Five reasons to attend Summer Camp Music Festival over Bonnaroo

Bonnaroo crowds a deterrent for some

Bonnaroo is an intense experience that all who love music, camping, and adventure travel should experience.  The point of this post is not to dissuade people from going to Bonnaroo; however, for those that live in the Midwest there are more convenient alternatives.

Bonnaroo is like a mini Woodstock with 75,000 to 90,000 attendees yearly.  The festival boasts the best eclectic line up year in and year out.  The amount of people is an appeal for some, but they also might be a reason for not going depending on one’s feelings towards crowds.

One of these alternatives is Summer Camp Music Festival in Chillicothe, Illinois.  Instead of a large city it is only a decent size town with 10,000 to 15,000, but I am giving away the list.

5.  Less people:

This has already been discussed above.

Bonnaroo Music Festival

4.  Beat the heat:

The weather forecast for this weekend’s Summer Camp Music Festival in Chillicothe, Illinois looks like 50s on Thursday, 60s on Friday, 70s on Saturday, and 80s on Sunday. After surviving three Bonnaroos in searing heat, I am really looking forward to having some energy at the end of the day.

In contrast, Bonnaroo is located in Manchester, Tennessee just south of Nashville and the festival takes place usually the second week of June.  Anyone who knows something about weather and geography knows it is hot and humid in Tennessee during this period.  The festival takes place in a farm field with few trees.  To make matters worse, some campers have to walk at least a mile from their camp site to the festival grounds in 90+ temperatures with no shade.

For the weather forecast for Bonnaroo just watch this clip from Good Morning Vietnam:

Festival goers will go to great lengths to escape the heat

3: Proximity

I am from Chicago, so this benefit is for Midwest readers.  If you are reading this in Nashville or Knoxville it obviously does not apply.  Another Bonnaroo experience I am not looking forward to is the all night drive in order to save a day from work.  I am leaving straight from work tomorrow and plan to have a camp set up by 8pm on Thursday.

Escaping the sun at Bonnaroo

2.  Strong enough lineup to keep all music fans interested

There is no doubt that Bonnaroo has the better lineup between the two festivals, but with 65 bands and groups representing the rock, jam band, folk, blue grass, rap, electronic and Irish music genres to name a few there is plenty of music to keep all that come fully entertained for four days at Summer Camp.

1.  Avett Brothers

This up and coming band that jammed with Mumford & Sons and Bob Dylan at the Grammies will be at Summer Camp and not at Bonnaroo.

Stay tuned,

TT

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