Bonnaroo organizers cancel this year’s festival, heavy rains cause flooding

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Organizers of the annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee have cancelled this year’s event, citing flooding from heavy rains.

It’s the second year in a row that the festival has been called off. Last year’s event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The festival wrote on its website Tuesday that they are absolutely heartbroken to announce the cancellation of Bonnaroo.  

While this weekend’s weather looks outstanding, currently Centeroo is waterlogged in many areas.

The ground is incredibly drenched, and the campgrounds are flooded to the point that people are unable to drive in or park vehicles safely.

The area around the festival site is a 700-acre farm in Middle Tennessee. It has seen 5-7 inches of rain in the past two weeks. Much of the rain had occurred in the past 24 hours as Tropical Storm Ida moved north.

The festival was scheduled to start Thursday and run through Sunday at the festival grounds in Manchester.

Bonnaroo said it has run out of options to make the event happen safely.

Among those scheduled to perform were Foo Fighters, Meghan Thee Stallion, Lizzo, Tame Impala, Jason Isbell, Phoebe Bridgers and Tyler, the Creator.

Many of those same acts were scheduled to perform at last year’s festival.

The festival this year was requiring attendees to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test within the past 72 hours.

Organizers have said tickets for this year’s festival will not roll over to 2022.

The festival site is about 65 miles southeast of Nashville.

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