, yeah, some people said,

excited to come out and hang out with us. Definitely good to bring that up, Russ, but

we will beat you over the head with this one between now and June. Yeah. At least we'll try

not to do it too, too, too much, but we are looking forward to this. It's a very exciting

thing for us and it'll come together more over the next month or so. Russ, we have any looks like

the chat comments are blowing up. Yeah, let's throw some up. Well, here's one. We got Bonadude

in the chat. What's up, Bonadude? Hey, Bonadude. Hey, Bonadude. One thing that's easy to overlook

is a sleeping mask and earplugs for camp. He uses noise canceling AirPods and a fan sound app.

That's a good point. That's a good one. You need to get sleep. And I use the fan app on this.

I do that. I do that. I use the foam earplug. I sleep like a baby at Bonadude. Everybody asked

me that. I sleep like a baby. This guy, the rest of us are dying over here to get some shut eye,

and this guy's asleep snoring it up. Yeah, the snoring is bad. And I apologize.

It's fine. I'm just ecstatic. I think it's lovely somebody's getting such good sleep at Bonadude.

Yeah, I'm jealous. What else we got in that chat there, Russ? I know I saw a few.

Let's see. Lana said, get lights or a flag or something to help you spot camp at night

farther away. That's a good point because that is kind of day one stuff, but people forget it.

And the importance cannot be discounted in any way. Something that gives you that it's the totem

concept, right? The totem of walking around. It's the same concept for your car. It never moves.

Get you an air tag for your car, and that way you can at least navigate back to it.

Here's what happens, guys. So you camp. You pitch your tent. It looks good. You see the guy next

to you. He's got a whatever, a cat totem or whatever, and you recognize it. And what happens is

by the time you leave and then three other people move in and camp, and all of a sudden that corner

changes. It looks different, and that's what you don't anticipate. And then it looks different at

night. And then there's going to be a lot of people have those balloons and flags that are similar

because of maybe a character, like a SpongeBob character. I'm making stuff up here, whatever

it might be. And then you're like, that kind of looks like it, except those cars weren't there

before. That kind of looks like it, so you got to keep that in mind, too. And you might have had a

beer. You might have had a, you know, whatever. I hear you guys still drinking and getting that stuff.

It just changes. So yeah, people do say, yeah, drink a beer. Drink a PBR with taco. I support that.

Pondo, man. I'm so happy he's going to be back. Me too. I would also say join the Discord.

Join the Discord. We've got lots of do's and don'ts. I mean, we can go through all those,

but we've done them. Brad Parker had some... There's Beth. She's back. Here I am. Beth is back.

I think Brad Parker had two of my favorite ideas. Drink lots of coconut water and the adult juice

packs. Yeah. And it was applesauce. That's a great idea. I love applesauce.

Beth, while we've got you, what do we need to bring? What can I promise that

taco will bring to our camp this year? What can we make taco do for us?

Because I'll do it. I'll bring it. I mean, like Abby was saying, I think that's the most important

thing that you were saying is about the immune. As long as we all stay healthy, we're all going to be

happy. So whatever's going to keep us hydrated and happy and healthy. And clean. And clean. Yeah,

there you go. You said it right there. I was just going to say one thing that I like about you guys

and we've always tried to do is keep your camp clean. Yeah. Organize it. Find ways to organize.

Police it. We don't let trash sit around, recycle. Be respectful to your neighbors.

You know, all that kind of stuff. Also, be mindful of your easy ups. When you leave and go to

center, a storm can come up. Put your easy up down, whatever, secure it because those things become

lethal. I am so glad you brought that up because I think I mentioned in our thread and right as we

were trying to put together this week show and what we're going to talk about within 10 minutes,

hour, whatever it was, Festival had posted some video that somebody had sent in from Coachella.

You don't think of Coachella as California. They're not having any kind of weather that we're

going to have to deal with in Tennessee. And there's canopies flying all over the place there. And

I'm the worst ever. I don't think I've ever staked down anything I've ever done.

Last year was two years ago, wasn't it? Where we had the storm come up. We had some weather and

somebody had to kind of stash my stuff. Yeah. I went around. The V-Lens took care of us. And

Beth, I think you guys were back there. It's real easy to be like, boy, it's nice out here and there's

no wind and feels good and we're ready to go and everything looks good. Nothing's staked down,

take off, cell comes through, all your shit's gone. Not just gone, but like I said, those things

become dangerous. Yeah. Yeah. Take out a car or your, you. The chances are it's not going to happen,

but if it does, it is going to be a really bad time and ruin your weekend. Yeah. Oh, also repair

tape for your tent. So have somebody bring one of those because I know there's a little hole in the

tent that I bought last year. And if it does rain, you want to be able to fix things. I mean,

I guess if you got duct tape, duct tape, that'll work in a pinch, but it's probably even better

tape out on the market that that would be better for something like that. I would guess. Yeah.

What else you got, Ross? I don't know. All right. All right. Good stuff. Again, go back. We've done

do's and don'ts. We can rehash all of that. You know, I've seen things. People's comments have

changed about bringing things to cook. We've always said, don't do it. But like we said, Beth,

is it Mike that does the cooking? Yeah. Mike does a lot. Brad does the morning. He does the burritos.

Yeah, it can be amazing. It was great. It was great breakfast burritos. I've changed my mind.

