The eighth annual Bonnaroo Music Festival will be held in its usual Manchester, Tenn. location (an hour southeast of Nashville) June 11-14. Although a lineup announcement isn't expected until early next year, the first round of tickets' pre-sales began Dec. 4. The festival promoters have taken the economy into consideration, as the first batch of tickets was available for the first time as part of a payment plan with five installments of $50. Bonnaroo won the Top Festival honor at the Billboard Touring Awards for the fourth time last month and tickets are sure to be in high demand even if the lineup hasn't yet been revealed. Last year's lineup boasted Pearl Jam, My Morning Jacket, Metallica, Widespread Panic and others. Check out http://www.stubhub.com/bonnaroo-music-festival-tickets for Bonnaroo Music Festival tickets.



Dubbed as the “Best Festival of the Year” by Rolling Stone, Bonnaroo was inaugurated in 2002 and has been garnering crowds ever since. The annual four-day music festival is held at Great Stage Park on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tenn. (yes, people travel all that way for four days of festival bliss) and is created and produced by Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment. Bonnaroo began with the intention of focusing primarily on jam bands, although over the years the stage has hosted acts representing genres across the board from jazz and hip-hop to country and bluegrass, indie folk, reggae, electronica, and even gospel. The two main performance stages are the What Stage (100,000-person capacity) and the Which Stage (30,000-person capacity), and then there is Centeroo area which features three large music tents confusingly called This Tent, That Tent and the Other Tent, two smaller DJ tents and air-conditioned (which is a plus in the summer heat) comedy, jazz and cinema tents.

Bonnaroo may seem like a nonsensical word to me and you, but it comes from New Orleans R&B great Dr. John's 1974 album Destively Bonnaroo and is a Cajun slang word for “a really good time.” While Bonnaroo is exactly what its name means, the title also honors the Louisiana music tradition that sparked the festival organizers' wish to bring live music to fans. Bonnaroo has donated over $1 million directly to Coffee Country organizations since its inception and in addition to annual charitable contributions, Bonnaroo's activities provide annual revenue to the county in which the festival is held.

The Bonnaroo lineup seems to expand each year, although in its 2002 inaugural year jam bands ruled the stage with Phish's Trey Anastasio performing along with Umphrey's McGee, Widespread Panic, Phil Lesh and Friends, Béla Fleck, Ben Harper, Keller Williams Incident and more. Widespread, which has since become a staple of the festival, reappeared in 2003 along with The Dead, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, James Brown, the Allman Brothers Band, Jack Johnson, The Roots, Sonic Youth, The Wailers, G. Love and Special Sauce, Ben Kweller and some of the usual suspects who continue to deliver each year. By 2004 Bonnaroo was able to attract the one-and-only Bob Dylan to the stage while String Cheese Incident, My Morning Jacket, Yonder Mountain String Band, Dave Matthews & Friends, Donavan Frankenreiter, Chris Robinson & The New Earth Mud and more also played. In 2005 the jam band standards were in place once again alongside Toots and the Maytals, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Modest Mouse, Brazilian Girls, M. Ward and Citizen Cope. Among 2006's notable performers were Radiohead, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Beck, Steel Pulse and Matisyahu and in 2007 the Police took the stage as part of their reunion tour while Tool, the White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, Regina Spektor, Wolfmother, Girl Talk, Hot Chip, Spoon and others were included in the eclectic lineup.

Last year's festival hosted Pearl Jam, Metallica, Kanye West, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, B.B. King, Talib Kweli, Gogol Bordello, Broken Social Scene, Lupe Fiasco, Vampire Weekend, Cat Power, M.I.A. and more so get your Bonaroo Music Festival tickets soon, as the lineup is sure to be stellar.