Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival Announces 2026 Return with Changes
Bonnaroo gates, photo by Roger Ho
Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival has officially confirmed its return from June 11-14 of 2026, resolving the uncertainty about the iconic festival’s future in the wake of its weather-related cancellation in June.
The 2025 edition’s termination after day one due to heavy rainstorms marked Bonnaroo’s third scrapped program in five years, following Hurricane Ida in 2021 and pandemic restrictions in 2020. Afterwards, organizers offered full refunds to would-be attendees and refrained from announcing future dates while “listening and actively discussing plans to improve The Farm.” Those plans, guided in part by fan surveys, have been revealed today as a list of changes to its familiar proceedings.
In 2026, Bonnaroo will discontinue the use of campsites most prone to flooding around their Manchester, Tenn. grounds, most likely including the parts of Outeroo, which were most adversely affected by early flooding and prioritized for evacuation this year. According to the festival’s message, this will result in reduced capacity, but “more dancing space.” Further changes include moving early entry to Wednesday and replacing the technologically focused Infinity stage, new for 2025, with an updated Where in the Woods UFO Stage.
Organizers initially weighed the possibility of changing the festival’s longstanding June dates, but heard fans’ preference for consistency “loud and clear.” All of Bonnaroo’s new guidelines are designed to safeguard the event against potential extreme weather events in the future, though the festival insists that 2025’s suspension was caused by record-setting rainfall, “making what we experienced extremely uncommon.”
The most consequential shift organizers announced is the continuation of a massive land management project on The Farm that commenced in 2021. “In the 2025/2026 off-season we’ll be dedicating an additional multi-million-dollar budget and initiating improvements that prioritize the campgrounds and other areas affected by the extreme weather in 2025,” they wrote. “Some of these projects will include reseeding the property, continuing to increase access roads within the campgrounds, adding more drainage and reinforcing primary water runoff pathways.”
Register for updates on Bonnaroo 2026 at bonnaroo.com, and read on for the festival’s full statement.
