Dave Paulson

USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee

Everybody makes mistakes, even the fine folks at Bonnaroo.

Often, their hearts were in the right place, and sometimes the circumstances were out of their control, but these are probably moments that the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival — and its fans — would prefer to forget.

Bonnaroo: 15 unforgettable performances

The traffic of 2002

How did most Middle Tennesseans become aware of Bonnaroo? It became a four-letter word between June 21 and June 23, when traffic for the first festival turned Interstate 24 into a parking lot for hours. Manchester's traffic woes were front page news in that Friday's Tennessean — marking the first time the fest received that sort of treatment. In the 14 years that have followed, Bonnaroo, the police and city planners have gotten the drill down, but some longtime locals and commuters still shudder when the fest returns each year.

Booking Kanye West — twice

The Cliff's Notes of Kanye's 2008 debacle:

• He insisted on being moved from the second-largest stage to the largest one. The only time slot they could make that work was at 2 a.m.

• He didn't hit the stage until 4:30 a.m. because he had a highly intricate stage plot designed to be seen in the dark. The sun was rising by the time he started his first song. And he didn't apologize for being late. More than half of his audience left before he finished performing at 6 a.m.

• On Sunday, Robert Randolph led his Bonnaroo audience in a chant of "Kanye sucks," and even more unkind, profane graffiti was found around the gates. Rumors flew that West had also insisted that no one else was to perform during his set, forcing rocker Phil Lesh to cut his own set short, which amplified the hostility, particularly from Bonnaroo's old guard of "jam-band" fans. The news went national in the following days.

The fest dared to book him again in 2014, and while it wasn't at all a debacle, West remained underwhelming, uncompromising and quickly alienated much of the crowd with self-indulgent speeches. We highly doubt he'll be back again. During a Reddit Ask Me Anything session last year, Bonnaroo's producers were asked how they felt about West's 2014 set and if he'd be back again. Superfly's Jonathan Mayers responded: "uhmmmm, how do i answer this without getting in trouble?"

The headliners that canceled

It's the sort of thing that's bound to happen to any festival sooner or later, and thankfully it's only happened to Bonnaroo a couple of times. Two months before Bonnaroo 2008, Southern rock greats The Allman Brothers Band had to pull out of Bonnaroo because of health issues. Widespread Panic stepped in.

2013 saw another headliner cancellation on much shorter notice. The festival was already underway when Mumford and Sons had to cancel their headlining appearance because of a medical emergency. Laidback rocker Jack Johnson answered the call, rehearsed with a band in Nashville and took the stage on Saturday night. Luckily, that year's fest still had Paul McCartney and Tom Petty as headliners.

The infamous 'Cuckoo Clock' lineup announcement

You know how Coachella and Lollapalooza announce their entire lineups at once, typically first thing in the morning with a single poster image? It's never been that simple with Bonnaroo. And while we admire the festival's creative spirit and impulse to go the extra mile, sometimes their fans want them to keep it simple.

That was never more evident than in 2010, when Bonnaroo took an entire day to roll out its lineup — and in the most grating fashion possible. Fans had to stay on Bonnaroo's MySpace page (haha, yep), and every six minutes, an animated cuckoo clock would blare and reveal the name of another performer on the bill. Everyone hated it.

"Double Dream Hands" opens for Skrillex

Finally, let me just say it's tragic this one didn't work out as planned. If I'd been behind the scenes planning Bonnaroo, I would agree that booking an ironic viral video star to "open" for Skrillex was a great idea. At least, it sounded like one. Instead, the massive crowd assembled for Skrillex in 2012 quickly turned hostile toward John "Double Dream Hands" Jacobson — and he was only on stage for five minutes. Bonnaroo painted a sunny picture when they posted the video of Jacobson's performance on YouTube, but the comments tell a different story: "This dude almost got murdered lol﻿"