Bonnaroo Returning With SheRoo, Women-Only Camping Area
The 2019 edition of Bonnaroo is bringing back its women-only camping area to the Manchester, Tenn. festival.
The 2019 edition of Bonnaroo is bringing back its women-only camping area to the Manchester, Tenn. festival. SheRoo, as the camping space is called, is a designated camping community for women, women-identifying individuals and non-binary Bonnaroovians who would like to live alongside each other for the duration of the four-day festival.
First piloted in 2017, SheRoo is a space for women to retreat to during their festival experience. The community camping area is a place to relax with other women, make friends, and partake in new, women-centered experiences.
SheRoo is curated by the producers of Mothership Women’s Festival in Los Angeles, whose team specializes in creating women’s spaces with a feminist mindset.
“We want all women and non-binary individuals to feel welcome in the SheROO space,” founder of Mothership Laura Wise tells Billboard. “We sprinkle the experience with icebreakers and community builders, for participants to make new connections.”
For 2019, SheRoo will include self-defense classes, body-positive yoga, kombucha bar, collaborative art projects and body glitter sparkle stations to hit the Bonnaroo stages in style.
SheRoo will feature a main tent that is open to all festival-goers during designated times for everyone to partake in the unique experiences and participate in conversations with industry leaders about women empowerment in the musical sphere and more. In 2018, Chance the Rapper stopped by the SheRoo tent to take part in the conversation.
“Last year, the response was phenomenal and I can only see SheROO growing each year as more and more people find out it’s an option!” adds Wise. “I am so grateful to Bonnaroo for it’s resounding response to what the women of bonnaroo want, a place of our own!”
The continued support of a women-only space at Bonnaroo follows a report last year by Teen Vogue that highlighted the issue of sexual harassment at Coachella.
In 2017, Swedish music festivals such as Bråvalla and Putte I Parken were laden with cases of sexual assault. Women at Bråvalla reported four rapes and 23 incidents of sexual assault at the 2017 event, which led to the cancellation of its 2018 iteration.
As a result, 22 individuals fronted by Swedish comedian and radio presenter, Emma Knyckare, launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a music festival without men. The campaign reached its funding goal in just 31 days and organizers debuted the event this past August.
Bonnaroo will return to Tennessee from June 13-16 with headliners Phish, Childish Gambino, Post Malone and The Lumineers. Festival-goers interested in community camps which include SheRoo, SobeRoo, family and solo roo’ers can register through the festival’s site.
