MANCHESTER, Tenn. — From broadcasting the festival on Hulu to mixing the sound for live shows, MTSU students briefly worked behind the scenes of the intended four-day Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival before the event was canceled Friday evening.
Officials canceled the entire festival after only one day due to severe weather and flooding. Heavy rainfall swamped the main venue, Centeroo, forcing the evacuation of attendees.
For years, MTSU has sent students from the College of Media and Entertainment to capture the festival — from audio to video and the behind-the-scenes stories worth telling. This year, a team of about 50 students took part in the shortened experience.
Two students from the College of Media and Entertainment from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn., set up a video camera Wednesday, June 11, for the 2025 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., as part of the university’s annual visit to give students real-world experience filming and livestreaming concerts and reporting stories during the four-day event.
The partnership began a decade ago under the relationship of festival promoters and Ken Paulson, former College of Media and Entertainment dean.
“(Paulson) had a relationship with the promoters for Bonnaroo,” said Robert Gordon, interim chair of the Media Arts department at MTSU. “I think (in) 2014 we brought the promoters to campus and we had a big lecture to a lot of (recording industry) and media arts (students) about festival promotion.”
Following the lecture, Bonnaroo representatives invited students to work the festival grounds through a class, starting on the small Who Stage and evolving into larger coverage over the next decade, including the What Stage, Gordon said.
This opportunity allows students to experience the media field before entering the workforce, said Beverly Keel, the dean of the College of Media and Entertainment since 2019.
“It’s thrilling. It’s very much real-world. You’re in it and you can see if you like it or not,” Keel said. “You know you’ve got deadlines, you have standards of very high quality, you’re working with professionals. I don’t know how it could be any better.”
Robert Gordon, right, interim chair of the Department of Media Arts at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn., chats with Katie Foss, front left, director of MTSU’s School of Journalism and Strategic Media, as students set up on stage in the background Wednesday, June 11, at the 2025 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn. Looking on, center, is Mike Forbes, director of MTSU Technical Systems and an adjunct media arts lecturer.
Students acquire hands-on experience by filming, editing and reporting on the festival, and these opportunities can open doors for future jobs,” Keel said.
“We had one student who had the Bonnaroo experience working on our mobile production truck, then graduated and went on to work with Justin Bieber, Carrie Underwood and Beyonce, because this is real world, hands-on experience.”
Jonathan Trundle, center, associate professor and coordinator of photography at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and a small group of MTSU students react to an image on his camera Wednesday, June 11, at the 2025 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn. As part of its annual visit to the event, the university has a team of about 50 students, with support from a small group of faculty and staff, getting hands-on experience filming and livestreaming concerts and reporting stories on deadline during the four-day event.
Some of the students who participated in the class last year, Gordon said, return in 2025 as directors for sets from Tyler, The Creator and Olivia Rodrigo.
Troy Steward, a Media Arts student, took Gordon’s live production class for the second time this year. Steward has accepted a job offer with a video engineering company, Tennessee Digital Video. He received the job offer as a result of working at Bonnaroo. He starts the new position after he graduates.
A small group of College of Media and Entertainment students from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn., unpack and set up gear Wednesday, June 11, for the 2025 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn. In the background is “The Truck,” MTSU’s almost $2 million mobile production lab. The students are part of a team of about 50 students getting hands-on experience filming and livestreaming concerts at the four-day event.
“I get to work on video engineering and use some of the knowledge that I’m learning in school out in the real world,” Steward said.
Also, students at Bonnaroo used new technology this year, Steward said.
“We’re adding on robo camera operators, which means that they get to sit in the truck and use the joystick to operate two cameras out there, which is really cool,” Steward said.
The team of students, faculty and staff from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn., take a group photo Wednesday, June 11, at the 2025 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn. As part of its annual visit to the event, the university dispatched students from its College of Media and Entertainment to get hands-on experience filming and livestreaming concerts and reporting stories on deadline during the four-day event.
Matthew Leimkuehler, right, assistant journalism professor at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn., gives instructions to the MTSU journalism students Wednesday, June 11, at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn. Leimkuehler is supervising the students working as part of the Seigenthaler News Service to write stories and take photos from the festival that will be shared with media outlets statewide.
This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: MTSU media students give all at Bonnaroo during shortened festival
