My Morning Jacket at Bonnaroo 2004, photo by the one and only Riny van Eijk
The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an annual four day music festival. The 2004 festival ran June 11-13 and more than 90,000 people attended. It was marked by torrential rains, creating an incredibly large amount of mud. Many vehicles had to be towed out of the parking area.
On June 12th My Morning Jacket played at Which Stage on Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, this was the second time the band played the festival.
Every Bonnaroo is really fun. For me, my favorite moment was probably my first time there, which was the band’s second in 2004. We played a few songs and then it started to pour. It was something unexpected that made the show fun for us. It was so harmonious with the rain. It just cooled everyone down because it was so hot, but the day had this nice breeze. We try to make it different each year. Bonnaroo is always special, so we try to go more extravagant."- Carl Broemel
(May 2008)
"We have always had a weird connection there with the rain. I guess it was 2004 that we played in the afternoon and it was just baking hot, it was so hot that we could hardly play, and you look out at the crowd and they are all in the sun, and just wilting like flowers because the heat was so intense. But then out of nowhere these clouds start to roll in, it all starts to get cloudy and cold. The whole mood changes because everybody is starting to feel green again, starting to pop up and look at the rain and the mood gets a little more up and energized. I'll never forget it, we're playing and the sky just rips open, and rain just starts pouring down and people are just losing their minds because they are so happy to be getting soaked. And we are like playing on stage with no shoes on, and the whole stage is covered in water, and everybody is petrified that we are going to get electrocuted, but it was such a transcendent moment that we just didn't even care. If this is how I go out this is fine with me because this is unbelievable."- Jim James
(CNN interview, June 2011)
