The Infinity Stage at Bonnaroo 2025, touted as the world’s largest 360° spatial audio experience, has generated mixed feedback from attendees. Despite its ambitious design featuring a three-dome open-air setup with synchronized lighting, the execution revealed key issues that dampened fan experience.
Capacity and Design Constraints
With an estimated capacity of 9,000–10,000, the stage felt cramped during popular sets from artists like John Summit and Dom Dolla. The sand-covered floor, intended to combat mud, instead contributed to dust and discomfort. The stage’s compact footprint and scaffolding-like structure caused bottlenecks, raising safety concerns during peak crowd moments.
Sound Quality Challenges
The innovative spatial audio delivered immersive sound for those near the center, but many attendees farther back reported poor mixing and sound bleed affecting audio clarity. Adjacent stages such as This Tent suffered from audio spillover, diminishing the overall listening experience.
Operational Issues
John Summit’s set was ultimately canceled due to weather concerns, which some attendees considered a relief given the overcrowding and safety issues observed.
Community Suggestions for Future Iterations
Feedback includes relocating the Infinity Stage to a more open, truly 360-degree accessible site—perhaps a wooded area—to ease crowd flow and improve safety. Scaling the stage’s capacity to suit headline-level acts or reverting to former stage models like the Who Stage were also recommended. Many emphasized that early programming limitations might have skewed perceptions, but the consensus calls for a redesign in layout, capacity, and booking strategy.
While the Infinity Stage at Bonnaroo 2025 brought an innovative spatial audio concept to the festival forefront, the execution struggles have prompted calls for significant changes to meet fan expectations in future editions.
For deeper insights, read the full breakdown at Extra Chill Festival Wire and IQ-Mag.
Source: r/bonnaroo