Arguably America's second most recognizable music festival with a whimsical made-up-sounding name, Tennessee's Bonnaroo is celebrating its 15th year in 2016 on June 9-12. In the last decade-and-a-half, the fest has grown from its fairly heavily jam-influenced roots to define the modern high-profile multi-day shindig, boasting a wildly varied slate of performers and pissing off legions of people by inspiring a nationwide circuit of festivals to serve as an alternative to, you know, the standard town-to-town touring.
So who's gonna be hitting the stage for this milestone? We don't know. Nobody does! (Our money is definitely on LCD Soundsystem, Kanye and some iteration of Guns N' Roses, though.) But that portion of the world that tunes in to Conan on TBS next Tuesday, Jan. 19, will be among the first among those who can't eke out some leaks this week to know the story. That's right — in an unprecedented attempt at music festival/basic-cable-non-music-focused-channel synergy, the B-roo (sorry) lineup will be announced via a late-night talk show helmed by a comedically gifted former Simpsons writer.
While the press release didn't give us any hints whatsoever regarding the festival's musical lineup, it did shed some light on what else is new this year: Toilets! Yup, toilets. As in, Great Stage Park, where the fest is held, will have its own permanent water line for the first time ever, facilitating a ton of permanent toilets, shower stalls and filling stations. So stop making smelly hippy jokes, OK? It's been 15 years. (And Kanye's played, like, twice now.)
This article appears in Jan 7-13, 2016.
