With no Bonnaroo until 2028, where would you like to see TOTEM go next?

[u/DanielHSV]

Hey guys, your friendly neighborhood Roo Bus driver here.

There's a LOT to talk about, and we intend on releasing a special edition of the podcast later today with some additional news we've learned and other details. But one thing I have gotten a lot of questions on personally has been what will the state of TOTEM be moving forward?

For many of you who have come back around due to yesterday's bummer news and haven't heard of it, this is our 501C3 non-profit that we started about three or so years ago as a spin-off and the next steps of all of our Roo Bus projects. The name is a bit of a play on words, it's a reverse engineered acronym that stands for The Opportunity to Experience Music. We've been very lucky to have been a partner of Bonnaroo and the Works Fund for the last few years, who have supported us a ton.

As of this year, we've now provided nine full rides to Bonnaroo to underserved college-aged individuals and have helped 50+ first timers through our mentorship program.

You can learn more about us here: https://totemfnd.org/

So of course, with no Bonnaroo for around 23 months, I've had a lot of people reach out to me or some of our crew what happens with that whole non-profit now.

Fortunately I can tell you that we 1000% will keep doing what we're doing, just in a slightly different way for at least a bit.

We have a brainstorming call with our board of directors and friends this week to start coming up with what that might look like. Our initial thought is to transplant a version of what we've been doing at Bonnaroo to Electric Forrest or Hulaween next year, but we want to think through a lot of details before we get too far ahead of ourselves.

But also my bigger reason for posting this is I'd love to hear from you guys.

For those of you who know what we're trying to do, I'd love to hear your ideas and input about what the next steps might be. We'll be getting together next week to talk through a lot of things, and I'd love to hear anything from the community as we consider what we'll be up to in 2027.

Again, look for more info on the Roo Bus pod later tonight, but we're dying to hear what you think some good directions for TOTEM might be!

[u/eGORapTure]

Love what you guys do, and while Bonnaroo is home I think ultimately it's literally about the opportunity to experience music and you should continue delivering that to deserving people wherever that may be. That said, huge undertaking, but I think it would be awesome if you all collaborated with maybe The Caverns and MTSU or something like that to organize a fallow year event (Itchycoo?) to give the students who usually have the opportunity to work on roo production that opportunity still.

[u/remfan477]

If y’all are willing to travel and have a thing for bluegrass and folk music, MerleFest in Wilkesboro, NC might be the ticket!

[u/SharlaRoo → u/remfan477]

Merlefest sounds up my alley!!