Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival's status is unclear.
In 2023, organizers called off Bonnaroo before the festival began due to remnant rainfall from Hurricane Ida swamping the grounds. Bonnaroo was called off again in 2025 when heavy rainfall flooded The Farm, making conditions unsafe for attendees.
Organizers invested millions in infrastructure improvements before Bonnaroo returned in 2026, though attendees still encountered muddy conditions, a weather evacuation and a temporary power outage.
Despite those challenges, Bonnaroo 2026 largely proceeded as planned, featuring headlining performances from Skrillex, The Strokes, RÜFÜS DU SOL and Noah Kahan.
What to know about Bonnaroo's hiatus
Speculation about a potential
Bonnaroo hiatus intensified following an episode of"The What Podcast," a Bonnaroo-focused show whose hosts said they were monitoring developments related to the festival.
Discussions on Reddit also fueled rumors that the event might not return in 2027.
On Thursday, August 20, local officials previously told The Tennessean they had not received official information regarding Bonnaroo's 2027 plans.
The annual festival has served as a major economic driver for Manchester and Coffee County since its debut in 2002, drawing thousands of attendees from across the country and generating significant revenue for local businesses, hotels and vendors.
In 2023, The Tennessean reported that Bonnaroo contributed $339 million to Tennessee's economy over the previous 20 years.
For now, the announcement marks the first time since the festival's weather-plagued post-COVID return that Bonnaroo will voluntarily step away from The Farm, leaving fans to wonder what comes next for one of America's most influential music festivals.
Bonnaroo isn't alone. Tennessee's music festivals are struggling.
Bonnaroo joins a growing list of once-stable music festivals that have paused, downsized or disappeared due to rising production costs and shifting consumer habits.
These struggles appear to have hit Nashville's music festival economy particularly hard.
Earlier this summer, EDM festival Deep Tropics announced it would be canceling its ninth annual festival in Nashville, citing "extreme circumstances and funding that didn't come together."
Pilgrimage Music Festival, Franklin, Tennessee's largest music festival, decided not to hold its annual festival this year, too. Organizers didn’t give a specific reason for the hiatus, but said the break will allow them to “bring you the best festival experience.” Pilgrimage is set to return in 2027.
Years earlier, in 2023, Nashville's free outdoor concert series Live on the Green stopped after soaring production costs and post-pandemic economic shifts made it impossible to sustain the free public event. Organizers from Lightning 100 shared that rising expenses outpaced sponsorships and revenue.
As climate-related weather disruptions become more common, some festival organizers are reassessing the risks — both financial and safety-wise — of producing large outdoor events, especially in regions prone to extreme rainfall.
Bonnaroo's weather-related cancellations in 2021 and 2025 underscore those challenges.
And in early 2027, Tennessee is expected to have wetter-than-average conditions due to a strengthening El Niño, which is projected to persist through the spring.
This climate pattern typically active along the southern storm track brings increased precipitation to the southern half of the United States.
From rising production costs to increasingly severe weather, the factors impacting the state of live music festivals like Bonnaroo, are unlikely to disappear anytime soon.
Reach out to Audrey Gibbs, a music reporter at The Tennessean, at agibbs@tennessean.com. You can also follow her on Instagram at @audreyraegibbs.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Bonnaroo 2027 canceled?
