Music, Mud, and Middle Tennessee

The Farm wakes up June 11-14 with music, late nights, and enough curiosity to send festival-goers to Lynchburg

9:18 a.m. June 7, 2026

DUANE CROSS
MCO Publisher•Editor

It is that time again: Bonnaroo.

Which means Manchester is about to swell, the Farm is about to wake up, and Lynchburg should expect a few more visitors wandering the Square.

It happens every year. Folks come for the music, then curiosity gets the best of them. They see Lynchburg on a sign, hear somebody mention the town, or decide they have come this far and might as well find out what all the fuss is about. Before long, they are walking around the Square, ducking into shops, looking for lunch, taking pictures, and figuring out that Lynchburg is more than a name on a bottle.

Bonnaroo is one of those weekends when a whole lot of people get close enough to come see for themselves.

By the time the first cars start rolling toward Manchester, the festival is already becoming its own little world.

You can feel it before you see a stage.

Cars loaded down with tents, coolers, flags, cases of water, and more optimism than trunk space start turning off the interstate. Somebody forgot a phone charger. Somebody packed three. Somebody is already sunburned. Somebody is already barefoot.

That is Bonnaroo.

For four days, the Farm becomes a city built out of music, dust, sweat, bad decisions, good timing, and strangers who somehow feel like neighbors by the second day.

Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival returns June 11-14 to the Bonnaroo Farm in Manchester, bringing another long weekend of music, camping, food, art, late nights, early mornings, and all the beautiful chaos that comes with living out of a tent in Middle Tennessee heat.

This year’s lineup has the usual Bonnaroo sprawl. Skrillex opens the big-name run Thursday, followed by The Strokes on Friday, Rüfüs Du Sol on Saturday, and Noah Kahan on Sunday.

The bill also includes Teddy Swims, Kesha, Alabama Shakes, Turnstile, Vince Staples, Four Tet, Mt. Joy, Major Lazer, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Clipse, Japanese Breakfast, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Modest Mouse, and plenty more.

That is the beauty of Bonnaroo. It has never belonged to just one kind of music fan.

You can catch a songwriter in the afternoon, a rock band at sunset, something loud and strange after dark, and an electronic set when your better judgment says you should already be asleep. Somehow, it all fits.

Saturday brings two of the weekend’s more Bonnaroo-looking moments: Kesha’s “Superjâm Esoteríca: The Alchemy of Pop” and “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “Bigger & Weirder Saturday Late Night Roovue.”

Those are not just names on a schedule. Those are stories waiting to happen.

The kind you try to explain later and finally give up with, “You just had to be there.”

Know before you go

Bonnaroo looks simple from the outside. Buy a wristband. Pack the car. See the music. ... Anyone who has done it knows better.

A good Bonnaroo starts before you ever pull onto the Farm. Activate the wristband. Pack for heat and rain. Bring more water than you think you need. Wear shoes you trust. Know where you parked. Know where your campsite is.

Take a picture of your row, your pod, your flag, or your neighbor’s ridiculous inflatable alien – whatever gets you home when it is dark and every tent looks the same.

Cashless payment will be part of the weekend, so plan before you are standing in line, hungry and tired, trying to remember which pocket has what. Lockers are available for people who do not want to carry everything all day. Lost and found exists because, at Bonnaroo, somebody is always losing sunglasses, IDs, phones, keys, or their entire group for a few hours.

The mobile app is worth having. So is the schedule. And a loose plan.

Loose is the important word. At Bonnaroo, the best moments are often the ones you did not circle ahead of time.

Camping is not just where you sleep

Camping at Bonnaroo is part of the whole thing. It is not a hotel room. It is not just a place to crash. It is the front porch, the kitchen, the living room, and the recovery ward all rolled into one.

The Farm fills with car camping, RVs, glamping setups, community camps, accessible camping, family camping, and just about every version of temporary home a festival crowd can imagine.

Some people arrive with color-coded bins and shade tents that look engineered by professionals. Others show up with a tent still in the box and a heroic misunderstanding of how easy it will be to set up.

Both groups usually make it work, and that is part of the charm.

Neighbors share mallets, sunscreen, snacks, directions, battery packs, and stories. Somebody nearby is always playing music. Somebody is always cooking something that smells better than what you brought. Somebody has a flag tall enough to be seen from space, and by Friday, you are grateful for it.

By the second morning, the campground has its own rhythm.

Wake up too hot. Drink water. Hunt for coffee. Reapply sunscreen. Make a plan. Break the plan. Walk too far. Laugh about it later.

The Farm always has a say

Bonnaroo is in Tennessee in June, which means the Farm gets a vote.

It might be hot. It might rain. It might coat your shoes, your bag, and your lungs in dust, then turn muddy before you finish your food. It might do all of that in the same afternoon.

That is why the packing list matters.

Sunscreen. A refillable water bottle. A poncho. A hat. A bandana. Comfortable shoes. A change of socks. Something warm enough for late night. Something you do not mind ruining.

The Farm has had some work done, too: improved drainage, miles of new roadways, and 135 acres of new turf. That should help. Still, this is Bonnaroo. The Farm has a personality, and part of that personality is reminding everyone that comfort is temporary.

The reward is what happens after you stop fighting it.

The sun drops. The lights come up. Music starts bleeding from every direction. The heat eases. The crowd loosens. Somebody cheers for no clear reason, and thousands of people answer.

That is the part people come back for.

More than the headliners

The headliners get the poster. They should. Skrillex, The Strokes, Rüfüs Du Sol, and Noah Kahan give the weekend its frame.

But Bonnaroo has always lived in the middle spaces.

The set you wandered into by accident. The late-night show you almost skipped. The food that hit harder than expected. The stranger who helped you find your camp. The walk back under the lights. The quiet moment when you sit outside your tent, covered in dust, exhausted, and somehow not ready to leave.

For Manchester, Bonnaroo means traffic, visitors, long lines, busy gas stations, packed restaurants, and one of the biggest weekends of the year.

For Lynchburg, it means a chance to catch some of that curiosity.

A few more visitors on the Square. A few more tables filled at lunch. A few more people stepping into shops, asking about the town, and realizing there is more to this place than the name they already knew.

For everyone headed to the Farm, it is a few days where the normal rules loosen, the music runs late, and the outside world feels just far enough away.

Bring water. Bring patience. Bring shoes that have already forgiven you.

Bonnaroo will handle the rest.