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Kanye West Earns Haters at Bonnaroo

Bonnaroo is a festival famous for bringing an eclectic line-up to a traditionally hippie-ish crowd, and the crowd is famous for embracing all of it (from Lily Allen to Tool), however one thing is for sure: Bonnaroo did not take kindly to Kanye West. Perhaps the only performer to get massively booed, West started his show nearly two hours late, at 4:30 in the morning.

Most surprising was Sunday's aftermath: it's an extremely rare occurrence that artists at Bonnaroo express negative remarks onstage, unless directed towards President Bush. Yet, several acts commented on West's poor performance, eliciting additional boo's from the crowd. Robert Randolph led a "F--- Kanye!" chant which was enthusiastically embraced. Broken Social Scene referred to a pause in their show (due to equipment problems) as their "Kanye moment." And Rogue Wave promised fans that they would never leave them waiting in a field until 4:30 AM out of respect for their audience. Anytime an artist (such as O.A.R.) mentioned West by name, from stage, it was met with a round of boo's.

Days before the festival, West insisted that his set would be moved to the main stage and rescheduled for late-night so the crowd would get the full effect of his 'Glow in the Dark' production. Shortly after he finally came onstage, ironically to 'Good Morning,' the sun began to rise, negating all the fancy lights (which were nothing compared to Daft Punk or Roger Waters) and revealing the faces of thousands of un-amused music fans. By that time, most of the crowd had already left, disappointed.

Allegedly, there was an altercation backstage between Pearl Jam's crew and West's, in addition to everything else. During the delay, fans booed and threw bottles and glow sticks at the stage, one of which hit West's main centerpiece screen, damaging it for the entire performance (and, very likely, permanently). As this crowd would phrase it: It's called karma, bro.

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Kelli

I also waited until 4am, Kanye is not a jam-band and is not suitable for Bonnaroo, unless he is going to entertain us on our drugs with a crazy light show...in the dark. HOWEVER, when he arrived..our drugs were worn off, we were tired from exhausting heat and from being awake all day and night walking around and partying, the sun was coming up...and it just was not worth the wait. Sorry you got your "feelings hurt" dude..but it's hard to piss off Bonnaroo, were hippies... but you didn't a great job at doing so. Just like you don't want to be blamed for the delay, don't blame US for being pissed at the delay...we aren't going to blame Bonnaroo, we love Bonnaroo..it's a way of life.

July 12 2008 at 4:16 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
wdunna9040

F*** Kanye, i would never pay to see you perform, but seeing how you where already there i waited till 400am then gave up and went to bed with my 40 minute walk to my tent. it was not worth the wait and you deserve all the boo's i help take part in. your are as bad as axl rose. go to hell and turn right.

June 27 2008 at 9:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
chris hix

SHAME ON YOU, KANYE. Respect the fans!

June 17 2008 at 8:41 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply