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Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival — Great Stage Park, Manchester, Tennessee

1560 New Bushy Branch Road
Manchester, Tennessee, United States

35.4753° N · -86.0590° W

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What happened here?

Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival has been held on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee since 2002, establishing itself as America's premier camping festival. Named after a New Orleans slang term meaning 'a really good time,' the festival was founded with a jam-band focus but quickly evolved to encompass rock, hip-hop, electronic, and pop. Memorable moments include Radiohead's transcendent 2006 headline, Phish's late-night marathons, and Kanye West's controversial 2008 set that started hours late.

The festival site, known as Great Stage Park, is located about 60 miles southeast of Nashville in rural Coffee County. The flat farmland transforms each June into a sprawling festival city with multiple stages, a comedy tent, and the iconic 'What Stage' arch. The communal camping experience and Tennessee summer heat are central to the Bonnaroo identity — it's as much about the between-sets camaraderie as the music itself.

Bonnaroo continues annually each June, though it has faced challenges including a 2021 cancellation due to flooding and evolving competition from other mega-festivals. The site is privately owned and used exclusively for the festival. Manchester is a small town that fully embraces the annual influx of 80,000+ attendees.

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