Out Go the Lights! Cheryl Dunn Does Bonnaroo!

A photo extravaganza that'll have you howling "Bonnaroo!"

By Cheryl Dunn

Click here for Cheryl Dunn's exclusive photos from Bonnaroo 2007!

The Flaming Lips toot their own horn, above.

Mention that you're going to a big music festival to any New Yorker and they often aside with disdain: "Oh, I could never do that." Coming from citizens of a city of over eight million, this dismissal seems pretty laughable.

Being a part of and capturing the energy of 80,000 people jamming to a live performance can be nothing short of mind-blowing. I have been doing this for a while now, and am usually the instigator. From Woodstock 1994 to all of the Tibetan Freedom concerts, a few Lollapaloozas, Coachella every year, and now Bonnaroo for the second time, it's becoming a bit of an obsession.

The truth is, when my niece called me a few years ago and asked if I would go to Bonnaroo with her, I had no idea what she was talking about. I blew her off. She was subsequently denied permission to drive 12 hours in an automobile crammed with 16-year-olds to rural Tennessee for a four-day camping-and-music festival.

I’m sure she must have felt as I did when I was 16 and my father said “No way!” when I told him I was going to a Led Zeppelin concert in Jersey City with a bunch of guys in a van. Well, lucky for me, I went to Bonnaroo 2007 this past June, and finally got my Zeppelin fix, so to speak. Here are some of the memories I brought back by way of these photos, and the 10 most memorable moments.

1.) John Paul Jones, founder of Led Zeppelin, was the unofficial man of the weekend, and certainly one of the highlights. He played sets with Ben Harper, the Roots, Gov’t Mule, and the Flaming Lips.
2.) Eugene, from Gogol Bordello, surfing the crowd and standing on a large drum.
3.) Flaming Lips? Let’s see: helium balloons, confetti, spaceship lights, and dancing aliens.
4.) Ben Harper singing “Dazed and Confused.”
5.) David Cross’s East Village dog-park jokes going nowhere with the mostly Southern audience, making them even funnier to a New Yorker.
6.) The eye shadow that Wolfmother’s lead singer wore.
7.) Hearing Police songs turned into bona fide jams.
8.) Gnarly roadie trying to convince a topless, nipple-pierced young girl to come backstage, claiming he was “procuring” her for Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. (When we took the roadie’s picture, he kept yelling, “L.A. to the bone!")
9.) No state troopers.
10.) Most importantly, the psyched, music-loving concertgoers. Bless them. The excited energy of all those fans, dancing in a huge field under the sun and stars, inspires many artists to give epic performances that become legendary.