Headed to Manchester, TN for Bonnaroo? If so, it’s not going to be to see any metal. Much like Coachella, the festival has nothing remotely heavy on it. In fact, it shares a lot of the same artists as Coachella this year. With the exception of headliners U2 and Red Hot Chili Peppers, this could be pretty much any big festival. At least the two New York festivals are offering up Tool and Nine Inch Nails. Of all the destination festivals, Bonnaroo has embraced heavier stuff earlier than the others. In fact, just last year, Lamb of God and Clutch played the four-day festival. The year before, Slayer, Pallbearer and Between the Buried and Me played, along with Unlocking the Truth. Mastodon, Meshuggah, Opeth, GWAR and The Melvins have also played at the festival dating back to 2010. This year? Nothing. Not even the shoegaze band nothing.
Granted, metal’s always been an outlier at the fest, with a few bands being added to flesh out the lineup. Bonnaroo has always tended towards more jam-bands than anything else, at least historically. However, the metal bands they have booked usually been really good bands, some of them being one-offs. And like we’d said about Coachella, the rise of rock and metal festivals like the Danny Wimmer Presents ones has probably made some of the bigger marquee bands opt to play at those festivals over one where they’d stick out like a sore thumb. It’d be interesting to hear from the Superfly and A.C. Entertainment as to why they’ve totally ignored metal at the festival for the first time in at least seven years, however.
Here’s the lineup, just in case you still might want to go.
U2
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Weeknd
Chance the Rapper
Major Lazer
Flume
The xx
Lorde
Travis Scott
Cage the Elephant
Marshmello
The Head and The Heart
Big Gigantic
Glass Animals
Future Islands
Tory Lanez
Tove Lo
Yellow Claw
Umphrey’s McGee
Portugal. The Man
Crystal Castles
Milky Chance
Tegan & Sara
Cold War Kids
Kaleo
SuperJam
Russ
Jon Bellion
Royal Blood
The Strumbellas
Car Seat Headrest
Michael Kiwanuka
Gallant
D.R.A.M.
Louis the Child
Borgore
Dua Lipa
Nghtmre
Getter
Snails
James Vincent McMorrow
Joseph
Illenium
Flatbush Zombies
Aminé
Claude VonStroke
Francis & The Lights
Margo Price
BadBadNotGood
The Front Bottoms
G Jones
Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Greensky Bluegrass
Cam
Bad Suns
Coin
Mandolin Orange
Eden
Rainbow Kitten Surprise
Ookay
Herobust
Kevin Morby
Goldfish
Noname
Leon
Bluegrass SuperJam
Albin Lee Meldau
San Holo
Rezz
Angélique Kidjo
Haywyre
Deap Vally
Hippo Campus
Luke Combs
Vanic
Unlike Pluto
Kaiydo
Ten Fé
Nightly
The Orwells
Stick Figure
Mondo Cozmo
Barclay Crenshaw
Goody Grace
July Talk
Khruangbin
Lucy Dacus
Klangstof
Kevin Abstract
Turkuaz
The Lemon Twigs
Wilderado
Twin Limb
Big Jesus
Twiddle
White Reaper
River Whyless
Alexandra Savior
Lukas Nelson & Promise of The Real
Innanet James
Ganja White Night
Welles
Aaron Lee Tasjan
