Speculation for the 2010 festival immediately began when Bonnaroo attendees (known as “Bonnaroovians”) returned home from last year’s festival mid-June. Still the festival remains six months away, but the past six months have seen all kinds of talk spreading all over the messageboards, particularly the official Bonnaroo messageboard and Inforoo, the unofficial messageboard created by the fans. When word first hit that The Who would be performing at this year’s halftime show of that last big football game of the season, many believed that Bonnaroo may go that route again. Festival organizers have twice booked acts who have played the big game’s halftime show, however, only once had one band who played the halftime show appeared at Bonnaroo in the same year; that being Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band last year. The other performer was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Most were speculating that the other big draws the festival could get this summer may be the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, U2 or Roger Waters. It now appears the Rolling Stones have no plans of touring in the summer (doesn’t mean they can’t do a one-off), whereas McCartney has said he will not tour after 2010. U2 will be touring the states at this time; they’ve already got a show booked for the Saturday of Bonnaroo in Denver, leaving it more likely that if they were to play they would be a Friday night headliner. Typically, history shows that the biggest acts of the festival play on Saturday nights, but I’m sure the festival organizers would be happy to work around U2′s schedule. History also shows that Bonnaroo’s Sunday night headliner is not the biggest draw of the three headliners, as a decent amount of people actually leave the festival on Sunday afternoon. No one has yet denied the U2 rumor, although it does appear that this rumor is starting to die down a little bit. As for Waters, the Pink Floyd founder is said to be in the works putting together a tour that will last over the next two years playing the great Floyd album, The Wall, in its entirety. One can only hope for the latter (specifically myself, because I believe that is the greatest album of all-time). But it’d be nice to see the last great Beatle before he stops playing shows. Sorry Ringo.
But why focus on what we don’t know for sure, with the possibility of setting our hopes so high that we’ll be crushed if they are not to come true. Let’s focus on what has been confirmed thus far.
Perhaps one of the most interesting selections in the history of the festival may be with thrash metal, shock rockers, GWAR. Known specifically for their live shows, the band dresses in sci-fi/horror film inspired costumes, uses raunchy and obscene gestures and lyrics, and often douses the audience with fake blood, vomit and other types of fluids. They often tend to use mannequins of pop culture and political figures in their show, making it appear that they are murdering and raping them. Some of those figures used have been O.J. Simpson, John Kerry, Mike Tyson, Ronald Reagan, Osama Bin Laden, Michael Jackson, Al Gore, Paris Hilton, Adolf Hitler and Jerry Garcia. I don’t think the hippies would be too fond of that last one. I know I wouldn’t. No worries though. I have no intention on catching this band this summer at the festival.
The second of the confirmed acts thus far is Mayer Hawthorne. He’s a young singer, producer, songwriter, arranger, audio engineer, DJ, rapper and multi-instrumentalist, said to have one of the best albums of last year, his debut full-length called A Strange Arrangement. His influences range from Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hayes, Barry White and Smokey Robinson. He is signed to the Stones Throw record label, which features artists like Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of the Mars Volta, J Rocc (one of the first turntablists), Gary Wilson (obscure new wave mastermind of the late 70′s) and label creator, Peanut Butter Wolf.
Some other artists rumored/guessed/predicted/hoped to appear at the festival this summer include the Dave Matthews Band, Furthur, Stevie Wonder, Pavement, Ryan Bingham, Alberta Cross and Lord T and Eloise.