MANCHESTER, TENN. — Bonnaroo’s reputation as a place where almost anything goes works in favor of the artists and the fans when it comes to the performances, according to festivalgoers and performers.

“People come here to dig something new,” said performer Abigail Washburn, who was part of a panel addressing the media that included New Orleans blues artist Henry Butler, comedians Janeane Garofalo and Mike Birbiglia, and Oscar winner Glen Hansard.

“They want to like something new,” Ms. Washburn said.

In some ways, that expectation from the fans of trying something new puts added pressure on the acts to do something special and out of the ordinary, the panelists agreed.

“It feels freer here,” Mr. Butler said. That freedom, he said, opens the door artistically, as well.

The four-day festival entered its third day today. As of Friday evening, there had been 49 arrests, Coffee County Sheriff Steve Graves said.

“It’s been pretty typical,” he said. “The arrests have been for drugs, assaults, thefts. About what we expect.”

A 21-year-old man was arrested by Murfreesboro police and charged with felony possession of a Schedule I substance after 637 hits of LSD were found in the car in which he was traveling, according to a story on tennessee.com.

For Mr. Hansard, an actor and musician who is here to perform, Bonnaroo’s reputation as a hippie-, jamband-oriented festival means acts can play full sets with fully realized and extended songs.

“It allows you to free up and get outside of your head. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but being able to do it is good.”

Don Spencer and Tom Hitt, both 51, have been friends since high school in Cincinnati. They are attending their fifth Bonnaroo and part of the reason they come back each year is the quality of the acts.

“It’s the treasures that you find around here every year,” said Mr. Spencer.

Mr. Hitt said he uses the festival schedule to plan out his day, using a dark blue highlighter to mark the groups he wants to see, and a light blue one to mark the ones he thinks he might like. Sometimes he follows the plan, but not always.

“Everybody here is good, and the fun part is finding someone you’ve never heard of,” he said.

You also get to hear well-known bands try something new, Mr. Hitt said.

He pointed out, for example, that the band the two were watching, Dark Star Orchestra, a Grateful Dead cover band that does entire set lists of past Dead shows, had performed a full-blown show Thursday night on one of the larger stages, but were doing a scaled-down set on Friday.

They opened the set with a slowed-down version of Bob Marley’s “Stir It Up.”

“The Dead, or Dark Star, doing Marley,” Mr. Hitt said. “That’s pretty cool,”