I survived the F5 at Bonnaroo. OK, maybe it was more of a small drizzle than an actual monster tornado but you wouldn’t have known it by the way they handled what they called a “code red” at the outdoor music festival in Manchester.
It all happened Saturday night as Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (famous for the "Thrift Shop" song) were performing at the main stage around 9 p.m. Like most evenings at Roo, I’d made my way over to the place we call “Little McMinnville” across from the main stage. It’s actually Gary Prater’s BBQ stand which has, over the course of the festival, become the gathering place for Warren County folks. You can stand there and be out of the crush of the crowd and get a good view of “What Stage” which is the main event stage on the grounds.
So, I’m over in Little McMinnville talking to Gary Prater himself when across the radio comes a red alert.
“What’s that?” I ask as I start to see Bonnaroo personnel hustling around.
“They’re evacuating,” Gary replied.
“Evacuating what?” I responded.
“Everything,” he replied as he began cutting off machinery at his tent.
The first thing to go through my mind, in this day and age was there’d been a terror threat. However, that idea was soon laid to rest when the sky lit up west of the Roo grounds. It was lightning. A storm was heading our way, or so they thought.
Just three days prior, I had been at Bonnaroo media day which is held ahead of the festival. Both James and Ashley were asking questions of the organizers while I was running the video camera. But, even as I was being the lowly camera guy, a question popped into my head: what if a tornado were to bear down on Bonnaroo? I didn’t ask the question. Perhaps I should have.
The next thing you know, the act stops performing and a man comes on the microphone telling everyone to leave the concert grounds. We’re talking about thousands of people.
Think about it, that many folks heading for one fairly small exit. And, where are they going? Tents? Trailers? Vehicles?
As the evacuation was ongoing, several McMinnville folks started taking refuge in the Prater tent. It’s actually multiple large tents. They were in hopes they could wait out the storms there since there is some cover. By this time I’d pulled up my Doppler radar on my phone and could see the main storm was going north of the festival grounds. However, it was close enough where a stray lightning strike could prove disastrous.
Much to our chagrin, a very aggressive lady from Bonnaroo ordered everyone out, sending us packing to our car. We reached the car, dry may I add, just in time for the all-clear to be given out, allowing us back.
This time it turned out to be a little drizzle but what if the worst should happen next time? I think I’ll ask the question next year.
Standard reporter Duane Sherrill can be reached at 473-2191.