Bonnaroo 2026: Best Things We Saw

Bonnaroo has drifted a long way from its jam-band beginnings. Yet there were a few bands, like Blues Traveler, that were a nice reminder of what used to be. And it didn’t hurt that John Popper and company were in prime form. Including their biggest Nineties hits, like opening and closing with the radio staples “Run-Around” and “Hook,” was a welcome touch. The lengthy jam on “But Anyway” and a string of covers also stood out: The band took on Sublime’s “What I Got,” an instrumental version of “War Pigs” that had fans concerned that Yungblud would join, and a spirited version of the Charlie Daniels Band’s “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” Popper proved that harmonica-shredding still kicks ass. —D.K.

Bonnaroo’s peak powers can appear at unexpected moments, like when a hot-as-tar bluegrass band puts its twist on beloved nonsensical Beatles song “I Am the Walrus.” Saturday afternoon on the Which Stage, Mountain Grass Unit mixed psychedelia with mandolin pickin’ for a standout cover of the Fab Four classic, which was one moment in a barn-burning set from the buzzy five-piece group out of Birmingham, Alabama. The band toed a line between tasteful originals — like the 2024 grass-touching number “Cicada Song” and the newly-released “Appalachian Smoke” — and memorable covers, such as Allman Brothers’ “Midnight Rider” and, remarkably, “Cantina Band” from Star Wars. A set worth weathering an hour of sticky-hot Tennessee heat? Absolutely. – M.L. 

The Strokes proved their prowess as a festival-headlining legacy act, with a set stacked with Is This It? bathroom-blow-bangers like “Hard to Explain,” “Take It or Leave It,” and “Someday,” played for a crowd populated with kids who weren’t even born when that now 25-year-old record shifted the paradigm of rock music. And whatever singer Julian Casablancas might have to say about that, take with a grain of salt. As of late, the famously laconic frontman has developed a bit of a reputation for his slack-surrealist stage banter and deadpan stray observations, chockablock with anti-jokes and awkward turns of phrase. Some were setups looking for a punchline: “You guys remember NFTs?” Some were punchlines looking for a setup: “So thanks for coming to our festival! JK.” There were shoutouts to Bonnaroo founder and namesake John C. Bonnaroo (not a real guy), and totally sincere (wink) praise for the festival lineup. “So many great bands. What a fest! What a damn fest. … It’s basically what our lineup would be if we had a festival.” Casablancas did, however, seem genuinely disappointed when his best bon mot (“Not gonna lie I’ve been in dad mode, deadbeat dad mode”) didn’t land. “I thought that’d get a louder cheer.” Were these jokes meant to land? It’s hard to explain. —A.G.

Oklahoma troubadour Wyatt Flores didn’t pull the largest crowd at Bonnaroo, but it still felt like one of the loudest. He sang his collection of honest, detailed country tunes to an audience that embraced each word like church-goers soaking up a Sunday morning sermon. He and the band tore through “Welcome to the Plains,” “Milwaukee,” “Running Out of Time” — songs anchored in relatable hardships. The crowd shouted along to each, reciting the words from muscle memory. Flores also dug into tracks from his new LP, Scared of Heights, including the intense “God Forgives” and restless love song “Drive All Night.” The album drops later this summer, and if the songs played at Bonnaroo proved anything, it’s that his congregation is bound to keep growing with each new show.  —M.L.

Is “Seven Nation Army” a pop song? Can a glorified (but fun) live-band karaoke showcase of Nineties and Aughts pop hits like “I Want It That Way” and “Time to Pretend” really be considered jammy? According to Kesha, the answers are “yes,” and “yes.” The electro-pop party queen led this year’s Bonnaroo Superjam with guests including members of Mountain Grass Unit, Grouplove, and Rainbow Kitten Surprise. The show — which Kesha described as a “worshipping at the altar of pop music” — featured everything from bluegrass renditions of “Baby One More Time” to a mostly a cappella of her own signature banger “Tik Tok.” But the clear highlight was Margo Price bashing out the 21st century’s minimalist-garage-rock-turned-jock-jam anthem, “Seven Nation Army.” With Price behind the drum kit, she and Kesha romped through the White Stripes’ classic with the late-night crowd handling the tribal chant-along of the song’s wordless guitar hook. —A.G.

Festivalgoers didn’t take a walk with Passion Pit — they jumped, hopped, and danced along to the long-trusted indie-pop songs of Michael Angelakos and company. The band took This Tent on a time-traveling trek back to an age when 30-something millennials were a decade-and-a-half younger, filling dance halls to the synthesized melodies of “Carried Away,” “Little Secrets” and, of course, “Take a Walk.” The band played those songs and more — including a mud-trampling rendition of fan favorite “Sleepyhead.” And still, the set didn’t rely solely on nostalgia. Angelakos thanked the audience for listening to a handful of new songs, which he said will be released on a forthcoming studio project, the first batch of original Passion Pit material in nearly a decade. —M.L. 

Who knew that the New York Knicks would make their presence felt in Middle Tennessee? While Gotham’s Finest were down in Texas gearing up to end a 53-year drought, Jalen Brunson and company were cheered on first by Blues Traveler, who dedicated “Dropping Some NYC” to the squad, and then Geese, who shouted out their support from the stage as well. By Sunday afternoon, revelers at the Farm were saying “Let’s go, Knicks!” to anyone sporting orange and blue. In fact, the only thing missing was whether an intrepid artist would cover the now ubiquitous “Go New York Go.” Knicks in five, indeed. —D.K.

