With Bonnaroo canceled due to heavy rain, r/jambands users have been trading stories about the wildest mud battles from past festivals — proving mudfests are as brutal as they are unforgettable.
Top mudfests fans recall:
- Summer Camp Music Festival 2013 (Three Sisters Park, IL): Rain transformed the grounds into a relentless muddy slog. Stages swam in mud and many lost shoes to the earth, but iconic sets from Umphrey’s McGee helped push through. Crawling through mud was a survival badge that year.
- Hudson Music Project 2014 “Mudson” (Winston Farm, Saugerties, NY): Torrential rain created quagmires so deep they swallowed shoes and even luggage. The last day was canceled amid a chaos reminiscent of Woodstock, with many stuck and rescued via air mattresses and makeshift rafts.
- Wakarusa 2013 “Swamparusa”: Flooded campsites with floor-to-ceiling water made navigating tricky but forged legendary memories.
- Others mentioned include Blue Ox Festival (WI), Coventry’s notorious Phish mud, and Panic Targhee 2011’s legendary sludge.
These tales highlight the shared grit and camaraderie within the jamband festival community, where soggy footwear and muddy pits become badges of honor and stories told for years. When Mother Nature shows up uninvited, festival fans still chase the music through the muck.
Source: r/jambands