In New Orleans French Creole slang, the word Bonnaroo roughly translates to “best on the street.” That aura is what pulls tens of thousands of music lovers to Manchester, Tennessee, each summer for Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival.
Since the festival began under its famous moniker—also inspired by New Orleans blues legend Dr. John’s Desitively Bonnaroo—in 2002, Bonnaroo has accordingly built a reputation as one of the best in the live music landscape and, over the course of its 24-year history, has become an invariable pit stop in the festival circuit for countless music lovers at one point or another. Eclectic, genre-spanning lineups and world-class production are what draw folks in, but strong culture, community, and inclusivity, along with a bit of festival magic, keep generations of attendees coming back to the Farm year after year.
Following the rain-soaked collapse of its 2025 edition, Bonnaroo faced one of the most challenging chapters in its run. Organizers promised to bring a new and improved experience back to Roo, relying heavily on the trust and loyalty of its fanbase. Though fewer storms and multi-million dollar renovations to the venue prevented a repeat of last year’s total evacuation, the site continued to struggle with the unfortunate reality of Tennessee’s wet June weather.
Still, Bonnaroovians persevered. Rain-soaked and grinning, they danced through the downpour and turned mud into momentum. Back this year from June 11-14, Bonnaroo 2026 was a well-earned weekend party, soundtracked by talented artists who seemed just as in awe of the crowd as the crowd was of them. Read EDM Maniac‘s full report on this year’s festival below.
Quick Takes
Best Moments: GRiZ brings out RKS’ Ela Melo to perform “It’s Called: Freefall.” Muddy moshpits for Geese and The Chats. Skrillex’s surprise B2B with ISOKNOCK. Rallying after the Sunday downpour.
Needs work: Technical issues and set delays. Flash flooding and mud throughout the site.
Hidden gems: World Cup matches in the sports bar beer garden. EAZYBAKED surprise campground set on Wednesday. $5 mystery beers.
Audience Match
Who this festival is for: Multi-genre music lovers. First-timers and veterans alike.
Maybe skip if: You forgot your rain boots. You want EDM all the time. You can’t take the Tennessee heat.
Vibes: A
Capable of hosting weekend crowds of up to 80,000 attendees (this year’s turnout was much smaller), Bonnaroo brings together all types of music fans. Its audience spans generations, from toddlers experiencing their first festival to lifelong music lovers well into their seventies. Its lineup is equally expansive, bridging country, electronic, indie rock, hip-hop, pop, and everything in between. By all accounts, it should feel fragmented. Instead, Bonnaroo’s greatest strength lies in its ability to unite people who might otherwise never cross paths.
Despite differences in musical preferences and personalities, festivalgoers on the Farm seemed to move in sync. Throughout Centeroo (the main festival venue), an unmistakable spirit of respect, connection, and gratitude flowed between attendees as they sang, danced, and became neighbors for the weekend. High fives were traded between vets and newbies, and trinkets were exchanged like currency.
The festival has turned first-timers into lifelong Bonnaroovians who have returned for over a decade, and the same loyalty extends to artists who can’t seem to stay away. In their headline performances, GRiZ rejoiced in his fourth year performing on the Farm, and Noah Kahan reflected on his time as an attendee, celebrating the full-circle moment. After nearly 25 years of monumental moments, Bonnaroo is just as meaningful to its performers as it is to its fans.
Production: A
Across six main stages and a host of smaller venues throughout Centeroo and the campgrounds, Bonnaroo doesn’t skimp on production, but the intentional simplicity of its stage designs offers a blank page for musicians of all kinds to craft the live experience themselves. Performances feel uniquely tailored to each act, and the energy persists well beyond the confines of any single stage.
What, Bonnaroo’s headlining stage, struck its famous balance between tradition and spectacle. From its familiar gable roof, lasers, pyrotechnics, CO2 cannons, and sprawling fireworks displays elevated major performances throughout the weekend, including standout headline sets from GRiZ and Noah Kahan. Kahan’s set transformed the stage into a pastoral landscape inspired by his native Vermont, offering audiences a window into his mind and the environments that have shaped his songwriting. GRiZ’s performance featured possibly the largest pyro hits we’ve ever seen, extending from the roof.
