Bonnaroo 2025 Artist Spotlight: Cults

Like we’ve been doing for many years now, we’re making it our mission to help you get acquainted with many of our favorite acts from Bonnaroo‘s 2025 lineup. A festival that feels like it’s ever evolving (especially with some big tweaks and improvements in the past few summers post-pandemic), this year marks Bonnaroo’s 22nd installment (and 24th anniversary), boasting not only another great and varied lineup, but also some exciting additions like the brand new, high-tech Infinity Stage, billed as “the world’s largest 360-degree, immersive sound experience” and unlike anything that’s ever been showcased in North America. Back once again in its usual June 12-15 timeframe, we’re counting down the days until another great weekend on the farm.

As we dig through the entire schedule, we’ll highlight a spread of performers spanning across genres and stages, big and small, new and old, to bring you some of the most interesting, lesser-known, and most highly-recommended among this year’s crop of artists. And as our time at ‘Roo approaches, we’ll also be bringing you some special features and full list-style daily lineup guides, to help you plan your weekend ahead of the fest. While these previews won’t span every artist, and might omit some more obvious must-see acts, we hope they’ll serve as a way to help you navigate Bonnaroo’s gargantuan lineup, and to make the most of your busy weekend at the fest!

We’re told tickets are very low and on track to sell out, so grab those right here if you haven’t already (and don’t forget the camping or parking pass), and read on for our Bonnaroo Artist Spotlight!

LEARN

It’s been 12 years since New York indie pop duo Cults first debuted at Bonnaroo, in 2013, then a relatively new band with just one LP to their name, experiencing an unprecedented wave of buzz amidst the flourishing, culturally dominant millennial indie scene of the early 2010s (and also at the time still romantically involved; a fact which has now just become a footnote in the band’s 15-year history). Though both native Californians, Cults formed in 2010 in New York City, where Brian Oblivion was studying at NYU and Madeline Follin at The New School. Immediately capturing the attention of taste-making outlets like Pitchfork thanks to their debut 7″ and a lengthy early tour with Richie Follin’s Band (Madeline’s brother), particularly for breakout early single “Go Outside,” Cults signed to Lily Allen’s In the Name Of major label imprint ahead of their debut album, 2011’s Cults. Renowned for their dreamy, nostalgic, shimmering indie pop, helmed by Oblivion’s multi-instrumentation and Follin’s vocals (she’d become a more equal creative collaborator and multi-instrumentalist on later records), Cults became a fast favorite of the scene, and would find even more mainstream attention in 2013, when rapper J. Cole sampled their track “Bad Things” for his platinum-certified single “She Knows,” on which he also credited Cults as collaborators. Around the same time, in the wake of their romantic breakup, the duo returned with sophomore album Static, another excellent and emotionally nuanced work of indie pop, which produced one of the band’s most popular and lauded tracks, “Always Forever.” Taking a few years off, during which Madeline and her brother Richie started new band Follin, Cults regrouped for 2017’s Offering, which saw a shift to a more collaborative creative process between the two, and a more ambitious, dreamy, synth-pop sound, spawning yet another hugely popular single, “Gilded Lily.” Taking influence also from New Wave band The Motels, Cults were inspired to release a track-by-track cover of their 1979 debut Motels the following year, before returning in 2020 with their fourth album of originals, Host, featuring more songwriting input from Follin than ever before. Recent years have seen an uptick of interest in Cults (and in the indie scene of last decade in general) thanks to TikTok, where songs like “Gilded Lily” and “Always Forever” have connected with Gen Z, and brought a new wave of fans to the band. And though some of their peers from that “hipster” era of indie have faded away, Cults have remained as creative and vibrant as ever by always doing their own thing, evidenced by last year’s stellar fifth album To the Ghosts. As etherial, surprising, and hypnotic as ever, the duo’s latest showcases perhaps their widest breadth of influences yet, while still retaining the intimacy and individuality of their early work (recording it in Brian’s apartment, like their early albums, definitely added to that aesthetic). We’ve been covering ‘Roo so long that we actually saw Cults’ last appearance on the farm, and couldn’t be more excited for their return, 12 years and four albums later!

WATCH | “Always Forever” (Official Video)