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I wanted to type up some tips and things to remember for Bonnaroo, both for my own reference next year and so I remember them if I ever want to give anyone else any advice. Basically it just seemed like a good idea to make note of this stuff now while it's all fresh in my mind, so this is probably mostly for my reference, unless anybody on my f-list is planning on going next year. =P
- Don't bother bringing toilet paper. Everything I read beforehand told me I should bring toilet paper because the portapotties would run out, so we brought a few rolls with us. As it turned out, I never once encountered a portapotty that didn't have any, and even if I had I wouldn't have been carrying the roll around with me everywhere I went. If you're carrying a bag with you, throw some tissues or napkins in there - they'll be handy to have generally speaking and then if there's a TP emergency you'll have them. Or just check for paper when you go into a portapotty and if one is out, pick a different one.
- Plan on buying a lot of food there. We brought a lot of food and weren't planning to buy very much, but as it turns out it's really hard to resist. Even if you have plenty of food, the idea of walking all the way back to the tent to get something was never very appealing when we were already going crazy trying to be everywhere at once. Besides, everything there looks and smells so good, it was just impossible to resist the chicken fingers, frozen lemonades, gyros, and everything else that looked so delicious. All the food we tried was really good, too. And yes, it's expensive, but just plan ahead that you'll be buying some and think of it as just another expense in addition to the ticket, gas, and everything else. We ate the food we brought for dinners and an occasional sandwich for lunch or something, and we brought stuff in our bags to snack on while we waited for shows, but we had a lot of food with us that we didn't eat and we bought a lot more than we thought we were going to.
- Baby wipes are a lifesaver. I brought a pack of Wet Ones or some sort of wet wipe thingie, and they ended up being amazing for trying to clean up a bit - especially our disgustingly dirty feet. The washing trough sink things are good for washing hands and, if you can contort yourself a bit, hair, but there's really no way to wash the rest of you unless you pay for a shower or make do with jumping in the fountain (which is a very good idea, by the way). My friend and I used a lot of the wet wipes every morning trying to get somewhat clean. Depending on what your hair is like, shampoo might be a necessity too. My hair gets pretty gross if I don't wash it, so I unfortunately couldn't really rock the dirty hippie look. It sort of turns into dirty-hippie-who-keeps-scratching-her-head which is nowhere near as attractive. It's not easy to wash your hair in the washing station thing, but it's certainly possible and it's better than nothing. I also definitely recommend bringing a washcloth and some soap or shower gel so you can try to wash the parts of you that you can't manage to get into the sinks.
- Girls - take good care of the lady downstairs. Um, yeah. Sorry for the TMI here, but my girly bits were totally not happy with me by the end of the festival. I was on my period, too, which totally doesn't help. It's not at all easy but do your best to keep yourself clean and dry down there. Between the heat which means you'll be nice and sweaty and the lack of good showers and stuff, you're pretty much a five star hotel for yeast. Once again those baby wipes will come in handy, and try to wear breathable cotton undies and change out of wet clothes and all that stuff.
- Pay attention to the sunscreen. I know, I know, you've read it a billion times and you're not stupid enough to forget, but after seeing a friend end up with an egg-sized blister from a sunburn, I feel like I need to add it in here. Try to pay especially close attention if you're under the influence of anything distracting, and remember to reapply if you jump in the fountain (I'm pretty sure the fountain was the culprit behind my friend's awful burn since I know he started the day with sunscreen).
- Don't bring too many clothes. When I packed, I packed a few tank tops and a ton of t-shirts since I figured I might want to change fairly often. The other girl in our group did the same thing. As it turns out, that's pretty unnecessary. If you changed every time you were sweaty or dirty or whatever, you would just be changing constantly. I actually never ended up changing during the day or anything. It's odd - it's certainly hot and I was certainly sweaty and dirty and everything, but I just never felt the need to change. It's amazing how much differently you feel about personal hygiene in a setting like that. Even if the thought of going that long without a shower sounds disgusting beforehand, it won't bother you one bit. I ended up wearing a tank top each day (except for one day when I just wore my bikini top) and a t-shirt each night to sleep in. Next year I'm planning to bring more bikini tops since that was so much more comfortable - and it will give me a chance to wear all the tops that have no matching bottoms that I for some reason keep buying!
- Watch out for the Tennessee nights. I don't know if the weather this year was typical, but man, those nights are brutal. Every night we would be so hot from a long day in the sun that we would collapse on top of our sleeping bags wearing as little clothing as possible. And then every night we'd all wake up in the middle of the night shivering so hard we probably looked like we were having seizures. We'd give up and crawl into our sleeping bags. And then when the sun came up we'd wake up sweating bullets and have to thrash our way our of the sleeping bags. No matter what combination of clothes I tried to wear and no matter what I did with the sleeping bag, there was absolutely no way to be comfortable for the whole night, so there's not much I can say in the way of advice. If you go to bed early enough that it's still hot out, expect to wake up cold in the middle of the night. If you go to bed late, start off in the sleeping bag or under a blanket or with sweatpants on or something if you can stand it and expect to wake up hot in the morning. I think next year I might bring a blanket in hopes that I can manage to kick it off in my sleep without actually waking up.
- Bring playing cards. A lot of days we would all head out in the morning and just hang out at Which Stage until the music started. If you're planning anything like that, I suggest bringing a towel or blanket to sit on, some snacks, plenty of water, and a deck of cards. Playing cards was a great way to pass the time. I had a book and a sudoku book with me too but I never even took them out of the bag since I wanted to spend my time talking to my friends or doing something with them. Keep some talking games in mind too - like 20 Questions and all the sort of games where you name something in a category and the next person has to name something that begins with the last letter of yours.