Bonnaroo Cancels 2027 Festival After Back-to-Back Years of Storm Damage

Bonnaroo will not happen in 2027.

Organizers announced Friday, Aug. 21, that the long-running music festival in Manchester, Tennessee, is taking what it called a “much-needed year off,” citing the toll of back-to-back years of severe weather on The Farm.

The announcement resolves the immediate uncertainty surrounding next summer’s festival, but it also creates a much bigger question for one of America’s most recognizable music festivals: What happens to Bonnaroo from here?

According to organizers, the decision is intended to give the festival grounds time to recover after storms disrupted both the 2025 and 2026 editions. Bonnaroo says it spent significant time and money improving the property ahead of this year’s event, including improved drainage, 4.5 miles of new roadways and 135 acres of new grass. Even with those upgrades, heavy rain again affected the festival in June.

“The Farm, particularly the main venue, needs a break to rest and recover,” organizers said in their announcement.

The problems did not begin this year.

In 2025, Bonnaroo was forced to cancel the majority of its four-day festival after heavy rain soaked the property. The event made it through Thursday, including a headlining performance from Luke Combs, before Friday storms led organizers to evacuate Centeroo and eventually cancel the remainder of the weekend because of worsening camping and exit conditions.

Bonnaroo returned in 2026 after making substantial improvements to the property, with The Strokes, Skrillex, Rüfüs Du Sol and Noah Kahan leading a lineup that also included Kesha, Turnstile, Alabama Shakes, Teddy Swims and others. But weather again became part of the story. Rain and lightning on Sunday led to delayed or canceled performances, evacuations from certain areas and shelter-in-place instructions for attendees.

It was another difficult chapter in what has become an unusually turbulent stretch for the festival.

Bonnaroo’s 2020 event was canceled amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Its planned 2021 return was then wiped out when remnants of Hurricane Ida flooded the property, leaving campgrounds and access routes too saturated to safely accommodate vehicles and tens of thousands of fans.

That recent run of rain and cancellations stands in sharp contrast to the festival’s history.

Bonnaroo was created in 2002 by Ashley Capps’ AC Entertainment and Superfly Presents, with inspiration drawn from major European camping festivals such as Glastonbury and American music gatherings built around acts such as Phish. The first Bonnaroo sold approximately 70,000 tickets without traditional advertising, quickly transforming a Tennessee farm into one of the country’s most recognizable festival destinations.

What began with jam-band and roots-music ties eventually evolved into a genre-spanning institution. Over the years, Bonnaroo has hosted artists including Radiohead, Bruce Springsteen, James Brown, Willie Nelson, The Police, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bob Dylan and countless others. The festival helped establish the modern American model of spending several days camping around a massive, multi-stage music experience rather than simply attending a series of concerts.

The location itself became part of the identity. Bonnaroo describes its Manchester home as a 700-acre farm, with Centeroo serving as the main festival area and surrounding campgrounds creating the temporary community that fans simply know as The Farm.

That is also why taking a year off carries consequences beyond the lineup.

Manchester Mayor Joey Hobbs said the 2027 hiatus will affect local nonprofits and youth leagues that traditionally work concession stands at Bonnaroo to raise money for their organizations. Those groups have relied on the festival as an annual fundraising opportunity, making Bonnaroo an economic and community event for Coffee County as much as a music festival.

Photo by Gary Miller/ Getty Images

For the broader festival industry, Bonnaroo’s situation is significant because weather is no longer simply a question of whether a few performances get delayed. For large outdoor events built around camping, parking and tens of thousands of people moving through temporary infrastructure, extreme weather can affect nearly every part of the operation — from drainage and emergency planning to transportation, refunds and whether attendees can safely leave the property at all.

Bonnaroo invested heavily in making The Farm more resilient and still determined that another full year was needed before hosting the festival again. That does not mean every outdoor festival faces the same future, but it illustrates how unpredictable weather is becoming a larger logistical and financial consideration across the live music business. Other tours and outdoor events have also cited extreme weather as an increasing safety concern in recent years.

For Bonnaroo fans, however, organizers are presenting the decision as a pause rather than an ending. Pitchfork reported that the festival is expected to return in 2028, and Bonnaroo’s own statement said organizers believe the break will ultimately make the event better.

Still, skipping an entire year after two consecutive weather-damaged festivals is not business as usual for an event that has spent more than two decades making the second week of June in Manchester a destination for music fans.

For the first time in years, Bonnaroo’s biggest story is not who will headline The Farm.

It is whether a year away will be enough to protect the festival’s future.