BerkleeICE Series: Rich Goodstone and the Good Stuff of Bonnaroo
Rich Goodstone, cofounder of Bonnaroo, at Cafe 939.
Photo by Kimberly Ashton
Rich Goodstone, cofounder of Bonnaroo, talks with BerkleeICE's Panos Panay.
Photo by Kimberly Ashton
Rich Goodstone, cofounder of Bonnaroo, talks with BerkleeICE's Panos Panay.
Photo by Kimberly Ashton
When Rich Goodstone and a few buddies came up with the idea in January 2002 to put together a new music festival, they dreamed of attracting 30,000 attendees, which would have been an incredible success for four guys new to the large-festival scene. But the numbers far exceeded their expectations. With no advertising, they put tickets on sale that March and sold 70,000 in two and a half weeks.
With their event that June—called Bonnaroo, a creole term for "good stuff"—Goodstone and friends hit festival pay dirt. Goodstone stopped by Berklee on December 11 to chat with BerkleeICE founding managing director Panos Panay about his fantastically successful four-day festival. Held on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, and now in its 12th year, Bonnaroo has attracted such artists as Elton John, Kanye West, Cat Power, Vampire Weekend, and Lucius.
"We started at 70 mph," Goodstone says. The pace doesn't seem to have slowed over the years. Today, Bonnaroo is "an adult Disneyworld," he says. "While music is the foundation, there's comedy, there's dance classes, there's meditation, breathing practices, there's yoga classes."
The talk, at Cafe 939, was the last this semester in a series of talks Panay and BerkleeICE hosted with creative entrepreneurs. Their spring semester series will kick off in February with Bertis Downs, the manager of REM.
Goodstone, addressing a crowd of about 30 students, talked about why Bonnaroo and his company, Superfly, have been successful. From the beginning, he said, he had a vision, dreamed big, worked hard, wanted it bad, and believed he would succeed. That's how you get the good stuff.