Husband and wife Joshua, right, and Tamara Friend, joined friend Elisa Akhtar for the Tim Love cooking session. They grilled steak, carrots and shrimp.Love could be found in all kinds of places at Great Stage Park on Friday at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival.
While Jake and Courtney Marosky were getting married and having a photo album's worth of pictures made near the Ville and Grove in Plaza 7, restaurateur Tim Love was giving a cooking/grilling demonstration in Plaza 9 to a couple dozen fans who had signed up for the privilege of finding out his secrets for grilling the perfect steak.
The two had attended Bonnaroo in 2013 and at first joked about the idea of saying their "I dos" at the festival, but the more they said it, the more it sounded like a good idea, Courtney said.
As people congratulated them and others took pictures, Jake joked that he had put together "a pretty lineup for the music" for the wedding.
"We can have our first dance to Muse," he said with a laugh.
The plaza is in the General Admission camping area on The Farm, as it is affectionately known, because the festival takes place on a former 700-acre working farm in middle Tennessee. About 500 acres of the land was purchased by AC Entertainment and Superfly, co-founders of the event, in 2005. Live Nation bought a controlling interest in Bonnaroo in 2015.
Since purchasing the property, AC and Superfly began making improvements to both the property itself and the festival programming. In addition to the nearly 100 acts that perform throughout the four-day festival, attendees have a wide selection of things to do, see, eat, hear, read and participate in.
Love has restaurants in Love Shack and Lonesome Dove Bistros in Knoxville. He said that all of his cooking sessions at Bonnaroo had sold well.
"People love to cook and people love to grill," he said.
His biggest grilling tip: "Sear the meat and then let it rest for 20 minutes and then heat it to your desired temperature."
"I learned a lot," said Tamara Friend. She joined her husband Joshua and friend Elisa Akhtar in the class.
"I never knew you should let the meat rest. We pulled it off the grill and ate."
While that was happening out in general admission, Japanese Breakfast did a 30-minute set on This Tent that was shortened by a lengthy soundcheck (an oddity at the festival), followed by a blistering set by Sturgill Simpson on the main What Stage. Then, Muse gave one of the best-sounding shows the festival has seen in years.
When that show ended at midnight, EDM artist Bassnectar lit up the crowd, the trees and sky in front of the Which Stage with his massive, laser-driven light show and pulsating dance tracks. At 1:15 a.m., "Into the Great Wide Open: A Tom Petty Superjam" featuring an all-star lineup led by Patrick Hallahan of My Morning Jacket and Craig Pfunder of VHS or Beta.
Sheryl Crowe and Michell Zauner of Japanese Breakfast joined the band for a rendition of Petty favorites in honor of the singer who died earlier this year.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.