WORST Experience of my Life
My partner and I were selected to volunteer at Bonnaroo - just a few DAYS before it started.
I have never been. A lot of great artists were performing. I have read countless reviews that talk about how everyone who attends this festival is friendly. Everyone looks out for one another. It's not only about the music and camping experience, but it is largely centered around the "peace and love" kind of vibes.
With only a few days to prepare, I had my heart set on going. I didn't care what it took to get there. I was going to make it.
The problem was finding last minute transportation. Almost everything was either sold out or ridiculously expensive. We don't have a car.
While I was busy trying to DESPERATELY find a way there, I was still receiving the very basic, generic, mass-communication types of emails/texts from the Bonnaroo volunteer people. They made it clear that if anything was to go wrong with our transportation (meaning the volunteers), we could email/get in touch with them to describe the situation so they could make alternative arrangements.
They told us we would still be able to come if we stayed in contact and had a valid reason for being late.
This is exactly what happened, to say the least. We lost $1000s on flights that were overbooked, delayed, and cancelled. We ended up on a bus, and got there Saturday night. It was the best we could do.
I emailed these people 1000 times, at least. I found a phone number, different emails, social media groups, EVERY contact option in the internet, BEGGING for a response before spending the very last dollar to my name on transportation out there.
No one got back to me. They still haven't.
I guess it is my fault for taking the chance and trusting these people. I went. We had a very heavy tent, no where to stay, no car, just the emails and our volunteer schedules.
The guy at the ticket counter had no idea that there even WERE volunteers. He radio'd for some higher up to come talk to us. They didn't. They told him to tell us to leave.
We sat down the road for about 12 hours, begging people for a ride or a wrist band if they were leaving.
We didn't get either.
In fact, no one said ANYTHING to us at all.
We managed to get friends from home to send us money for a room... Around 1:30 PM on Sunday.
It was so hot, we were so tired, disappointed, hungry, and angry.
We asked for help.
So much for peace and love.
To make a bad trip worse, we took a bus halfway home. We were then planning to fly the rest of the way, but what happened instead was that our wallets, phones, chargers, tablets, EVERYTHING of value that would be our way home was STOLEN on the bus.
We ended up STRANDED in for 5 days in a strange city, sleeping on the streets.
I didn't know if we would ever get home again.
We lost everything trying to VOLUNTEER for Bonnaroo, who still can't email me back.
Hope you all had a great time.