When Bonnaroo commissioned the team at Already Alive, a video production company, to tell the story of the music and arts festival, it was clear that the story would be so much bigger than that of a party. Already Alive saw Bonnaroo for what it really is: a temporary experiment in community, cooperation, experimentation, discovery, acceptance, and love. With this in mind, the team sought out the individual voices of the people whose lives had been truly touched by their experiences at Bonnaroo, and those voices are the ones that tell the festival's story.

The short film you will see below explores the qualities of Bonnaroo that make it transformative. When people first arrive, they have no idea how their ideas of what should be, what can be, and what is will change over the course of a few short days. Festivals like Bonnaroo allow thousands to come together and create an ideal world, the world that we all wish we could live in every, single day. This world glorifies artistic expression and genuine expressions of self, it does not confine you to a set of rules about how you should spend your time or with whom. You are encouraged to learn, to grow, and to feel in ways that are not acceptable in the routine of day to day life. Festivals like Bonnaroo allow people to take a step outside of their mundane reality and into the realm of possible imagination, and that in itself is absolutely magical.