Steve Winwood & Dottie Peoples Among Widespread Panic Guests On This Date In 2002

When the lineup for the first Bonnaroo was announced, there was no doubt that the festival’s organizers were aiming to attract jam fans. Bonnaroo 2002 brought together nearly every major act in the jam scene including Trey Anastasio (Phish was on hiatus at that point), Phil Lesh & Friends with Bob Weir, moe., The String Cheese Incident, Galactic, Gov’t Mule and Widespread Panic. The event drew approximately 70,000 attendees to Manchester with little promotion after selling out in only 11 days. Even Rolling Stone had to take notice and dubbed the first Bonnaroo “the most ambitious event of the summer.”

Widespread Panic was given the honors of headlining two nights of Bonnaroo ’02 with two full sets each night. The band made the most of the opportunity by welcoming a bevy of guests for memorable sit-ins. Sadly, Bonnaroo ’02 would be among guitarist Michael Houser’s last performances with the band before he succumbed to cancer. Today marks the anniversary of the Georgia rockers’ outstanding Bonnaroo finale which saw the group aided by gospel legend Dottie Peoples and the People’s Choice Choir on a stellar segment that ended the first set and famed multi-instrumentalist Steve Winwood lead the group on a pair of Traffic classics as part of the second set. Future WSP guitarist George McConnell sat-in at one point as did turntablist DJ Logic, saxophonist Randall Bramblett and percussionist Leon Mobley. Panic’s sets from this date in 2002 helped put Bonnaroo on the map.

Watch pro-shot footage of Dottie Peoples and the People’s Choice Choir adding to Widespread Panic’s “Tall Boy” > “Testify” > “Tall Boy” sequence from June 22, 2002:

Here’s fan-shot footage of both Widespread Panic sets from June 22, 2002:

Setlist (via Everyday Companion)

Set One: Chilly Water > Makes Sense To Me > Chilly Water, One Arm Steve, Wondering > Diner, Blue Indian, Pigeons, Happy Child > Ain’t Life Grand* > Tall Boy* > Testify* > Tall Boy

Set Two: Disco > Thought Sausage > This Part Of Town, Action Man, Stop Breakin’ Down Blues**, Glad*** > Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys*** > Jam*** > Drums**** > Vacation, Space Wrangler > Love Tractor

Encore: Visiting Day > Arleen > City of Dreams

• * with Dottie Peoples and the People’s Choice Choir on vocals
• ** with George McConnell on guitar
• *** with Randall Bramblett on saxophone, Steve Winwood on keyboards/vocals
• **** with DJ Logic on turntables, Leon Mobley on djembe
• [First ‘Glad’; Last ‘Testify’ – 12/31/99, 200 shows]

[Originally Published: June 22, 2016]