Beginning way back in its early jam-fest years, one thing that has always distinguished Bonnaroo has been its artists playing long, full sets, rather than truncated appearances. The sets are shorter now, with most clocking in at 60 or 75 minutes, even for main-stage headliners like the Strokes. But Modest Mouse made the most of their hour-and-change onstage. From dedicating a third of the set to more polished versions of Nineties indie classics like “Heart Cooks Brain” and “Talking Shit About a Pretty Sunset,” to a cathartic sing-along of indie-gone-Top-40 classic “Float On,” to the boozy junk-shop Tom Waits disco of Aughts stompers like “Dashboard” and “Dance Hall,” the art-rock icons offered up a top-tier catalog-sampler. —A.G.

On Sunday evening, Tedeschi Trucks Band did something uncommon for the tenured soul and blues group — they opened a show. It wasn’t supposed to happen that way, but Bonnaroo temporarily closed its gates Sunday afternoon as heavy rain fell on the grounds. When the show resumed, Tedeschi Trucks opened the What Stage to a near-cloudless sky. “It ended up being gorgeous out,” says Susan Tedeschi, one-half of the band’s namesake, alongside her guitarist-husband Derek Trucks. “It was worth sticking around.” What followed was a crisp hour of vintage Tedeschi and Trucks. In her familiar, smoky voice, Tedeschi sang grounded, open-armed songs, like “Midnight in Harlem” and a cover of “Everyday People,” while Trucks filled the nearby field with the sounds of his Gibson SG. —M.L. 

Opening Bonnaroo, a year after organizers pulled the plug mid-festival due to a downpour on the Farm? No small task. Still, San Francisco punk-rock band Spiritual Cramp delivered. On Thursday afternoon, the band kicked open the weekend on What Stage — the festival’s main stage — with an hour-long set of spitfire energy. With a cocktail of new wave and post-punk influence, the band leaned into material from 2025 album Rude, including the wildly catchy foot-tappin’ songs “Young Offenders” and “Automatic.” And frontman Mike Bingham embraced his role of opening emcee, stopping between songs to tell the audience that “you’re gonna have the best weekend of your fuckin’ lives.” —M.L. 

There weren’t any beer-battered floors or eye-level stages, but that didn’t stop the Chats from turning That Tent into something close to a DIY venue. Greeted by swaying totems and crowd surfers, the Aussie trio brought the steam on a relentlessly humid Friday afternoon. The intensity emanating through their brand of two-minute-or-less of what they call “shed rock” (better yet, shred punk) was appreciated, as was the push-and-pull energy. “Stay hydrated out there,” lead vocalist/bassist Eamon Sandwith told the crowd. Wiser words, on this day, were never spoken. —D.K.

Bonnaroo won this year’s battle with Middle Tennessee’s predictably unpredictable atmospherics, but not without a fight. Organizers aborted last year’s ‘Roo after one day, when a relentless downpour flooded the campgrounds and plunged the site into a trip-bumming, dream-crushing mud-ocalypse. This year, a Day One storm (complete with rolling blackouts) reduced the site to a messy-but-manageable mud-flooded slip-and-slide where good shoes go to die. On Sunday, a more dire storm stopped the show, forcing a mid-afternoon site evacuation, and the cancelation of nearly a dozen sets, including Blondshell, Spacey Jane, Trombone Shorty and, for the second straight year, Aly & AJ. When the gates reopened, hoards of eager, young Bonnaroovians gave pop-star-on-the-rise Audrey Hobert a hero’s welcome. Taking the stage standing high on stilts and sporting a 10-foot trench coat and a banjo, Hobert sang her bouncy, Swift-y toe-tapper “I Like to Touch People,” with thousands of breathless kids shouting the song’s conversational lyrics back — A.G.

Bonnaroo ceased booking comedy acts in 2018, but that didn’t stop Yungblud from transforming the festival’s main What Stage into the Hot Topic Stage on Saturday, turning in a succession of Jesus Christ poses in leather pants and “let’s go fuckin’ crazy” hype routines set to a style of music that, to some, is just hair metal with a goth haircut. Amyl and the Sniffers, meanwhile, embodied all that high-energy rock should be. The Aussie punk queen Amy Taylor worked the pit into a frenzy with cartoon-come-to-life charm and savage pub-punk bangers like “Jerkin’” and “Security.” It was a euphoric, chaotic set that cast Taylor and her band of scruffy misfits as real rock & roll heroes. —A.G.

Little Stranger make music equally suited for the beach or the block, and on Sunday the Charleston-by-way-of-Philly hip-hop duo opened the Which Stage with their easygoing blend of Beastie Boys and Sublime energy. The addition of a horn section gave their sound an extra dose of the flesh-and-blood, with members John and Kevin Shields (no, they’re not related) rapping and swaying through cuts like the intrepid “Kama Sumatra.” At one point, they encouraged fans to meet them after the gig, not for a meet-and-greet, but a “meet-and-drug.” It promised all the rewards of a Facebook Marketplace connection — but without a sketchy “stranger.” —J.H.

Baltimore posi-hardcore phenom Turnstile weren’t Bonnaroo 2026’s official headliners, but you’d have a hard time telling that from the smiles in the pit when the band closed out the festival’s second-biggest stage on Friday. Thanks to frontman Brendan Yates and company, the thousands who traveled cross-country and braved the mud and muggy campy conditions, shared a transcendent end-credits freeze-frame moment when Turnstile hit the stage. The highlight? Yates sweetly asking people in the mosh to pick up their friends and keep on raging. Bonnaroo, all these years later, is still about community. —A.G.