Now that New Year’s shows are over and 2019 has officially begun, music fans’ sights are turning toward this year’s festival season. Coachella added its fuel to the 2019 music festival fire when the pop-focused event announced its lineup late Wednesday night. For many, the arrival of Coachella’s lineup helps fans gauge what the posters for other major music festivals—like Bonnaroo—might look like this year.
Speaking of Bonnaroo, the folks at The Farm, as the Tennessee festival’s home is commonly called, also announced on Thursday that their own 2019 lineup is scheduled to arrive next Tuesday, January 8th.
The historically jam-centric four-day festival is scheduled to return to its home in Manchester, Tennessee on June 13th–16th this year. While the hippie-friendly event fills its schedule with a wonderfully diverse undercard each year, the event’s talent buyers have their work cut out for them if they hope to keep the headlining slots and overall brand within the original theme and spirit of Bonnaroo, which they simply have not done over the last few years (The Weeknd was chosen to close out day four in 2017 for some reason).
So with major music festivals beginning to turn the page on a new season, here are five artists who we hope to see on the 2019 Bonnaroo lineup when it arrives early next week:
1. Phish
This one is probably atop most jam fans’ Bonnaroo wishlists. Phish hasn’t played at Bonnaroo since 2012, making them one of the few major rock bands remaining these days who have serious drawing power but don’t necessarily overplay the mainstream festival circuit each year. In recent months, Phish has popped up as a potential headliner in various buzz-based fan predictions of the 2019 Bonnaroo lineup. Some rumors have also floated about Phish making a return Jazz Fest in the spring, but they likely wouldn’t do both.Either way, there seems to be a decent shot that the fellas could be returning to The Farm come June. The group just completed a fantastic four-night NYE run in New York City over the weekend and will be looking to make up the cancellation of their own festival last summer.
2. The Claypool Lennon Delirium
Maybe the best collaborative psych-rock project in recent memory, the band led by bassist Les Claypool and guitarist Sean Ono Lennon are headed back out on tour together in 2019 to promote their forthcoming sophomore studio album due out in February. The two played a wild and weird late-night set at Bonnaroo back in 2016, and will surely be welcomed back with open arms for some late night psychedelia in 2019. If their two recently-shared singles are any indication as to what fans can expect to hear on this album, be prepared to experience peak weirdness coming from whichever stage they might play.
3. Jim James Leading The Superjam
The likelihood of My Morning Jacket playing at Bonnaroo this summer is pretty small. The popular rock band already announced that their only east coast show of the year will take place at New York City’s Forest Hills Stadium in August. That doesn’t rule out the possibility of their mystic frontman Jim James making an appearance as a solo performer at the festival, which is totally plausible considering he released a new solo album in 2018 with Uniform Distortion. If James really wants to make an impression at Bonnaroo, he should also be in charge of organizing the Superjam, which typically takes place following the headliner set on Saturday night and features a mix of musicians already at the event.
4. Khruangbin
The chillwave “Thai funk” trio from Texas known as Khruangbin enjoyed a breakout year in 2018. They released both a new album (Con Todo El Mundo) and a new EP (Friday Morning), which helped expand their booking abilities from more intimate clubs and performance halls to larger venues like Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club to multiple nights at New York City’s Brooklyn Steel. They’re scheduled to return to the States following an international spring tour with a show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in May, and with a summer schedule that’s currently wide open, they’re easy favorites to expect to see at Bonnaroo in June.
5. Joe Russo’s Almost Dead
The music of the Grateful Dead is starting to once again find its way into the ears of younger audiences, thanks in large part to the emergence of wonderful Dead-inspired bands like Joe Russo’s Almost Dead. Since forming out of the New York City jam scene back in 2013, the band has gained a national following and has hit the festival circuit with notable appearances at similar events in 2018 including LOCKN‘ and Sweetwater 420 Fest, and The Peach Music Festival (which they’ll play once again in 2019). The presence of the Dead is felt at Bonnaroo every year from retro tank-tops to campground tapestries, so it would only make sense if the scene’s top cover band gave the fans what they wanted in 2018, some Good Lovin’.