Bonnaroo: The Book

The organizers of Bonnaroo apparently don't think that what happens at Bonnaroo stays at Bonnaroo--they've just announced a new coffee-table book, Bonnaroo: What, Which, This, That and the Other ($19.99), due out on April 12, to commemorate the festival's upcoming 10th anniversary, featuring more than 4,000 photos and contributions from participating artists. (Seems like a handy way to recover some of the memories that were shredded by mushrooms and alcohol.)

Organized like a virtual journey through the festival itself (the book title comes from the names of the performance stages), it is a stunning, visceral celebration of the irrepressible spirit of the music, the artists and the community that make up Bonnaroo. It also celebrates the deeply collaborative nature of the festival -- a give-and-take continuum that occurs between bands and other bands; fans and their favorite bands; the festival and the local community and the land it's held on -- a place so uniquely located and laid out that it gives one the feeling that this beautiful thing could only exist right where it does. Most significantly, it honors the greatest collaboration -- the one between the fans themselves, who build an unspoken trust with one another and peacefully coexist while assembling what becomes the sixth largest city in Tennessee for the best weekend of their lives.

 

From dazzling atmospheric photos to exclusive up-close-and-personal shots of the artists both backstage and onstage, BONNAROO: WHAT, WHICH, THIS, THAT, THE OTHER profoundly captures the breadth and depth of what the Wall Street Journal called "one of rock's best festivals." Each photo bursts with the energy, power, and excitement one feels on the farm every day and night at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, an event Rolling Stone famously hailed as"one of the 50 moments to change the history of rock n'roll." With each page, the reader is treated to the best seats in the house.

 

BONNAROO: WHAT, WHICH, THIS, THAT, THE OTHER

boasts an essay written by Alan Light, frequent contributor to New York Times and Rolling Stone, and Bonnaroo veteran of many years. It was edited by Holly George-Warren, the award-winning author and editor of many books on music and pop-culture.