A day and a half after the Bonnaroo Festival wrapped up, a cleaning crew picking up after the June 11-14 event discovered an unidentified man’s body on one of the campgrounds on the Manchester, Tenn., site.
Coffee County Sheriff Steve Graves told the Shelbyville Times-Gazette the body was found Tuesday afternoon in a one-man tent.
"We don't know if he was a worker or someone who just lingered," said Graves. "He looked to be in his 20s, maybe late 20s. It's hard to tell."
Graves suggested the cause of death was due to drugs or a medical problem as the body showed no signs of trauma. Police are still trying to track down the man’s identity and his next of kin. The Tennessean noted police think the man may have been from Alabama.
The Shelbyville Times-Gazette reported the man’s death is the seventh in Bonnaroo’s eight year existence. In 2005 another man was found dead in his tent; witnesses said he suffered from sleep apnea but unspecified drugs may have also played a role. Two people died from drug overdoses in 2004. Other deaths include a Bonnaroo worker who was thrown from a trunk and a festivalgoer who was struck by Ricky Skaggs’ tour bus on the interstate.
Graves said arrests at this year’s Bonnaroo were down by about a third “but summonses were up 60 percent.”
"We found a lot of drugs, but it was smaller amounts. We did make several large drug amount arrests and seizures," he told the paper.
Bonnaroo 2009’s lineup included artists such as Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Phish, Beastie Boys, Nine Inch Nails, David Byrne, Wilco, Al Green, Snoop Dogg, Elvis Costello, Erykah Badu, TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, MGMT, The Decemberists, Of Montreal, Ani DiFranco and Girl Talk.
Click here for the Shelbyville Times-Gazette story.
Click here for photographer John Davisson’s day-by-day Bonnaroo report.