Bonnaroo will not take place in 2027, with organisers giving the festival grounds in Manchester, Tennessee, a year to recover after repeated severe weather events.
by Paul Cashmere
Bonnaroo will not be held in 2027, with organisers announcing that the major Tennessee music festival will take a fallow year to allow its 700-acre site, known as The Farm, to recover from successive weather events. The decision was announced on August 21, following the completion of Bonnaroo 2026 in June. Organisers have not announced a date for the festival’s return.
The decision follows three consecutive editions affected by significant disruption. Bonnaroo 2025 was cancelled after one day because of severe weather and flooding, while the 2026 festival proceeded but was again affected by heavy rain on its final day.
In a statement to the Bonnaroo community, organisers said The Farm had undergone substantial infrastructure work ahead of the 2026 event, including improved drainage, 4.5 miles of new roadways and 135 acres of new grass.
Those measures were intended to improve the site’s ability to withstand adverse weather. However, organisers said there had been insufficient time for the land to recover between major storms.
“With limited time to recuperate from back to back years of storms, including the heavy rainstorm on Sunday this year, The Farm, particularly the main venue, needs a break to rest and recover,” the Bonnaroo team said.
The festival’s decision represents a significant interruption to an event that has been staged annually since its launch in 2002, apart from cancellations caused by circumstances outside the organisers’ control.
Bonnaroo was founded by Superfly Presents and AC Entertainment and is held at Great Stage Park in Manchester, Tennessee. Live Nation acquired Superfly’s interest in the festival in 2019, and Bonnaroo is now produced by Live Nation’s C3 Presents.
The festival established its identity through a broad musical programme spanning rock, hip hop, country, Americana, electronic music, jazz, bluegrass, folk and other genres, combined with extensive camping and non-musical programming.
The 2026 edition ran from June 11 to 14, with performances from The Strokes, Noah Kahan, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Kesha, Rüfüs Du Sol, Turnstile and Role Model, among others. Skrillex headlined the reduced Thursday programme.
The weather problems of recent years have altered Bonnaroo’s operating history. The 2020 festival was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 edition was moved from June to September but was subsequently cancelled after Hurricane Ida brought torrential rain that left the festival grounds unsuitable for the event.
In 2025, Bonnaroo was again forced to cancel, this time after severe weather caused flooding following the festival’s opening day.
The 2027 cancellation is therefore different in character. Rather than an emergency cancellation during the festival period, organisers have made a decision in advance to leave the property unused for a full festival cycle.
The scale of Bonnaroo also gives the decision an economic dimension. An economic impact study cited in the festival’s background material found that the 2023 event contributed $339.8 million to the regional economy, generated more than $5.1 million in tax revenue and supported or created 4,163 full-time job equivalents.
That impact extends beyond the festival’s stages to accommodation, hospitality, transport, retail and other businesses around Manchester and the wider region. A year without Bonnaroo will therefore affect more than the artists, production crews and festival audience who normally converge on The Farm each June.
The announcement also ends months of uncertainty surrounding the festival’s future. Bonnaroo traditionally moves quickly from one edition to the next, with the following year’s dates and planning cycle becoming part of the event’s annual rhythm. Following the conclusion of the 2026 festival, however, there was no immediate confirmation of a 2027 edition.
Organisers had also invested heavily in the physical condition of the site before 2026. The official Bonnaroo site describes the event as taking place each June on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, with Centeroo serving as the central festival area and Outeroo encompassing the camping areas.
For Bonnaroo, the hiatus is also a test of the festival model in an era when weather resilience has become an increasingly important consideration for large outdoor events. Repeated flooding can affect roads, campsites, pedestrian areas and stages, creating operational and safety challenges even when substantial infrastructure investment has been made.
The organisers have stopped short of formally confirming a 2028 return. Their statement says only that they believe the break will make Bonnaroo “better”, leaving the eventual timetable open.
For now, The Farm will remain quiet during the period when Bonnaroo would normally be preparing to welcome tens of thousands of music fans. The next chapter will depend on the recovery of the site and the organisers’ decision about when the festival can return.
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