Bonnaroo Day 2 - we find food! by Diane

Friday, June 13: Okay, I have to admit – I was a bit concerned yesterday and didn’t want to say anything, but we were having a heck of a time finding good food here at Bonnaroo. I ended up eating a falafel and an arepa for lunch and dinner – but where were the greens? All we saw was one place selling salad – iceberg lettuce, black olives and peppers – for ten dollars!

But today – oh, today, we found the food. The Planet Roo Organic Café opened – now, remember, we’re at an 80,000-person outdoor festival where you normally have fast food-type vendors, and at the Planet Roo Café you can sit down, order from a waitress, and get fresh, as local as possible, organic food. Yeah!



Jon from Food & Water Water had the Bacon & Swiss Burger (less the bacon because they ran out) – it’s all natural grass fed beef, with toppings, and served with organic French Fries and organic ketchup. Denise (our press person down for a couple days) had Tropical Jerk Chimichanga, which was organic pineapple, organic spinach, organic plantains, red peppers and spicy organic jerk sauce and wrapped in an organic whole wheat wrap. Besides being deliciously large portions, together, they were under $20. At a festival like this, that’s the same you’re going to pay for a couple hot dogs and arepas. And wouldn’t you rather a nutritious, filling, organic meal locally sourced?

Kudos to Bonnaroo for doing this. The folks cooking at the Café own a restaurant in Ashville, North Carolina, called Ophelia’s. We’re hoping we can speak with them before we leave here.

And, really, what festival is complete without eating some junk food? So, needless to say, we were so happy to find organic lemonade, made with organic sugar and vegetarian corn dogs made with organic ingredients. And to top all that off, they even sell funnel cakes made with organic flour and sugar – and they donate their oil to people who come up to them at concerts asking to convert it to biodiesel. (They’re currently getting the equipment to do the conversion themselves.)

And then there’s the beer. What concert is complete without beer? And what Bonnaroo has done is to sell two types of organic beer – Orlio and Stonemill – both from Vermont. Maybe not local, but good for B’roo for offering more than just Budweiser.

What makes Bonnaroo stand out even more is all their effort to recycle their waste – last year, sixty percent of the festival’s waste was recycled or composted.

So – Bonnaroo is living up to its reputation for being green and sustainable, and we’re quite happy to see how much they’re starting to do in the sustainable food area.

Okay, now off to the silent disco – more on that later….. And if you’ve never seen the Raconteurs, we highly recommend them. They kicked a***!!

Article Tag(s): Bonnaroo, Sustainable Table, Planet Roo, sustainable food, organic food

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