Sign up for IQ Index
The latest industry news to your inbox.
This year’s Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival has been cancelled at the eleventh hour due to flooding from Hurricane Ida.
The Live Nation-owned festival was to be held in Tennessee, US, this week (2 to 5 September), with headliners Foo Fighters, Megan Thee Stallion, Tame Impala, and more.
In a statement posted on social media, the Bonnaroo team said it is “heartbroken” to pull the plug for a second consecutive year.
“While this weekend’s weather looks outstanding, currently Centeroo is waterlogged in many areas, the ground is incredibly saturated on our tollbooth paths, and the campgrounds are flooded to the point that we are unable to drive in or park vehicles safely,” reads the statement.
It continues: “We have done everything in our power to try to keep the show moving forward, but Mother Nature has dealt us a tremendous amount of rain over the past 24 hours, and we have run out of options to try to make the event happen safely and in a way that lives up to the Bonnaroo experience.”
“We have run out of options to try to make the event happen safely and in a way that lives up to the Bonnaroo experience”
The festival organisers revealed that Bonnaroo will return in June 2022 to mark its 20th anniversary.
The festival has historically been held in the month of June since 2002, however, this year’s edition was pushed back to September.
The festival last took place in 2019, when organisers welcomed around 70,000 attendees per day for the festival’s first sell-out since 2013.
While Hurricane Ida (a category four storm) has been making its way through the southern part of the country, the northeast is still reeling from Hurricane Henri which caused a slate of concert cancellations.
UK festival Standon Calling had similar bad luck with flash flooding, forcing organisers to pull the plug on the last day of the event. The boutique event took place from 22 to 25 July with headliners Bastille, Hot Chip, Primal Scream and Craig David’s TS5.
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.