The Bonnaroo 2025 Music and Arts Festival has been officially canceled due to extensive flooding on the grounds in Manchester, Tennessee. Photos circulating on the r/bonnaroo subreddit show waterlogged fields, including a striking image of a lone rubber duck floating amid the floodwaters, capturing the difficult conditions that made the event impossible to proceed.
This marks another devastating blow to Bonnaroo, which has faced multiple cancellations over recent years:
- In 2021, flooding caused by Hurricane Ida forced a cancellation due to unsafe, waterlogged grounds.
- The 2020 festival was canceled amid the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns.
Longtime attendees and fans have taken to social media to express their disappointment and frustration. Recurring complaints highlight the festival’s ongoing infrastructure struggles to handle heavy rain despite over 20 years at the same site. Some voices question the festival’s future viability, pointing to these repeated disruptions as a potential breaking point.
Many attendees are now making the best of the weekend with unofficial gatherings at nearby campgrounds or venturing into Nashville to enjoy local music scenes. Others lament lost time and expenses after securing days off work for the expected festival experience.
The Bonnaroo community hopes the organizers will address these infrastructure challenges to prevent future cancellations and preserve what has been a beloved annual event for decades.
For context, full details on prior cancellations:
- Bonnaroo 2021 canceled due to Hurricane Ida flooding
- Bonnaroo 2020 canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic
Source: r/bonnaroo