Bonnaroo 2020 Canceled Over Coronavirus Concerns
After being postponed from June to September due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Bonnaroo has officially been canceled for 2020. Organizers of the four-day, multi-genre festival in Manchester, Tenn., announced the news on Thursday (June 25).
"Our annual time together on the Farm is nothing short of magical," a statement from festival organizers reads, "but out of an abundance of caution and for the health and safety of all Bonnaroovians, artists, staff, partners and our community, this is a necessary reality."
Originally scheduled for June 11-14, Bonnaroo was pushed back to Sept. 24-27 in mid-March, as safer-at-home orders began going into effect throughout the United States. Now, organizers have announced that the event will return in 2021 on June 17-20. It will be Bonnaroo's 20th anniversary year.
Bonnaroo has taken place annually at Great Stage Park in Manchester -- about an hour southeast of Nashville -- since 2002. The 2020 event was to feature Jason Isbell, Yola, Orville Peck and more country- and Americana-leaning acts, along with Lizzo, Tool, Lana Del Rey and many more.
Bonnaroo is one of hundreds of music festivals, concerts and other mass gatherings that have been postponed or outright canceled in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Some festival organizers and artists chose to push back their events, in hopes that large gatherings would be safe by late summer or fall, and are now having to once again postpone them. Earlier on Thursday, Luke Bryan announced that he has rescheduled his Summer 2020 Proud to Be Right Here Tour to 2021, after pushing its May start back to July.
LOOK: Maren Morris, the Avett Brothers + More at Bonnaroo 2019