If you’ve been following our regularly-updated guide to 2020’s rapidly changing music festival landscape over the past several months, this should come as no surprise, but long-running, nearby Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, our favorite summer fest to cover each and every year, has officially been canceled for 2020, following a short-lived postponement from its typical June weekend to late September.
The latest major bummer amidst a year of unprecedented crisis and tragedy, where the prospect of any type of large-scale live music event in 2020 in looking increasingly unlikely, the writing has been on the wall for weeks, as Bonnaroo is actually one of the last major events we cover to officially throw in the towel, even after many had tried to move spring and summer dates to the fall. Notably, this year marked Roo’s fastest sell-out ever thanks to a particularly impressive lineup, so when the fest returns June 17-20, 2021, as it has already announced to do, for its 20th anniversary, we have no doubt it’ll be in a strong position to rebound.
In line with other canceled fests who’ve already shored up plans for next year, Bonnaroo will honor 2020 tickets for next year’s event (almost certainly already guaranteeing 2021 will sell quickly as well), or ticket holders can request a refund before the end of July if preferred- head here for the all of the details.
Finally, to ensure that 2020 is not a total bust, Roo has announced a virtual fest set to take place during the originally postponed weekend dates, Sept. 24-27, 2020, promising “some of our favorite moments from past and present, along with some special surprises.” We’ll be sure to update you as more details are announced! And, like all of you, we’ll be counting down the days until next year’s festival season, when we hope things will be safe and normal again, and our coverage will return to what’s happening rather than what isn’t.