The first Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival took place on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, in June of 2002.
The gates for this year’s Bonnaroo open again in Manchester for four days of music and arts in June.
That’s 24 years’ worth of festivals! Yikes. That’s just about a quarter of a century.
I was young when I first heard about this festivity. I was in college and maybe not even old enough to drink legally at a bar.
Because I don’t remember if it was 02 or 03 when some of my friends from Appalachian State University talked about going, I probably didn’t fully understand what the hell it was all about when they left for Tennessee all those years ago.
“How many total musical acts and bands have played the different Bonnaroo stages during the last 24 years?” I wonder.
Definitely hundreds, but could it be thousands?
This includes musical acts and bands such as Phish, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Childish Gambino, Kendrick Lamar, and many more icons. That’s a rather dope short list.
I’m not young anymore, and it seems I’ve reached that point in my life where I’m just out of touch or maybe not in the know of new and modern music.
Self-awareness is a damning thing.
To have a little bit of fun last year, I did this thing where I looked at the 2025 Coachella lineup to see how many of the musical groups I actually knew, whether old or new.
Bonnaroo unveiled the 2026 lineup a month ago.
Let’s duplicate that fun for Bonnaroo 2026 and check out the list of acts to see who I don’t know, like with last year’s Coachella.
THE BONNAROO 2026 LINEUP IS BELOW! WHAT LITTLE OF IT WILL I RECOGNIZE
- Skrillex – Yes, his music makes me think of a kaleidoscope for some reason.
- Four Tet – No
- Vince Staples – Yes, Norf Norf
- Spiritual Cramp – No
- The Strokes – Yes, but I am not too familiar with this band’s work outside Last Nite.
- Griz – No
- Turnstile – No
- Mt. Joy – No
- Major Lazer – Yep, Lean On and that song they did with Justin Bieber were everywhere ten years ago.
- Jessie Murph – No
- Yungblud – Yes, but only from those punk songs he did with Machine Gun Kelly during the pandemic.
- Geese – No
- Cloonee – No
- Lil Jon – Yeah, yeah, I definitely know the King of Crunk.
- Blood Orange – No
- Wet Leg – No
- Hot Mulligan – No
- bbno$ – No
- Zack Fox – No
- Smino – No
- Sidepiece – No
- Rachel Chinouriri – No
- The Dare – No
- Adventure Club – No
- NOTION – No
- Mother Mother – No
- Łaszewo – No
- Blues Traveler – Yes, I remember listening to them on my way to Blockbuster in the 90’s.
- Wolfmother – No
- Wednesday – No
- The Chats – No
- Lambrini Girls – No
- Amble – No
- Daniel Allan – No
- Goldie Boutilier – No
- Dora Jar – No
- Villanelle – No
- Jackie Hollander – No
- PawPaw Rod – No
- RÜFÜS DU SOL – No
- Teddy Swims – No
- The Neighbourhood – No
- Alabama Shakes – No
- Chase & Status – No
- Sara Landry – No
- Rainbow Kitten Surprise – No
- Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist – No
- Amyl & The Sniffers – No
- Sub Focus – No
- Gorgon City – No
- Flipturn – No
- Passion Pit – No
- Snow Strippers – No
- Tash Sultana – No
- Wyatt Flores – No
- Boys Noize – No
- Holly Humberstone – No
- Deathpact – No
- SG Lewis – No
- Osees – No
- Waylon Wyatt – No
- The Runarounds – No
- DJ Trixie Mattel – No
- Buffalo Traffic Jam – No
- Confidence Man – No
- Arcy Drive – No
- Mountain Grass Unit – No
- Juelz – No
- The Stews – No
- Congress The Band – No
- Midnight Generation – No
- Sunami – No
- Nikita, The Wicked – No
- “Weird Al” Yankovic Bigger & Weirder Roovue – Yes, I always wanted to live in an Amish Paradise
- Noah Kahan – No
- Role Model – No
- Kesha – Yes, I remember that song where she started with “Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy,” and wonder now if that still stands. Yikes.
- Tedeschi Trucks Band – No
- LSZEE – No
- Clipse – Yes, Pusha T and Malice are grindin’ and one of my favorite rap groups/duos
- Mariah the Scientist – No
- Daily Bread – No
- Modest Mouse – Yes, Float On is a very catchy song
- Big Gigantic – No
- Japanese Breakfast – No
- Turnover – No
- San Holo – No
- Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue – No
- Del Water Gap – No
- Spacey Jane – No
- Audrey Hobert – No
- Fcukers – No
- Blondshell – No
- Little Stranger – No
- Aly & AJ – No
- Hemlocke Springs – No
- Steph Strings – No
- A Hundred Drums – No
- Girl Tones – No
- Motifv – No
So I only know 11 out of the 91 bands playing this year’s Bonnaroo. That is around 12 percent.
Around 150 bands played last year’s Coachella, and I recognized only 16 by name, which equals between 10 and 11 percent.
I know they are two completely different festivals, but it’s interesting that the percentage of musical acts and bands is around the same for both.
What does it prove? Nothing really. Just that I’m getting older and out of touch in the 2020s.
That’s okay. I’m okay. I’ll just keep on listening to OutKast, Bad Religion, and Weezer.
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