Bonnaroo festival attendance down, arrests up

Like others charged with felony offenses, he missed all the music.

After the music stopped, Coffee County Sheriff Steve Graves counted one death, 76 arrests and hundreds of citations for drug possession and other misdemeanor offenses at the fourth Bonnaroo music festival.

Graves said Monday that arrests at the three-day festival more than doubled from 2004 and officers issued at least 300 citations, compared to 132 last year.

Investigators said other offenses among the estimated 80,000 festivalgoers were mostly drunkenness and fighting.

Tiano said the weekend behind bars was miserable but Monday he exited the lockup hopping and throwing his arms up in joy as he reunited with two traveling companions who successfully pleaded with a prosecutor to reduce his bail and solicited donations among the 80,000 festivalgoers.

All three said their prayers for his release were answered when Coffee County Assistant District Attorney Ken Shelton reduced Tiano’s bond from $50,000 to $1,000.

“This is the craziest weekend of my life,” said Tiano, 21, of Vernon, N.J.

Three days after Tiano was caught with chocolate-covered mushrooms, marijuana and pills in his belongings and charged with manufacturing and delivering controlled substances to sell, Shelton agreed to reduce the charges to possession.

Shelton said Tiano had no prior record and his travel companions were persuasive when they met with him early Monday.

Shelton said he decided Tiano should be treated like the more than 300 other people who were given citations for misdemeanor drug possession.

“It was my position he didn’t have enough there to share, much less to sell,” Shelton said.

Tiano’s companions, David Bryson, 36, of Sussex, N.J., and Robert Calvaccy, 21, of Vernon, N.J., said the rest of the $2,000 they raised would be used toward paying Tiano’s fine by the time he was scheduled to appear in court in August. Bryson described the outcome as a “miracle.”

Tiano said outside the jail that during the weekend he thought he “would be sitting in there another six months to a year,” like some others with high bonds who were told at a court hearing Monday they could be locked up for months before going to trial.

Headliners among the 100 bands included Dave Matthews, former Phish frontman Trey Anastasio, The Black Crowes and Alison Krauss. Festival organizers were involved in a different count Monday.

Bonnaroo “couldn’t have been more successful. We are very proud,” festival spokesman Ken Weinstein said.

Attendance dropped from about 90,000 in 2004, when festival promoters A.C. Entertainment of Knoxville and Superfly Productions of New York and New Orleans reported “Bonnaroo grossed $14 million,” Weinstein said.

Weinstein declined to speculate about the festival dollar count this year.

Court officials scheduled bond hearings Monday for 16 of the 76 people arrested. Hearings were also set in August for misdemeanor offenders who were given citations, mostly for possession or personal use of illegal drugs.

“From what I have seen this year it was largely mushrooms and marijuana,” Graves said.

Authorities said David Ottman, 32, of Huntsville, Ala., was discovered dead Saturday in a tent. Graves said an autopsy was being performed.

“It may take a little while for the toxicology report,” Graves said.

Ottman’s relatives told investigators he had sleep apnea, a breathing disorder. The sheriff said “that is the only medical history” Ottman had and the cause of death was unknown.

He said no drugs or drug paraphernalia were found at Ottman’s campsite and there were no signs of trauma.

“We had the death and that bothers us,” Graves said Monday as stragglers departed the muddy 700 acre farm where the music stopped at midnight Monday.

Graves said officers were searching abandoned tents and surrounding woods to make sure there was “no one left behind.”

Two festivalgoers died last year of drug overdoses.

“That’s one reason why we were a lot more aggressive on searches and things,” the sheriff said. “The county will have to determine whether it’s a success or not. They are the ones that see the money from it. We have just got to deal with it.”

Graves said one man who was charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct Sunday night “decided to escape when they brought others in” at the Coffee County Jail in Manchester.

Graves said the man climbed a jail fence and was then charged with felony escape.

“He just wanted to get out,” the sheriff said.

The crowd at the festival endured some rain and muddy conditions but the sheriff said it also “rained and stormed last year. I really didn’t see very much difference” in the crowd or weather.