Bonnaroo’s next-largest stage, Which, offered more large-scale fanfare for the bill’s most anticipated bands, pop and hip-hop acts, while The Other, the festival’s electronic music hub, delivered a relentless barrage of lasers and custom visual production from the biggest DJs in the scene. This Tent and That Tent welcomed emerging acts and cult favorites with a wide range of artist-custom production elements, from flashing strobes to room-filling fog. Where, the festival’s UFO-shaped after-hours stage, landed in Centeroo for the first time ever.
Bonnaroo’s run-of-show had its fair share of hurdles this year. Several areas of the Farm experienced a power loss during Thursday’s programming, forcing a roughly 35-minute delay to the start of Four Tet‘s set. Though attendees were left waiting at the main stage, swift adjustments allowed performances to resume with minimal disruption and carry on later into the night. With staggered set times on adjacent stages, we had no complaints about sound bleed all weekend.
Music: A
From country and bluegrass to rock, indie, electronic music, and nostalgic 2000’s pop—few festivals match Bonnaroo’s ability to unite such a wide spectrum of genres while maintaining a cohesive identity. The result is a festival experience that feels both vast and intimately curated, appealing to a broad audience while giving superfans the chance to shape their weekend to their own tastes.
Massive headliners like Skrillex, The Strokes, Kesha, RÜFÜS DU SOL, and Noah Kahan, revered musicians like Tedeschi Trucks Band, Blues Traveler, and Alabama Shakes, punk icons like Amyl and The Sniffers, The Chats, and Turnstile, and personal favorites like Midnight Generation, The Dare, Passion Pit, Geese, and Modest Mouse left every palate satiated.
For electronic music lovers, nearly every subgenre had a spot on the lineup, led by standout performances from GRiZ, Chase & Status, Sara Landry, Cloonee, Gorgon City, Daily Bread, Sub Focus, Big Gigantic, and so many more. In his first set on the Farm since returning from his performance hiatus, GRiZ invited Rainbow Kitten Surprise frontwoman Ela Melo to perform live vocals for his famous remix of the band’s 2018 hit “It’s Called: Freefall,” three years after its momentous live debut when GRiZ filled in for RKS in 2023. Performing it together for the first time, the collaboration closed the set in a heartfelt, full-circle gesture that underscored the festival camaraderie shared by both artist and fan.
Also among the weekend’s most talked-about moments, a surprise second set from Skrillex on opening night saw the electronic legend spin B2B with ISOKNOCK (ISOxo and Knock2), moments after his mainstage performance and first Bonnaroo appearance since 2014.
This year’s Bonnaroo also marked a curtain call for one of electronic music’s most closely watched duos, as CloZee and LSDREAM delivered what was billed as their final LSZEE festival performance. Elsewhere, Łaszewo added to the momentum with a Skrillex-themed surprise, mixing their edit of Lola Young’s “Messy” into “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites.”
Unfortunately, due to adverse weather conditions, several hours of Sunday’s programming were cut from the schedule, disappointing festivalgoers and artists. Aly & AJ, who were also scheduled to perform in 2025, took to social media to express their devastation after back-to-back cancellations, writing, “Don’t let us down, third year in a row.”
Venue: B-
Bonnaroo has repeatedly been shaped by the realities of the region’s June weather. The Farm just isn’t built to handle rain. Following full cancellations in 2021 and 2025 due to severe storms, organizers and grounds crews implemented infrastructure and logistical changes to mitigate rain-related disruptions. With more heavy rain this year, those efforts yielded only partial relief.
Scattered showers on Friday and Sunday left much of the venue in difficult condition, with mud and standing water complicating movement across the grounds. Slips, falls, and injuries became an unfortunate and all-too-visible part of navigating the festival, and in some cases, attendees reported needing tractor assistance to extract vehicles from saturated parking areas.
While Bonnaroo continued to provide ADA accommodations—including designated seating, camping areas, and accessible entry points—the combination of heavy mud and uneven terrain presented clear logistical challenges for navigating the site. Despite ongoing adaptations, the weather remains an enduring variable in Bonnaroo’s identity.
Welcome changes at this year’s festival included expanding campground access roads and moving camping areas away from flood-prone zones. The new layout came with a significant reduction in camping footprint. Combined with lower attendance (estimated at about half of the festival’s previous 80,000-person weekend capacity), this year’s attendees had ample space to dance and easy access to prime viewing areas during key performances.
