/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC: U.S. Festival Revives Spirit of Peace & Love

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Chris Vaughan

MANCHESTER, Tennessee, Jul 2 2002 (IPS) - No musical gathering this year is likely to match the scope of Bonnaroo, the jam band festival that drew 75,000 people to a farm here in late June, but the event also stands out as a coming of age for a mutating genre of dance-oriented music and a philosophy of communal gathering.

“It may not all be brand new, but it’s the first Bonnaroo, and it won’t stop here,” predicted a young concertgoer as she sprayed grateful neighbours with a cool mist under a broiling sun.

“All these brothers and sisters are just the tip of the iceberg. The word is out: our scene is the coolest, the safest, the one where anything can happen, but nobody gets hurt. The idea is here today, and it’s out there on tour coming soon, to a field near you.”

That enthusiastic, promotional tone was echoed repeatedly by Bonnaroosters, who came from near and far, their temporary landscape festooned with freak flags, kites, balloons, and banners that proclaimed their love not for a single entity – a la jam band pioneers the Grateful Dead and Phish – but for an ever-expanding musical and cultural community.

Rather than bemoaning lost Edens, the Bonnaroo ethic seemed to celebrate growth, and even crave the mainstream recognition and scale that degraded previous incarnations of the peace-and-love scene.

“I watched the Dead scene go through the growing pains that came with mainstream success in the late eighties,” one of the older attendees recounted. “I think a lot has been learned from that, and that people are ready to buy into the peace and love thing again, in a controlled way. This scene proves it.”

Staged by the crew that perfected the art of the massive feel-good dancefest at Phish concerts, Bonnaroo drew fans of scores of acts, ranging from Phil Lesh and Friends – bringing together the surviving frontmen of the Grateful Dead – to quirky rockers Ween and a host of hip-hop, funk, bluegrass and jazz-based bands. Films, workshops, yoga classes, a playground, and countless campground jams rounded out the activities.

“They’re breaking down the barriers here. The jam band and hip-hop scenes are coming together. It’s changing the way people think about music and what scenes you can be part of,” said Jacob, a fan of Jurassic 5.

Jacob’s friend Kaya, 20, did her part by exhorting every single person passing by: “Smile! You know it’s in you! Life is beautiful! Bonnarooo!”

Even at 6 a.m., she generally succeeded, even getting a young man disgruntled at his failure to find a nitrous oxide tank to give up a grin. Security managed to minimise the scourge of “hippie crack”, as the laughing gas balloon trade has been dubbed. But other psychoactive substances were in ample evidence.

The crowd responded enthusiastically to the Bob Dylan cover tune selected by Galactic to close its all-night set, shouting in hearty unison, “Every-body must get stoned!”

The stereotypes of hippie bliss associated with the burgeoning jam band movement are not without foundation. “This is a good crowd, very little theft, no fighting or bad vibes,” said a veteran vendor of tie-dye banners and iconic postcards featuring Jerry Garcia, Che Guevara, peace signs, and ganja leaves.

“I haven’t seen such a free feeling at an event for a long time. This is a lot more Woodstock than the last Woodstock ever wanted to be,” he added.

That heavily commercial event in 1999, held at an former air force base and featuring many heavy metal bands, ended with trashed concession stands, torched refrigeration trucks, and cordon of police staring down fans irate over a cancelled final night of revelry.

Bonnaroo ended with Trey Anastacio, the erstwhile lead guitarist of Phish now heading his own band, conducting a massive a cappella chorus and then profusely thanking the assembled masses for their patronage and good spirits.

Of course, that was only the end of the official music. All around the massive site, people continued to dance in drum circles, strum guitars, and sing along with boom boxes. For thousands, sleep would await another day.

“I’ll keep going as long as anyone else wants to,” said a hula-hooping young man, still animated as the crimson of dawn spread across the Tennessee sky. He would soon follow the eclectic sounds of the String Cheese Incident home to Colorado. His only complaint: “There were too many great things happening at once to hear everything.”

“I didn’t get to see everything, but by the end of the summer I will, maybe,” said Jesse Braitman, 22, of Baltimore, who vowed that the cut on his bare foot would be healed in time for ‘moe. or Les’ and the Allgood Festival, two of the weekend campouts he has targeted for later in the summer.

“By later in the summer you can put out a cigarette on the sole of his foot,” an admiring female friend asserted.

“Still getting toughened up,” Jesse explained. “The summer’s only beginning.”

Indeed, the concert calendar on the jambands.com website shows festivals with increasingly diverse musical mixes are proliferating like mushrooms after a good rain, so Jesse and his cohort will have plenty of chances to dance.

“I wish everyone could see this,” said Marcus, a 30-ish snowboarder and pilot, as he surveyed a vast panorama of balloons, confetti, and glow sticks flying through the air above the gyrating crowd. “This is like church for me.”