I have to say that Bonnaroo 2009 is looking pretty good this year. Tickets go on sale this Friday and I already envision a sellout with Bruce Springsteen & The E Street band performing as well as Phish (2 shows mean major hippie joy). I am more excited to see Coheed & Cambria, the Beastie Boys, NIN, Andrew Bird, Wilco, Elvis Costello, Down (seriously???), and Jenny Lewis.

Here’s the current line up taken from Bonnaroo.com:

Tickets go on sale this Friday.  They will run you about $224.50 at first and then will escalate to $249.50 after the early tickets sellout.  Pricey, indeed, but this year Bonnaroo is making it easier for you to go as they have introduced a payment plan.  Call it a rock layaway of sorts…  Here is some info on that:

BONNAROO 2009 TICKETS ON SALE SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7th, 2009 AT 12:00 PM EASTERN. PURCHASE PAYMENT PLAN TICKETS.

GA PAYMENT PLAN
General admission tickets will also be available for (5) payments of $50.00 plus applicable fees through our payment plan.

Payment plan ticket fees are $28.90 per ticket, which includes a $6.00 facility fee, $3.00 contribution to Coffee County, $1.00 charity donation, and $5.00 payment plan fee ($1.00 per payment), and service fees.

There is a limit of (10) general admission payment plan tickets per order.

GA Payment Plan Schedule*
Payment 1    $90.90 including all fees    DATE OF PURCHASE
Payment 2    $50.00                                Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Payment 3    $50.00                                Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Payment 4    $50.00                                Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Payment 5    $50.00                                Tuesday, May 19, 2009
*For each GA ticket purchased starting on Saturday, February 7, 2009.

That is a great idea if you ask me. Everyone these days are hard on cash so this payment plan will pull in those folk who may now have been able to dish out all the loot at once.  Keep in mind though that if you do the payment plan and miss just one payment, Bonnaroo will keep the ticket, keep your money, and still bill you for the balance.  I knew there was a catch to this.  Always make sure you read the fine print or in this case the part that says “IMPORTANT“:

IMPORTANT: If, for any reason, any of your payments are declined, in whole or in part, then all of the following will apply: (i) your order and your tickets will be canceled (ii) any payment received as of that date will be kept by Bonnaroo as partial offset for your default, (iii) you will still owe the balance of the full amount due for each ticket and you authorize Musictoday and Bonnaroo to charge your credit card for any balance due, (iv) Musictoday and Bonnaroo will be entitled to pursue all of their legal and equitable remedies to recover the full payment from you, and (v) you agree to pay all costs of collection incurred by Musictoday or Bonnaroo, including legal fees, that they may incur in collecting the balance of each ticket price. Payment plan tickets are subject to all of the other terms of the ticketing agreement.

I can only afford one festival this year.  That is my limit.  So far Bonnaroo is winning me over.  One thing about Bonnroo that deters me though is the camping.  I don’t camp anymore.  I especially do not camp with 80,000 other people with camps set up as far as 3 miles from the venue.

I went to Bonnaroo in 2006.  We stated in a dump hotel but it the the best thing we could do.  We could come and go when we wanted to as we were not jammed into to the camping area like sardines.  Trust me, once you park your car and set up camp you are done.  There was hardly any traffic movement during the whole weekend as if you camped you were stuck.

No showers, no air conditioning, no running water… yeah I am too old for that these days…  I can rock it at an all day long summer festival no problem, but at the end of the day I need a bed with some A/C cranking after a shower.

Just look at the picture below.  The lower half of the picture is the festival grounds.  The top half is the camping community.  There is also an equal portion of the camping community behind the festival grounds too.  Honesty it is an incredible site…

With tickets on sale at the end of the week I am really wishing the Virgin Festival line up would release so I can figure out which way I am headed this summer…  I lean towards the Virgin Festival mostly because I have been to all of them so far so why ruin a tradition?  This Bonnaroo line up though has me very interested…

To be continued…