Another major venue change moved That Tent closer to the main stage to streamline movement between major performance areas. While we noticed the ease of access between stages, the adjustment also introduced unintended congestion points, particularly during peak exit times from the main stage. Despite the resulting bottlenecks, crowds remained orderly, even as movement slowed to a near standstill in certain corridors. There was, however, a palpable anxiety as large groups funneled through narrow passageways, with thick mud underfoot.
Water stations and bathrooms were easily accessible throughout the venue, resulting in more time at the main stage and less time in line. Bonnaroo boasts bathrooms in large structures with classic flushable toilets, flushable porta-potties, and traditional porta-potties, making the restroom experience more comfortable and cleaner. However, after the Thursday night power outage, several restrooms required severe attention due to overfilled toilets.
With daily temperatures climbing above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, additional shaded areas and dedicated cooling zones would have been a welcome enhancement across the grounds. While the festival did provide some relief in the form of shaded structures and misting fans, these amenities were often located some distance from the main stages. As a result, attendees frequently faced a trade-off between securing optimal viewing positions and stepping away to find relief from the heat.
Sidequest-ability: B+
Some of Bonnaroo’s most compelling side quests unfold beyond the main festival grounds in Outeroo. The campgrounds are organized into nine distinct plazas, each with its own thematic identity and daily programming, giving Bonnaroovians opportunities to stimulate the mind and make friendly connections well before the music starts. Between Silent Disco, House of Yes, Shakedown Street, and The Grove, attendees were offered every opportunity to explore and quest before the magic of the night set in.
Inside the festival, ravers could join the “Super Soakin’ Wet & Wild Pride Parade,” celebrating our gay friends and allies during Pride Month, as it made its way around Centeroo. Meanwhile, Bonnie Roo’s Broos offered a different kind of gathering space, screening major sporting events on jumbo screens, including the World Cup, NBA Finals, and MLB games.
Throughout the weekend, Snake & Jake’s Love Shack delivered a constantly rotating slate of offbeat programming: astrology readings, disco dance parties, country-EDM line dancing, and, in famously surrealist Bonnaroo fashion, an intergalactic puppet strip-show.
Coca-Cola provided large misting stations that offered much-needed relief during Tennessee’s sweltering afternoon heat, while Five Below drew campground crowds with complimentary hair braiding and festival-ready glam services. At high noon, ravers could be seen cooling off in the interactive mushroom water fountain and on the Big Ass Waterslide, standing 40 feet tall. For GA+ members, the Oasis offered a sidequest of its own, transporting visitors from festival to beach fantasy with shaded tiki bars, palm trees, and sand between their toes.
From sunrise to well past sunset, both inside and outside the venue, there were a plethora of spaces to explore, installations to engage with, and experiences to be had.
Food & Beverage: B
On par with other major American music festivals, Bonnaroo offers a wide variety of food and beverage options from over 70 vendors, including pizza, Asian fare, chicken tenders, burrito bowls, breakfast, lobster rolls, slushies, açai bowls, and more. To fuel up your Roo crew, the festival also sold food buckets filled with chicken fingers, French fries, and corn dogs, and provided free drink carriers filled with ice for each 4-pack of canned beverages sold. Branded tumblers and koozies were also available for an additional fee with drink purchases.
Beverage options spanned specialty cocktails, craft beer, nonalcoholic mocktails, soft drinks, juices, teas, specialty water, and energy drinks to keep all Bonnaroovians well hydrated.
Bars and food vendors were well spread out through the festival, with wait times rarely over 15 minutes. Stock issues (limited beer selection) only arose in the final hours of day three. Alcoholic beverages ranged from $11 to $24, and meals from $10 to $30. Prices adequately reflected portion sizes.
Overall: A
After another weather-stricken edition, we still give Bonnaroo our stamp of approval. Through the rain, mud, and scorching Tennessee heat, the music and vibes on the Farm are well worth the extra preparation needed to party on in often inclement weather. Few music festivals on the planet offer the variety of music found at Bonnaroo, and the community we reunite with when we return to Manchester is second to none.
In the years ahead, as the festival continues to welcome back its veterans and invite new festivalgoers into the scene, we hope that more much-needed efforts to improve the site will keep the Bonnaroo magic going for decades to come.
Find EDM Maniac‘s complete Festival Report Card archive here.
Featured image courtesy: Bonnaroo.
