Papers rustling, pens scratching and guitars wailing are all sounds heard within the Bonnaroo post office.
Seated between two concert stages, the solar stage and the new music on tap lounge, means mailing a postcard back home might occasionally be interrupted by the sounds of Nashville band Diarrhea Planet or a glass blowing demonstration happening near the post office.
Inside the post office, Bonnaroovians come to mail postcards and trinkets they purchased at the Bonnaroo market to loved ones far and near.
One such Bonnaroovian was Joy Morgan Myers of Nashville.
“I’m writing to my boyfriend,” said Myers. “I’m telling him that everything is good and basically this is the coolest place ever.”
A building built two weeks before the 2008 Bonnaroo festival, the post office was originally constructed using stacked straw bales on a rammed tire foundation, a foundation that can still be seen through the rust-colored plaster covering the walls seven years later.
The post office was constructed out of straw and earthen plaster materials because of the benefits these materials provide.
According to an informational panel inside the post office, straw is largely used as animal bedding and mulch, though it will last indefinitely if kept dry which makes straw a viable construction material.
The earthen plaster acts as an insulator, absorbing heat from the sun during the day and radiating that heat throughout the night.
The post office sits surrounded by small foliage and is decorated with bicycle tires sitting upright around the building.
Hanging from the ceiling of this house of earth is a chandelier made entirely of glass bottles, some once filled with milk or high proof alcohol.
The major theme behind the Bonnaroo post office is resourcefulness. The materials used could have been taken from underneath the building while others like the tires and bottles found a new purpose in decoration and the foundation.
The Bonnaroo post office is just another representation of the Bonnaroovian lifestyle by keeping loved ones connected and radiating positivity.
