Bonnaroo 2016: Red Bull to feature Bonnagrannies return to Bonnaroo
Prepare to sprout wings, Bonnagrannies!
Yes, it's true, Middle Tennessee's hippest grandmas will return to Bonnaroo this year.
And this time, their trip will be featured by an energy drink they had never heard of.
"We didn’t even know what Red Bull was," says 91-year-old Nancy Lee Pitts, one of the four Middle Tennessee women — all over the age of 86 — who are known as the Bonnagrannies.
But be assured, they know the energy drink well now.
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Just days before the annual four-day music festival, the ladies met with Red Bull representatives to talk about their trip to Manchester, shoot some video and experience the energy drink together. A segment on the women will air within the Bonnaroo Livestream on Red Bull TV this weekend.
"Of course, we’ve never tasted Red Bull," 89-year-old Alice Ann Barge says of herself, Pitts and fellow Bonnagrannies Mary Neiderhauser, 86, and Laddie Neil, 87.
Some cautioned against it, uncertain what such an energy jolt would do to the grannies — even such resilient ones who attend festivals with 80,000 fans and 150 musical acts, including this year's mega performers Pearl Jam and Dead and Company.
"Everyone advised us, 'Don’t you dare drink it, that stuff will kill you,'" Pitts said.
But these ladies are adventurous. They know something about how to live.
This will be their fourth Bonnaroo together.
Up late night with the ravers and rebels, they bounce from show to show with the dreadlocked and tattooed concert goers, most who are only one-quarter their age.
"All these precious young children say, 'May we take your picture?," Barge says.
They pose for selfies, which appear all over social media (including their own Twitter account run by their grandchildren) and often get texted to festival attendees' grandmas back home.
Paul McCartney's 2014 Bonnaroo set stands out as one of the Bonnagrannies favorite performances throughout the years. Kanye West, not so much.
"He didn’t appeal to us," Pitts says with a laugh. "He was not our kind of entertainment. We went, but we left."
They weren't the only ones who have been less-than-thrilled with Kanye at Bonnaroo.
Still, the Bonnagrannies keep coming back. This year, Chris Stapleton is high on the list of acts they are excited to see.
"When you get our age, you are always looking for something to keep going," Pitts says.
Red Bull is supposed to be good for that. Energy drink and all. They say it will give you wings.
So just what do the Bonnagrannies think of the drink? Well, they may not want everything printed, but they did offer this.
It tasted "heavily sugared," Barge says, but in a good way. "I sort of liked it."
BONNAGRANNIES ESSENTIAL PACKING LIST
The Bonnagrannies don't camp, they sleep in style at Niederhauser's Manchester home and enjoy a plantation breakfast every morning and chicken salad at lunch.
But they do have a few essentials for the festival grounds:
- A folding cane chair: I swear, inventors think of everything. This walking stick with a stool, discovered and purchased by their children, is handy for staying steady on your feet and resting them when they become weary walking around the farm.
- Water: "A lot of water," Barge says.
- "And a cell phone is mandatory," she adds. Yes, these grannies have cell phone skills.
- Money to buy food on the grounds: Barge likes to take an "oversized pocketbook," in which to store her change.
- Something cool to wear: Cool has two meanings here. It will be blistering hot, so clothes that don't smother or make one melt are key. But the Bonnagrannies also have their own cool (as in hip) style. They sport easy-to-spot red T-shirts with #Bonnagrannies printed across the front, and sweet cowboy hats decorated with sparkly stars. Dual cool!
BONNAGRANNIES BONNAROO ADVICE
- Feel the vibe: One of Bonnaroo's principals to live by is "Radiate Positivity" in the form of "smiles, high fives, and random acts of kindness." Barge recently read the phrase in the newspaper and repeated it word for word. "That sums up Bonnaroo in my estimation," she says.
- Look up and enjoy the moment: "The moon and stars and sitting outdoors," Barge says. That's what Bonnaroo is all about.
- Live forever young: Bonnaroo isn't only for the kids — with a diverse mix of entertainment everyone, of any age, can embrace their inner hippie. "We have gotten so we look forward to it," Pitts says. "It's something different. ... When you get our age, you are always looking for something to keep going." They found it.