It could be done. It certainly can be done, but it can't be done half-assed. You got to really,

you got to have somebody who understands the grill well. You need a good grill too, by the way. Don't

get some like $10 piece of junk that's got open flame and stuff along those lines. If you remember,

we had an injury was, yeah, it blew up. A Coleman blew up. So be careful. Know what you're doing.

That's a, that's actually, that's a really good point. Don't let your first time doing something

be on the farm. Yeah. Right. If you don't know how to use a piece of equipment beforehand,

don't do it long before you get there. Check it. And that's why we're doing this show actually.

Yeah. I mean, I was the time go out in the driveway, you know, this is your reminder. Yeah.

I've had two, I've had three different tents that I've used in the last like 18 years.

I don't remember what I did the first like five, but, um, all three of them, I showed up without

putting them up before I got there. Yeah. All three of them. I didn't learn my lesson each time

and I just did it again. Yeah. Don't be dumb like me. I can't believe we were ending with this and

not starting with this because this is what I always say right now. Take your equipment outside,

put it up full fledged. Don't just put it up to make sure that it works, that the rats haven't

eaten a hole in it, that you're missing a pole, that you forgot that a pole was broken and you

meant to replace it or that you forgot you spilled a coffee all over inside of it last year. And it's

dry rotted and stinks and it's moldy. Yeah, exactly. Take it out now, wash it, you know,

if it's your sleeping bag or your pillow or whatever. Now is the time, cause you don't

want it to be Tuesday afternoon on the farm. And you're like, Oh man, I meant to get that one pole.

The suggestions for making your campsite great is not an hour or an hour and a half show. It's

like a five to 10 hours. I mean, it's just, it's a never ending dialogue and conversation. And Abby,

you said it earlier where you've spent a lot of time on Reddit and it's a good place. If you can

get through all the weeds when to get to the good information. As we do wrap up, Abby, your last

thoughts on things for this year that you've learned from a year before. And, you know, just

we're almost there, you know, a month, a month and a half barely or just your final thoughts.

Yeah. And I really, I want to hear your, because again, I want to point out to people you,

you had your wristband stolen. Oh yeah. We should reset that story. And you got, you know, separated

and it turned out great. And so that's sort of the, you know, that's the point I want to make to

everybody. So combo all that together. It's going to be awesome. No matter what happens.

So for first timers, returners, but as somebody who was a first timer last year and did have,

you know, how I even came to have a connection with you guys, my wristband being stolen, right?

Take the negative for what it is, work within the bounds, handle it, find alternative routes,

have other plans and set a set and just trust that the farm and Rue will take care of you. You're,

you're going because it's an experience and let it be just that. Take everything for what it is.

Don't let the bad outweigh the good. Stay off of the socials during the festival. Enjoy

the present and what's in front of you, not what's on a screen.

And just be willing to be uncomfortable and open your, open yourself up to others and what the

festival is, good vibes and enjoy every second of it. And yeah, I can't wait to see everybody there.

And I honestly, the experiences I had are a story that I'll cherish and it wasn't

a damper by any means. I've thought about this festival every day for the entire year and I am

so stoked to be back in June. Beth, what do you got for us here as we,

your closing statements, Ms. Thorpe. That was so good. That was such a good one. And I,

I would just kind of follow that with, we're telling you to bring a million things.

It really doesn't matter. We're saying, we're saying all this stuff because it's fun to pack

and plan and try to anticipate everything and bring everything. But you're going to deal with

it. If you forgot things, it's fine. You know, the lifestyle there, you're just able to be happy

without a lot of stuff. So you want to do whatever is going to make you comfortable in the environment

so that you can enjoy the moment. So somebody else will have it. If you don't bring it,

somebody else will have it. As a majority of us on this call right now are of a little advanced age.

I know having fun and looking good and looking pretty and doing all the things that everybody,

all the trends is a big deal, but you want to have fun, right? You want to be comfortable and

you want to have fun. And the more you can put into that and then add everything else in

that, that Abby and many of her friends and people more from different generations want to do,

you can do both of those things, but damn it, be comfortable. Don't be sunburned. Don't be

dehydrated. It's the same thing every year. Take care of your shoes and don't get hurt. And, and

because you'll have a terrible time. I don't care how good you think you look,

you won't have any fun if you're not comfortable. That's right. Yeah. So,

and everybody looks like shit because it's hot. Right. Yeah. You get over that real quick.

Sounds like I would have said that very still in my line.

Yeah. All right. So there you go. That's a lot of good information, right? It's not quite a do's

and don'ts. We've done that. We'll do it again. Maybe. I don't know. There's so much good

information on Reddit and we've done it a lot. I think we can still dig up maybe a version of a

do's and don'ts. Okay. We got do's and don'ts. But I, but, but yes, it's, it's, it's getting

tougher and tougher because those do's and don'ts get to be more widespread. But, um, there's always

going to be somebody though. You can tell them a hundred times, me, me, I'm the guy. You can tell

me a hundred times and just tell that hundred and first. Well, the big thing, oh, why didn't you

tell me? The big thing to point out is this is the end of April. It will be here. And if you think,

oh, I'll go check on my tent tomorrow or next weekend, you're going to be opening your tent up

on the farm and you're going to find out you forgot a pole or we're burying the or your tent.

The best month of the year is over in a few minutes. It's over. All right. There you go.

So I hope you enjoyed this live one. Thanks to everybody that joined us.

We'll be back next week with another show.