“We really want you to feel like you’ve stepped off the farm in Manchester and right into an authentic New Orleans joint,” says Paul Peck of Superfly Presents. For the second straight year, Bonnaroo will create a specialized environment entitled “Somethin’ Else.” The ante has been upped even further after 2007’s successful partnership with Blue Note Records, which yielded the initial incarnation of Somethin’ Else, as a jazz club.

In 2008, Bonnaroo has created a venue with a spotlight on the rich history and inspired culture of New Orleans and Louisiana. “Somethin’ Else – New Orleans” features an outstanding collection of musicians from the Big Easy as well as an ideal setting capturing the region’s best flavors, sounds and personality. “We’ve got an amazing cross-section of New Orleans talent,” says Peck. “These artists thrive on impromptu collaboration—something real music fans, Bonnaroo fans in particular, really dig.”

The venue is fashioned after famous New Orleans clubs like the Maple Leaf and Tipitina’s, and will also offer regional food and beer, air conditioning and the N’awlins atmosphere within an authentic setting. That attention to detail has been honed to the finest degree as Bonnaroo attendees will be able to soak in the Louisiana tableaux while listening to the state’s native musicians deliver the improvisatory goods.

They say that New Orleans is nicknamed “The Big Easy” because it is really quite easy to overindulge in a city that offers so many distinct pleasures—beer, Mardi Gras, jazz, gumbo, seafood, jazz, booze and musicians at the top of their game. The list of artists playing in the Somethin’ Else club is an all-star assemblage of N’awlins’ finest: Porter-Batiste-Stoltz, Anders Osborne, Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Henry Butler and the Game Band, Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, Soul Rebels Brass Band, Big Sam’s Funky Nation, and Morning 40 Federation. And, lest one forget, all within an air-conditioned tent.

“You’re going to really feel that New Orleans spirit and vibe as soon as you walk into the venue,” says Peck. “We will have a wooden fence to fence in the courtyard area—it is almost like a Maple Leaf-style touch, but a lot of New Orleans clubs have that, too. It’s a place that you can decompress when you’re watching a show.” And what better way to experience New Orleans, when one can’t quite get to Louisiana, than a trip to Uptown NOLA via Tennessee, and a chance to see some of the best jazz musicians in the world? “New Orleans is such an amazing place, in general, but particularly, when you talk about seeing music,” says Peck. “There’s no better atmosphere. There are so many great bands and artists, but, not only that, it is really the ideal setting because there are so many great clubs. You can feel the history in the air.”

And that long history of New Orleans music has, ironically, been present in the blueprint created by the founders of the Bonnaroo festival since the inaugural year in 2002. Superfly was founded in New Orleans and three of the four founding members went to Tulane University. Now they also will be giving back to that community as “Somethin’ Else – New Orleans” will benefit charitable groups via a donation upon entrance, including New Orleans Musicians Clinic, New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, New Orleans Habitat Musicians’ Village/Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, and Tipitina’s Foundation.

Bringing the history, sounds, cuisine, energy, and charitable spirit of NOLA to Bonnaroo appears to be a match made in festival heaven as one gets the best of both states—Tennessee and Louisiana—within a very comfortable and appetizing environment. “There’s really nothing like New Orleans,” says Peck. “Somethin’ Else is going to be the full on experience, New Orleans through and through. We’re going to have New Orleans vendors serving up some really tasty New Orleans food. Everything from the pressed tin roof with ceiling fans, to low stage—similar to what you’d see at the Maple Leaf in NOLA—to the courtyard where you can catch your breath and just hang for a minute out back with some friends. It is also the one place on site where there is going to be a beer bar in the venue, which is a pretty integral part of the experience—watching Walter “Wolfman” Washington’s band with an Abita Amber in your hand is a great situation…and did I mention it will be air conditioned?”

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