Looking back at the DVD footage was there any moment in particular where you said, Wow, I wish I had been there for that.’?

I think the stuff that I missed the most was being out in the campgrounds because my responsibility was the stage and back so I kind of missed just being out there with the crowd. I want to experience that more this year, getting that perspective on things as well. It’s hard because I’m in this bubble on the production side of things.

How about something you felt was not all that successful and you intend to remedy this coming year?

I think for us from an organizational standpoint, something we want to improve upon is communication. That was the biggest challenge. We were planning the event in the fall last year but we didn’t get the green light to go ahead until the end of January, early February. So it was just rolling into it. This year we have the luxury of time and history behind us.

And then just improving on things like the traffic. That was one of the biggest challenges of last year and that’s something we’ve put a lot of time and effort into improving upon. I think it’s going to be better this year. We’ve taken a lot of steps to improve it, everything from notification on the highway to the trucking companies so they know to stay away from the area, to building a temporary exit off the highway onto the farm, to hiring a traffic coordinator not just to look at our internal traffic but also our external traffic plan, more toll booths- all those thing are going to improve the traffic situation.

At this point what are you most proud of relative to the first Bonnaroo?

The artists wanting the event to return, the landowner wanting the event to return, the fans having a great time, the talent having a great time. That’s hard when you have 75,000 people out there and to have most of them walk away and be pretty happy. So many people were saying this is going to be a nightmare, how are these guys going to pull this off? Then at the end for people to say they pulled it off, that was a great feeling and knowing that going into this year we were going to be able to improve on it so much is a really good feeling.

Did that type of criticism about not being able to pull it off start to grate on you after a while last year?

Throughout my entire career I’ve heard those things and you know what, anyone can do anything, it’s just taking some risks, surrounding yourself with good people and working your ass off. You can do anything but you can’t do anything unless you try it, and our company’s philosophy has always been if we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it right. So we’ve got the best people in the business and spent the extra dollars to do it right. That’s what you need to do to have people say this is something I’m going to come back to every single year.

What artist that didn’t perform at Bonnaroo in 2002 are you particularly psyched to have on the bill this year?

Neil Young. I’m just a huge Neil young fan and it was such a thrill to have him be a part of our event. At first it wasn’t a reality that there was even a chance it would happen because he wasn’t working but he was someone I’ve always dreamed about having be part of an event. I’ll tell you Tennessee is an amazing schedule, I’m pretty happy. You have to restrain yourself because you have to remember there’s next year and there’s the northeast event. We’re sold out but I still want to put stuff out there. We’ve opened up the event a bit and still remained true to the core.

Aside from the music, what’s new for the Tennessee event?

We’re going to have different activities out there. We’re expanding the Centeroo area for more activities. There will be cool surprises, including some surprises musically as well. The layout is generally the same and we have the same staff but I think we’ve done some things better. We’re trying to make vast improvements on the Port-O-Lets, some of the services we’re offering out there.

Last question- have you heard from Dr. John about the name [Note: Dr. John, of course, put out the Desitively Bonnaroo album in 1974. Bonnaroo is reportedly a Cajun term for "a good time."]

I was sitting in front of him for this local awards ceremony and he was laughing about it. His manager called me and his schedule didn’t allow him to be on the event but we’d really like to get him on. He was totally supportive of it and I think he thought it was really cool.

When we first put out the name we were wondering, Is this a cool name?' We thought so but as time goes by I really think it's an appropriate name for everything- "A good time." I think it ties into our roots being in New Orleans and there's a New Orleans vibe about having a good time, being relaxed, going with the flow. People know how to celebrate down here and that's what all this is about, people celebrating and having a good time.

Pages:« Previous Page