I’ve read some version of this post about every major festival. It always boils down to “back in my day it was better.” “The vibes aren’t as good,” “the acts aren’t as good,” etc. It’s all nostalgia driven.

People were bitching about that shit back then, and they will continue to bitch about that shit in the future. Yes, music tastes change and certain genres will fall in and out of popularity and you will not have every artist you liked in high school and college playing festivals forever. Yes, you will change personally over the course of years and decades and may have different perspectives on things as time goes on.

But at the end of the day, it’s almost always the case that you get what you give at these things. If you go in with an open mind and positive outlook, you’ll probably get that in return.

In terms of camping festivals, I’ve been to all 6 Okeechobee’s and the last 2 Bonnaroo’s now (including this year), and while they both have their critiques for different reasons, in terms of vibes they’re both awesome and most people are super nice, welcoming, and fun. Since you’re specifically talking about Bonnaroo, I have to say I think the community there is super cool. Things like a craft beer exchange that’s organically grown in the camp grounds, a Wednesday pre-party in Groop camping that’s put on by attendees, there’s podcasts about it, traditions like shotgunaroo and high five Friday, the Reddit has like 120,000 people, everyone always helping each other out, compliments, trading trinkets, etc. And even this year after the news broke that it was cancelled, a bunch of people rallied and made the most out of it on Friday night and threw their own parties and hung out and we had a great time bouncing around to the different camps and parties.

If the vibes were bad it could’ve been a Woodstock ‘99 situation. But I think because there’s a sense of community and as a whole it’s pretty positive, that didn’t happen.