Creature + JanSport + Bonnaroo = Amazing

A few of us Creatures had the splendid opportunity of venturing out to Great Stage Parkon, a 700-acre (2.8 km²) farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles southeast of Nashville.

Why, you ask? Well, for Bonnaroo of course! If you aren’t sure what that is, click here. Ahmazing.

Lucky for us, one of our amazing clients, JanSport, participates as a sponsor every year. This means we get to play, too.

It’s a pretty rad idea:

JanSport invites concert-goers to paint their hearts out on various 15x5 foot canvases,
and, over the course of the year, we turn the painted canvases into limited edition, one-of-a-kind backpacks (proceeds of the backpacks to to Big City Mountaineers).

Awe.Some.

This year was round two. We were excited, and having done it once before, we were ready.

We arrived a few days before the concert so we could set up the tent and get all our goodies ready. We knew to expect heat, and humidity, and mud up to our eyeballs, but when the wall of 300% humidity hit us upon arrival, we were not prepared. IT.WAS.HOT.

But we’re troopers. And we were able to get our tent panels hung, our wooden easel built (thanks to John Haile and Bob Horn) with minimal dehydration.

Thursday, June 10^th the festival began. Droves of music and art lovers filled the farm, and soon our tent was a flurry of excitement. JanSport lovers filled the tent ready to paint their hearts out, so their artwork would eventually become a backpack.

We had repeat visits from folks who just couldn’t get enough.

We even had people come back who had painted last year, looking for their art that had been turned into a backpack.

Even in the blistering 98-degree heat and 300% humidity, folks loved to paint!

Not only did we get to share the JanSport love with 75,000 sweaty festival-goers, we also were able to see some amazing acts.

From Kings of Leon, Stevie Wonder (or as we like to call him, the 8th Wonder of the World), Jay-Z (ahmazing!) and Dave Matthews, to Steve Martin, Conan O’Brien, and Aziz Ansari, our nights were filled with music and laughter, good food and good friends.

And sweat. Did I mention how hot it was?

Be sure to check out JanSport’s Reclaimed Art Canvas website to see all the beauty that came from the week.

Inspirational. And hopefully we’ll see you at Bonnaroo 2011!