KYLE MURPHYStaff Writer

The following is part one of a four-part series following the history of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival which is set to for  June 13 – 16, marking it the 21^st time it has been held since its inception.

The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival will be making its 21^st festival appearance at the grounds of The Farm in Manchester this June with Red Hot Chili Peppers, Post Malone and Fred again… headlining this year. While the festival has been going on in Manchester for over two decades, it was not the first large-scale music festival to makes its way to Coffee County.

Prior to Bonnaroo was the Itchycoo Park ’99 that took place over the weekend of Aug. 12 – 15 in 1999 at the future location of The Farm on Bushy Branch Road in Manchester. Named after the song from the band Small Faces, the four-day music festival was advertised for 40 national bands, 400 arts and crafts vendors, kid’s activities and 25,000 campsites. The weekend saw headliners Sammy Hagar and the WaboRitas, Styx, Tommy James & Shondelles and Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, as well as other notable acts Rick Springfield, Survivor, Blue Oyster Cult, Paul Rogers of Bad Company, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and so on.

While the lineup was praised, it was an overall financial disaster, or as quoted in the Aug. 18 edition of the Tullahoma News and Guardian, “a bummer,” selling only 19,000 tickets and the no shows of Davey Jones of the Monkees, David Gates of Bread and Ann and Nancy Wilson, which the reasons given were both logistical and financial. While promoters planned for a second Itchycoo, and another concert called Rock America 2000, plans ultimately fell through.

Meanwhile, the plans slowly began for the eventual creation of Bonnaroo following the cancellation of the music festival Hot Summer Nights in Knoxville in 1999 due to the closure of World’s Fair Park. Given the success of the festival, Ashley Capps, co-founder of AC Entertainment, said in interviews the cancellation gave his team the motivation to continue in the outdoor concert business. According to Rick Farman, co-founder and partner at Superfly Productions, after scouting a site in East Tennessee, both Superfly and AC Entertainment were told about Itchycoo. As plans commenced, the founders worked on what to name the new festival and decided to land on the word “bonnaroo”. The word is a slang term from New Orleans, the home location for Superfly Productions, referring to a celebration or a good time. The word derives from the French words “bonne” meaning “good”, and the French “rue” “street”, translating closely to “the best on the streets”.

The lineup for the inaugural festival saw Widespread Panic, Trey Anastasio, Ben Harper and the String Cheese Incident headlining, with other acts including Norah Jones, Umphrey’s McGee and Jack Johnson. According to the June 19 edition of the Tullahoma News and Guardian, local officials at the time stated that the festival seemed better organized in comparison to Itchycoo ’99, many businesses were welcoming the out-of-towners and hotels in a 45-mile radius were booked up for the three days that the event was taking place.

The inaugural festival was an overall success as Manchester saw 70,000 make their way to the first music festival, and had an economic impact of $6.21 million, according to an economic impact study from MTSU from the June 6, 2003 edition of the Tullahoma News and Guardian. However, the amount of litter, as well as traffic control and plans on how to control it would become an ongoing issue over the years. In that same edition of the Tullahoma News and Guardian, Jeff Cuellar of A.C. Entertainment of Knoxville said at the time that a Bonnaroo Northeast was being planned in New York for the end of the summer, but it would not replace the festival in Manchester. 

“We plan to keep coming to Manchester as long as you will have us,” Cuellar said in the article. “The fans absolutely adore Manchester.”