At long last, Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival returned to Manchester, TN over the weekend in full force, presenting a vast array performers across more than ten stages from Thursday, June 16th through Sunday, June 19th. The long-running festival had not taken place since three years following various pandemic-related postponements and an eleventh-hour cancellation due to flooding in 2021.
Highlights from the 2022 Bonnaroo lineup include Stevie Nicks, Tool, J. Cole, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, The Chicks, Herbie Hancock, Illenium, Machine Gun Kelly, Flume, 21 Savage, Billy Strings, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Puscifer, CloZee, REZZ, Tobe Nwigwe, Dillon Francis, Roddy Ricch, Tierra Whack, Tove Lo, The War On Drugs, Goose, Bleachers, Marc Rebillet, Sidepiece, Judah & The Lion, Mt. Joy, All Time Low, Tash Sultana, Lettuce, Denzel Curry, Arlo Parks, Joy Oladokun, Karina Rykman, All Them Witches, Coin, LP Giobbi, Femi Kuti & The Positive Force, Tinashe, Teddy Swims, Maggie Rose, Slowthai, VNSSA, Tierra Whack, Cory Henry, Sierra Ferrell, Wallows, Calder Allen, Dombresky, The Weather Station, Adam Melchor, The Brook & Bluff, Indigo De Souza, Sons of Kemet, Goth Babe, Whiskey Myers, Briston Maroney, Dayglow, Tai Verdes, Still Woozy, The Backseat Lovers, and more.
Continuing a beloved Bonnaroo tradition, Jack Antonoff (Bleachers) hosted the annual Superjam, a guest-filled ode to the radio sounds of the year in which he was born billed as “Jack Antonoff’s 1984”. Guests on the set included Japanese Breakfast, Carly Rae Jepsen, Chvrches‘ Lauren Mayberry, Spoon‘s Britt Daniel, Michelle Zauner, Nicole Atkins, Joy Oladokun, Claud, and Blu DeTiger. Goose‘s Rich Mitarotonda, also jumped in to lead renditions of “It’s My Life”, the 1984 Talk Talk track perhaps best known to his generation via No Doubt‘s 2003 cover, and A-ha‘s timeless “Take On Me”. Check out the full Bonnaroo 2022 Superjam setlist here.
In addition to Rick’s Superjam appearance, keyboardist Peter Anspach‘s sit-in with Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, and the band’s own set in This Tent, the whole quintet dropped in on Andy Frasco & The U.N.‘s performance on Thursday to aid in their patented shenanigans. Rapper Isaiah Rashad also added a notable to narrative to the Bonnaroo mix on Friday when he was greeted for his set by Tim Kelly, the Mayor of his nearby hometown of Chattanooga, who presented him with a key to the city.