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All Photos & Video © 2009 Jason Kaczorowski
Bonnaroo
June 11th-14th, 2009
Manchester, TN
I traveled to the 2009 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival to curate the "Jim Pollock: Phantasy Pheast" retrospective art exhibition presented by the 101/exhibit gallery (Miami, FL). When not working the tent, I also shot some music, art and scenes for my friends from Headcount.org.
We arrived Wednesday after a 9 hour drive from Chicago. The weather was hot and wet and remained steamy and moist throughout set-up. Fans started arriving Thursday afternoon as storms rolled in and the skies poured rain. By mid-afternoon the Pollock exhibition was packed as eager art collectors sought out the newest releases and rare works on display. That evening brought more rain and soaked fans sought steamy shelter inside the exhibition.
The 900SF booth was set up directly across from the "That Stage" which was curated by David Byrne Friday and offered acts such as Dirty Projectors, St. Vincent, Santigold & Ani DiFranco. We broke down the tent during Bryne's set opposite the Beastie Boys and escaped just in time to run over to the main "What Stage" to catch a late night Midnight-2am set by Phish. I hadn't shot a single act yet and decided to take a breather from the 80,000 fans gathered to catch Phish and venture over to shoot Flavor Flav, Chuck D, Terminator X and Professor Griff in Public Enemy performing their first album in its entirety, "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back". I returned to the booth in the middle of the morning to catch the Greg Gillis one man dance party known as Girl Talk. Gillis had concertgoers bumping til 5am as they crowded onto the stage to dance along to his crowd pleasing mash-ups.
Saturday brought clear skies, more interesting music from across the booth (Elvis Costello, Jenny Lewis, Raphael Saadiq, Allen Toussaint, Alejandro Escovedo) and special guests. Phish keyboardist Page McConnell stopped by the booth for a private viewing by his former college roommate, Pollock. I escaped mid afternoon to capture some shots of surprise guests Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer All Star Band. The tent stayed open until main stage headliner Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band swept the crowds from Centeroo.
Sunday was rough. Everyone’s feet and backs were hurting and my voice was completely gone thanks to screaming over the Thrash Metal acts playing opposite the tent. Cage of Elephants, Dillinger Escape Plan, High on Fire and others rocked hard as we strained to sell posters to throngs of poster collectors on the last day of the festival. We broke down the tent around 7pm missing Snoop Dogg's performance on the main stage opting to get everything packed up in time to catch the final performance of the evening from Phish starting at 8:30pm. Phish's first set included a special guest appearance by the Boss for Mustang Sally, Bobby Jean and a rollicking, set-closing Glory Days.
With a few items left to clean up back at the booth, Pollock and I made our way back to the R.V. for an early morning departure. Pollock worked by laptop on upcoming projects as I packed remaining supplies and toured the festival grounds one last time.
I'm back in Illinois tonight to post this blog but off again tomorrow to photograph the remaining shows in Phish's first leg of summer tour. Next week I'm off again to Miami, Florida to capture Pollock's VIP gallery opening at the 101/exhibit gallery. Be on the lookout for more photos of these exciting adventures upon my return in the coming weeks.
Flavor-Flav w/ Public Enemy 12:30am-1:45am "This Tent"
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