ERIN EDGEMON, Business Editor
Posted: Sunday, June 14, 2009 11:05 am

Amanda Baier passes out chilled Butterfingers to festivalgoers.

Like most, the music is what attracts Aaron Nemerov to the annual Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester.

But it is the energy of the four-day event that brings him back.

“The energy on the farm that weekend is hard to describe, but it is electric,” he said. “I didn’t really know what people meant when they would say that until my first ‘Roo.”

This year, though, Nemerov, a MTSU senior, couldn’t afford to buy the nearly $250 ticket, so he decided to volunteer.

Hundreds of Bonnaroo attendees are either in the same boat or just don’t want to pay the large ticket price. Instead, they volunteer to work for a number of organizations and vendors selling or giving away goods at the festival.

Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival concludes today but many volunteers will spend the next few days cleaning up after the massive party that attracted some 80,000 people to the small town of Manchester. This year’s headliners included Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Phish, Beastie Boys, Snoop Dog and Nine Inch Nails.

Nemerov decided to volunteer for Clean Vibes, waste management company that promotes recycling and proper waste disposal, which picks up trash after the festival.

After attending the festival for four years, Nemerov thought he should “do my part to clean up some of the mess I have undoubtedly added to over the years.”

Former Murfreesboro resident Amanda Baier couldn’t afford a Bonnaroo ticket this year either so she decided to answer an ad on craigslist that got her a job at the festival.

She worked four to six hours a day at The Comedy Sweet (tent) Humored by Butterfinger giving out sweet treats.

This year’s festival was Baier’s first Bonnaroo experience. Having worked at other festivals like Summer Camp in Illinois and Rothbury in Michigan, she wanted to find out what Bonnaroo was all about.

“Right now, I am unemployed and I thought (working) would be a cool way to go to a festival and have it paid for,” Baier said. “I couldn’t afford a ticket.”

Baier said she has wanted to go to Bonnaroo for a while.

As an Army brat who used to live in Germany, Bair said she hung out with guys in Germany who would always fly to Tennessee to attend Bonnaroo.

“So, it is a big deal,” she said.

Baier was looking forward to see such bands as moe., MGMT, Ben Harper and Bruce Springsteen.

Wendy Bryant, of Murfreesboro, also used a volunteer opportunity to get a free ticket to her first Bonnaroo festival. She worked with her two sisters, Shirley West and Deborah Thompson, parking cars.

“I have always wanted to go,” she said.

Bryant said she had always heard people speaking about the festival atmosphere and was curious to find out what it is all about.

Nemerov sums up the atmosphere of Bonnaroo with a single moment he always experiences at the festival.

“At some point, I pause and take a step back and for a split second there’s this indescribable feeling of awe that takes over when the reality sets in of how all of these tens of thousands of people from thousands of different backgrounds come together in one place and share one experience.

“I don’t know what it is about that, but it always gives me a supernatural feeling at some point that weekend.”

And to experience that for free, well, it just makes the festival even better.

Erin Edgemon can be reached at 869-0812 and at eedgemon@murfreesboropost.com.