Bonnaroo not "Bonnapoo"

Photos By: Tara Nelson

It was early May, when I made the decision to trek down to Manchester Tenessee for a music and arts festival called Bonnaroo. My preparation for the next month wasn't without the help of social media sites. On a daily basis I was reminded of the great adventure I would soon partake by sites such as youtube, facebook, and various blogs.

Bonnaroo, like many other music festivals nowadays, does everything in it’s power to get people talking. Their website, http://www.bonnaroo.com/ was a daily hit for me, right before I jumped onto facebook, became a fan of their page, browsed photos from past years, and kept up to date on musical acts. My favorite piece of online media was the Bonnaroo Zoltaroo, an online wizard that based on your musical preferences, picked the shows that you would most enjoy. I read blogs daily and watched youtube videos to contain my anticipation. I was able to talk to people who had gone in past years, ask questions and see what I was getting myself into. Throughout this process I just kept thinking, how did people ever prepare for Woodstock? It must have been a walk in the dark compared to the amount of research I was able to do.

Social media has taken “target market” to a whole new level with its ability to bombard people with ads that directly affect them. For the past five years or so, my very personal relationship with these social media sites has had more influence on me than my parents who still occasionally refer to Bonnaroo as “Bonnapoo.”