One Of America's Most Highly-Anticipated Music Festivals Is Not Returning In 2027. Here's Why

The annual music festival Bonnaroo will be missing from the Tennessee summer calendar in 2027, as organizers announced on its official Instagram page. The four-day music and arts festival, held on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, has been hit by severe weather in successive years. The announcement said that the festival "needs a break to rest and recover" after storms. 

Heavy rain storms forced the cancellation of most of the 2025 festival, as CNN reported at the time, and the 2026 edition was evacuated on the last day due to another round of intense rain, per The Weather Channel. For travelers accustomed to making the pilgrimage to Bonnaroo for its numerous stages and eclectic lineups, that means one less destination on next summer's festival itinerary — in the service of a reset for later years.

Founded in 2002, Bonnaroo has since grown into a destination that typically draws tens of thousands of fans to Manchester, an artsy, progressive town between Nashville and Chattanooga. In 2024, The Associated Press reported the festival's attendance at around 80,000. Its bills have ranged from rock and hip-hop to indie, pop, and electronic, hosting the likes of Paul McCartney, Kacey Musgraves, and Radiohead in past editions. The music is only part of the draw — Bonnaroo mixes performances with art installations, parades, yoga, a market, and a Ferris wheel, turning The Farm (as its grounds are fondly called) into a temporary little city. That helps explain why the 2027 cancellation landed hard with some regular festival-goers. In a Reddit thread about the cancellation, one user said, "Found home at Bonnaroo, unfortunately my home keeps disappearing annually." Other users said that they saw it coming, noting the mud-soaked conditions of the grounds.

The announcement of Bonnaroo's 2027 cancellation repeatedly calls it a "break" rather than a permanent end. The organizers wrote that "we know this break will only make Bonnaroo better." A 2027 hiatus gives organizers a full year to let the grounds recover, rather than trying to rebuild them in the short window between yearly festivals, as was the case with 2026's edition. As of this writing, the festival hasn't stated its 2028 lineup or detailed exactly what additional weather defenses will be installed.

A couple of Redditors worried that the festival might not come back, drawing comparisons to the popular (now-inactive) music festival Firefly. "I was a Firefly refugee, and I remember the day they said they were taking a year off to recharge their lights. [That] was the last we heard from them," one Redditor wrote. There's one notable difference between the two festivals' cancellations, though. Back in 2022, Firefly's organizers simply said they needed to "recharge," as Delaware Public Media reported. By contrast, Bonnaroo has given a concrete physical reason for the break — namely, recovering from weather setbacks.

In the meantime, there are numerous incredible music festivals to visit across America while Bonnaroo recuperates. Bonnaroo's appeal for some might be its camping setup on The Farm, which differs from the urban festival setting of other big names like Lollapalooza or Austin City Limits. Electric Forest in Michigan and Hulaween in Florida are two possibilities for fans who most value Bonnaroo's camping and artsy atmosphere; both already have Bonnaroo fans discussing them as 2027 alternatives. For a more Tennessee-centered trip, you could head to Franklin, a lively, picturesque city near Nashville, for the Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival.