From Rockets to Rock Stars (Page 2 of 5)

“I consider Bonnaroo the same as an industry,” says David Pennington, Coffee County mayor. “ And $20 million is a pretty good little industry.” Dotson says the economic impact can be felt statewide, not just in Manchester. “People start coming two weeks out from New York or Florida or Georgia, they come through Bristol and Knoxville, and they travel through the state and spend money.”

Tom Brown is owner of Bean’s Creek Winery in Manchester, notorious for its Bonnaroo Red that is made from grapes from the festival property and served in plastic, screw-top bottles to be festival friendly (there is no glass allowed on the Bonnaroo site). The winery sits right on Ragsdale Road, one of the main entrances to the festival property.

"We opened October 2004, but I'd been making wine for 30 years — it started as a hobby and got out of control,” Brown says. “Bonnaroo has not been big for the winery because the kids aren't 21. But it's not what we sell today. We're nice to the kids and let them use our parking lot and restrooms and hope they come back when they're 21.”  The winery also doubles year-round as an open-mic venue and a chance to catch live music on the second Saturday of each month. “We like to be hospitable folks; we don't pour bad wine here," Brown says with a laugh.

The city has other business prospects outside of Bonnaroo on the horizon, like a new Home Depot and the possibility of housing the Common Battlefield Airmen Training program at Arnold Air Force base.  “CBAT could create 800 permanent jobs and a total of 3,600 jobs and have a $300 million yearly impact,” Pennington says. The base, which adjoins Arnold Engineering Center is butted right up against Manchester.

However, much of the local attention remains focused on the annual music and arts festival. “We look forward to it, it's like when the fair comes to town,” Pennington says. And with the permanent purchase of 500-plus acres on the site by A.C. Entertainment and Superfly Productions Presents, the wheels are turning to bring different events to Manchester year-round, generating even more revenue.

“We’re really in the early stages of discussing that,” Capps says. “There’s a lot of interest out there.”

He says that while one Bonnaroo a year is enough, smaller-scale options for other types of music, sporting and art events are being considered by event organizers nationally.

The locals seem to take heart in the fact that their town will be the permanent spot for Bonnaroo to call home. “We're lucky to have a partner like them, and so happy they bought the land,” Pennington says.  “They're 100 percent Coffee County-ians … anything we do to get a new business in here, we'd like to do for Bonnaroo, but they didn't even take a tax break. I think we got $240,000 to $270,000 last year in Coffee County from ticket sales. We're glad to have them as responsible taxpayers and a partner in the community.”

Dotson is also a big fan of the festival having come to stay, noting the $300,000 impact fee the companies have paid for the last three years and the companies’ commitment to the environment.

“Folks at Bonnaroo have always been good corporate citizens. They’re using bio-diesel [for the generators], they’re very green-oriented and recycle everything that goes out there. They’ve been real eco-friendly,” Dotson says. “I’ve been very pleased to work with them. They’re first class people; they’re people of their word, and they do things in a timely fashion… the people of Bonnaroo are becoming citizens of Manchester, and we’re happy to have them here.”

“Being Neighborly”

There seem to be plenty of reasons why the Manchester community is happy to have the festival return every year. Besides being eco-friendly and good corporate citizens, the companies also try to practice Southern hospitality, Capps says.

Festival tickets are given to people who live around the property and are affected by the noise and traffic the production brings. “We don’t look at it as compensation as much as trying to be neighborly,” Capps says. “It does impact the people [who live around the property], and we go to great lengths to decrease the negative impact … the festival itself has a spirit of community, and it’s important to feel that spirit in Coffee County.”