Bonnaroo Contemplates Country Fest

A Bonnaroo-style country and camping festival could be headed to Tennessee.

Photo: Jessica Tezak/Knoxville News Sentinel via AP
Festival celebrate entering the gates during the first day of Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tenn.

Live Nation has reportedly been in discussions with the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau about the possibility of bringing such a fest to the Manchester farm that hosts Bonnaroo each year.

Bureau CEO Butch Spryridon recently told the Tennessean that Live Nation, which purchased a controlling stake in Bonnaroo earlier this year, wasn’t the first to raise the idea.

“The Bonnaroo folks even before Live Nation have talked about that for some time,” Spyridon said. “Since they own the land, they’d like to hold more than one event per year.”

Bonnaroo founders Superfly Presents and AC Entertainment still handle day-to-day operations of the festival. Spyridon continued that “timing of such an event is probably the most important.

There’s room, but, and I have not talked to them in recent weeks about it, but I would hope that we walk through the timing to make sure it makes sense for everybody.” Nashville already has one successful country event in the annual CMA Festival, which this year was held June 9-15, overlapping this year’s Bonnaroo June 11-14.