Bonnaroo 2021 is canceled due to flooding, festival organizers announce
The 2021 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival has been canceled for a second year due to flooding in middle Tennessee, its organizers announced Tuesday.
“We are absolutely heartbroken to announce that we must cancel Bonnaroo,” festival organizers said on the event website and on social media.
“While this weekend’s weather looks outstanding, currently Centeroo is waterlogged in many areas, the ground is incredibly saturated on our tollbooth paths, and the campgrounds are flooded to the point that we are unable to drive in or park vehicles safely.”
The event was scheduled to begin welcoming arrivals to its campgrounds Tuesday, with musical acts running Thursday through this coming Sunday. Organizers announced last Sunday — as Hurricane Ida was making landfall in the Gulf Coast — that the campgrounds would not open until Wednesday.
More than 1 million customers in Louisiana and Mississippi were left without power as Ida pushed through before weakening to a tropical storm.
On Monday, organizers announced that with the expectation of “significant rain” from Ida they would be reducing camping capacity as well. But by Tuesday it became apparent that flooding had made the event unmanageable.
“We have done everything in our power to try to keep the show moving forward, but Mother Nature has dealt us a tremendous amount of rain over the past 24 hours,” organizers tweeted, “and we have run out of options to try to make the event happen safely and in a way that lives up to the Bonnaroo experience.”
The remnants of Ida hit Tennessee late Monday and into Tuesday. The state also experienced severe flooding about a week ago from a deadly storm that hit Aug. 21.
Organizers reassured ticket holders that “all tickets purchased through Front Gate Tickets will be refunded in as little as 30 days to the original method of payment.”
The festival lineup included Foo Fighters, Lizzo, Lana Del Rey, Megan Thee Stallion, Young Thug, Tame Impala, Tyler the Creator and many more.
Last year the event was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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