It wouldn’t be a proper Bonnaroo without the signature Tennessee heat — but at what point does it take away from the experience?
The arrival of summer only means one thing for the quaint town of Manchester, Tennessee: Bonnaroo season. The two-decade-plus running event, comparable in size and reputation to festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza, is a Tennessee music tradition that brings together styles from every corner of the spectrum and a crowd like no other.
This year’s Bonnaroo bill offered everything from mainstream acts like Post Malone, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Megan Thee Stallion to experimental performances by GWAR, rising pop phenom Chappell Roan, and a tasteful variety of our favorite electronic artists.
There’s no doubt that a festival the size and stature of Bonnaroo is not for the faint of heart, and every year comes with its own challenges. There was a time when I was merely 18 at my first-ever festival, Bonnaroo, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Now over seven years of festivals and my third Bonnaroo later, I’m still learning that there’s only so much you can do to prepare and try to be comfortable out there.
But of course, surviving is usually half the fun during a festival weekend as chaotic as this one. Keep scrolling to read my post-Roo thoughts following my hottest trip to The Farm yet.
Am I getting older? Is global warming… warming? Or is it just really f*cking hot in Tennessee?
The answer is a combination of the above. As a semi-local who is lucky enough to reside just over an hour away from The Farm, I’m fairly accustomed to the heat of summer in the southern states. I’ve also conquered a number of hot southern festivals over the years, from Sound Haven to Okeechobee and tons more scorchers in between. But this year’s Bonnaroo temps had everyone, myself included, fighting for their lives all weekend. I spotted the medical helicopter overhead at camp an average of three times a day, witnessed a handful of attendees go down in crowds, and even heard stories from friends I knew personally who said they visited the med tent for IV fluids.
One of the worst parts about the heat this year had to be that the 90-degree temperatures only increased as the weekend progressed, with it hitting 95 by Sunday. The signature Southern humidity was just the cherry on top. The heat makes it difficult to sleep, exist comfortably at camp no matter your setup, and make it to afternoon sets.
With all that said, Bonnaroo does provide plenty of water stations throughout the venue, hand out free water bottles in the crowds, and partner with hydration aids like Liquid I.V. There are also constant reminders to drink water and pace yourself posted on the main stages during set breaks.
While these efforts are great, heat like this makes it difficult to keep up with taking care of yourself despite drinking oodles of water and doing all the right things. It is a true safety and well-being issue. I would’ve loved to see a vendor offering IV bags; while they might be costly I would’ve found them worth every penny.
Each scorching day proved worth the long battle when the sun finally went down. The Farm was free to fully come to life with unforgettable performances from Pretty Lights, Khruangbin, Cage The Elephant, and more.
The countdown to nightfall each day was gruesome, but Bonnaroo always rewards. I spent more time at the main stage, The What Stage than ever this year. Pretty Lights‘ four-hour set on Thursday was the perfect way to start the festivities. From there, the massive, dusty lawn was my home for most of the weekend.
At The What Stage, I got to vibe to Khruangbin‘s groovy jams from my Moon Mat, and witness Post Malone draw an insane shoulder-to-shoulder crowd. He even brought out Billy Strings for a song together right before I left the set early for some much-needed Y2K nostalgia and humor from T-Pain, who also drew an insane crowd to the second-largest stage, The Which.
Best of all, I got to sing my heart out to a beautiful sunset Cage The Elephant performance at The What with so many people I love. This was the set that I had been waiting for all weekend, and I wish I could relive it down to each second. They could come back to Bonnaroo every year and it still wouldn’t be enough for me.
Electronic music truly got a place to shine on this year’s Bonnaroo bill, and Fred Again.. was the perfect Sunday night closer.
From two incredible Pretty Lights sets to some much-needed drum and bass from Chase and Status and Shy FX earlier in the weekend, EDM surely wasn’t lacking as long as you knew where to find it. Sunday brought one of my most-anticipated electronic sets of the weekend, Four Tet. With it came the aforementioned hottest temperatures yet.
Scattered storms loomed in the surrounding skies throughout the sweltering afternoon, with an alert from the festival around 2pm about potential inclement weather. After no rain came, I watched the clouds seemingly pass, both on the radar and from what I could see in the sky, and made the hot trek to The Other stage for Four Tet’s 5pm set.
Those familiar with Tennessee weather know it will do what it wants. Sure enough, he had just dropped “Baby” a mere 20 minutes into his 90-minute set when fat raindrops suddenly started to fall from the sky. While it seemed like innocent rain bringing a much-needed cool-down, the order to evacuate stages was called within seconds. The weather delay lasted just over an hour by the time music resumed, robbing us of what was going to be a beautiful Four Tet performance. I settled for some vendor mozzarella sticks during the delay to attempt to fill the void.
Galantis took the stage at The Other when music resumed, and I couldn’t help but smile reminiscing on my early festival days. The crowd’s energy was infectious as people sung along to all of their hits and danced their hearts out with the cooled-down evening finally setting in after the rain.
Just as fast as the weekend kicked off with Pretty Lights at The What Stage, it was too quickly coming to a close with Fred Again.. — but there was no better man for the honor of closing Bonnaroo in electronic style. He dove into emotional sonics, offered inspiring words to the crowd, sprinkled in some DnB and jungle, and of course, played enough house music to leave everyone’s hearts full.
The Bonnaroo crowd is known for singing goodbye songs in unison during the mass migration out of Centeroo on the final night of the festival. After Fred closed his set with multiple encores of his take on Billie Ray Martin‘s “Your Loving Arms,” the crowd continued to belt the words together as they slowly exited The What Stage for the final time. It was a touching moment and a beautiful reminder of how special The Farm is. No matter its challenges, fans like me will always press on.
