Superfly Entertainment co-founder and Bonnaroo and Outside Lands co-creator Jonathan Mayers has died.
News of the influential concert promoter’s death broke last night in a report from Billboard, arriving just days before Bonnaroo returns to Tennessee this weekend. Mayers’ cause of death is unknown at the time of writing. He was 51 years old, a Bonnaroo representative confirmed to Pitchfork.
Bonnaroo organizers confirmed Mayers’ death in a social media post today and announced plans to plant a tree in his honor at the festival, as “a very small token of our appreciation for what he contributed to Bonnaroo.”
“For more than a decade, Jonathan was a creative force behind this festival that so many of us have held near and dear to our hearts now for more than twenty years,” they wrote. “Our thoughts are with Jonathan’s family and friends during this very difficult time. This weekend we celebrate Jonathan by doing the two things we know best to do in our favorite place on the planet. Spreading love and radiating positivity.”
After growing up in New York City and graduating from Tulane University in New Orleans, where he got his start at the city’s famous jazz club, Tipitina’s, and its long-running Jazz Fest event, Mayers started Superfly with Rick Farman, Richard Goodstone, and Kerry Black in 1996.
Building on success in New Orleans, in 2002, they teamed up with Ashley Capps of AC Entertainment, Chip Hooper of Paradigm Talent Agency, and Coran Capshaw of Red Light Management to launch the first-ever, sold-out Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee—and the rest is history.
Named after the creole slang term for “the best on the street”—or put more simply, a really fun time—Bonnaroo would go on to host legendary headliners like Phish, the Grateful Dead, Widespread Panic, Pearl Jam, and Elton John, and grow to host 70,000 annual attendees, serving as a model for hundreds more festivals to follow. Mayers also partnered with Another Planet Entertainment to launch Outside Lands at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in 2008.
At the time of his death, Mayers was no longer working with Superfly. He was terminated from his position at the company in August 2021, as relationships with his co-founders “began deteriorating,” according to a report from Billboard.
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Featured image courtesy: Bonnaroo. Credit: Hyoung Chang / The Denver Post via Getty Images.
