KYLE MURPHYStaff Writer

As Luke Combs sang during his headlining set Thursday, “when it rains it pours,” the rain did pour at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, so much so that officials made the call to cancel the remainder of the festival.

This is the third cancelation in Bonnaroo’s history. The first time was in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in 2021 due to the remnants of Hurricane Ida flooding the festival grounds.

Bonnarovians caravanned to Manchester earlier in the week to set up their homes away from home as they anticipated the next four days of music, activities and positivity, while keeping both the heat and the chances of rain thunderstorms in the forecast in the back of their minds. However, many of the attendees, and local residents, raised issues on social media about some of the decisions for handling the traffic, which included shutting down interstate exits to locals for periods of time. Manchester Mayor Joey Hobbs said in a statement that the decision was made by the Tennessee Highway Patrol to deal with the congested traffic.

It was not until Thursday where attendees passed through the landmark arch to Centeroo to catch the performances from Die Spitz, Wilderado, The Lemon Twigs, Wisp, Of The Trees B2B Tape B, Rebecca Black, Sammy Virji and more. Taking to the What State to headline Thursday evening was Luke Combs, who also became the festival’s first country headliner. However, Combs wasn’t alone as he brought out special guests Marcus King, who had performed earlier at the festival, Jon Bellion and Miranda Lambert, where she performed “Where The Wild Things Are” with Combs, as well as sang her hit “Kerosene.”

The night didn’t stop there as Dom Dolla took to the Which Stage after Combs and continued to rain positivity, alongside late night sets from Tractorbeam, Joey Valence & Brae and Insane Clown Posse. 

Thunderstorms take the stage

Yet, the weather proceeded to rain on the positivity parade as thunderstorms made their way Friday, June 13, after 1 p.m., causing festival organizers to close Centeroo and had Bonnaroovians stay in their camps and cars until they gave the all clear. However, by that evening it was announced that the remainder of the festival was canceled.

In a statement issued after 7:30 p.m., Bonnaroo officials said after the National Weather Service showed an updated forecast with “significant and steady precipitation that will produce deteriorating camping and egress conditions in the coming days,” they made the difficult decision of pulling the plug on the festival continuing.

“We are beyond gutted, but we must make the safest decision and cancel the remainder of Bonnaroo,” festival officials said.

To make things right with festivalgoers, information on how to receive refunds was provided, which included full refunds of all one-day tickets and parking passes, and a 75% refund for all four-day tickets and parking passes at the time of the announcement. Officials then announcened an update on June 20 that they will be updating the refund to 100% rather than 75%. 

They added the refunds would be processed in 30 days.

Along with refunds, Bonnaroo officials asked the community for patience as they work with helping getting people out safely.

“Some of your fellow campers’ sites are in rough shape,” officials said. “The rain has settled in areas and made certain parts of Outeroo difficult to manage. We’d like to prioritize getting those folks as well as those with accessibility needs off The Farm as soon as possible this evening.”

To do this, they asked those whose campsite was in good shape or if they were in an RV or pre-pitched accommodation, they were asked to consider spending the night and organizers would start working to get them out safely the following day. During that time, Outeroo continued to operate as usual with food vendors and all health and safety infrastructure.

“We have put our hearts and souls into making this weekend the most special one of the year, and cannot express how crushed we are to have to make this decision,” officials said at the end of the statement. “Thank you in advance for your patience, your positivity and your unfailing Bonnaroovian spirit.”

While the festival was canceled, getting out of area continued to be an issue, as the rainfall destroyed many campsites and created such muddy conditions that left many stuck in the mud. Fortunately, many of those who got stuck received plenty of help from other festivalgoers. Festival organizers, the Manchester Police Department and the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department worked spent the majority of Saturday getting everyone out, causing traffic jams around Manchester Saturday. However, many festivalgoers took to social media expressing their dampened experiences from not 0nly the Bonnaroo’s cancelation, but with other issues like the handling of traffic, trouble with cell phone service and the lack of communication from the festival.

Locally, Hobbs also issued a statement offering safe travels to all the festivalgoers, and sympathy to all the local groups and organizations involved with the festival.

“We are terribly sorry for all the local sports teams and non-profits that rely on the proceeds from concessions to help them through the year,” Hobbs said. “We are sorry too for all the other ways local businesses and other entities that benefit from this weekend.”

He added, “These decisions are never easy nor popular to make. I hate it for all those involved in this no-win situation.”

Scheduled to perform over the remainder of the weekend were headliners Tyler, the Creator, Olivia Rodrigo, and Hozier, along with Vampire Weekend, Queens of the Stone Age, Justice, Tyla, Goose, Megadeth, Raye, Wallows, and Foster the People, and many others.

Yet, Bonnaroo’s cancelation did not stop some artists as several quickly scrambled to set up make-up pop up shows in Nashville. These artists included Royel Otis, Hot Mulligan, Jack’s Mannequin, Levity, Off The Trees, Tape B and Detox Unit, Jessie Murph, Natasha Bedingfield, Mt. Joy, Destroy Boys, Justice, Arcade Fire, and Crankdat and GorillaT. Another make-up show that was held in Nashville was the Remi Wolf’s Insanely Fire 1970s Pool Party SuperJam, which featured host Remi Wolf and special guest performances from Brian Jones, Grouplove, Grace Bowers, Medium Build, Mt. Joy, Gigi Perez and Hayley Williams.