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Fest 411: Clearing Up The Misconceptions About Bonnaroo’s Infinity Stage

2024 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival
Immersive Audio: The new Infinity Stage will make its North American debut at this year’s festival.
Photo by Gary Miller / WireImage

“Just to clarify, this is not a 360 stage,” Bonnaroo’s Brad Parker, festival director at C3 Presents, states as soon as he hops on a call with Pollstar. He notes he’s seen many misconceptions surrounding the festival’s newest Infinity Stage, which will make its debut in June and marks Polygon Productions’ premiere in North America. “This is not a stage where the fans are in a circle around the performer. This is a fully immersive audio experience.”

Fans and the music industry alike have been buzzing about the festival’s latest stage addition since it was first announced, but many questions arose with confusion on what the design would look like. Polygon Productions, a United Kingdom-based company, approached C3 Presents early last year with the concept, and Bonnaroo jumped at the chance to host the stage’s North American debut. The design itself features a skeleton of poles that feature lights and speakers presenting the 360 audio, allowing fans to have perfect sound no matter where they stand.

“I would describe it like an open-air dome,” Parker says. “You’ve got a system of an empty shell that you’re able to suspend and hang different lighting and audio features from that is overhead of the audience, but if you’re in there, you can look up and see the sky. The best way to describe it is you’re inside of a skeleton that’s got all of the audio and lighting rigged to it. We’ll make it look pretty.”

Polygon Productions already presented their concept in Saudi Arabia and Thailand, with the experience debuting in London in May. Speakers sit above and to the sides of the skeleton design of an open-air hemispherical dome, with 90 speakers total in 26 different positions. Fans will be fully immersed in sounds as soon as they step inside the stage area.

For Bonnaroo, Parker promises they’ll be putting their own spin on the design to ensure it fits with the festival’s culture. Bonnaroo will be rearranging Centeroo to fit the stage inside its main grounds, with a variety of programming planned for the stage. The lineup for the Infinity Stage is separate from the rest of the festival and won’t be announced until February, with Parker promising there will be something for everyone. At the time he speaks to the publication, he admits the festival is still sorting out how exactly the stage will fit in, but emphasizes fans will easily be able to spot it – with Bonnaroo retaining all of the attractions they’ve become familiar with.

“It’s going to be a wide variety of both genres and of just programming in general,” Parker says. “We’re going to have anything from DJs to full bands performing there to looking at doing sound baths and experiential wellness programming in there during the daytime. You’re going to see a wide variety of programming that’s not just focused around live performances from artists. We’re going to try and do as much in there as possible since we’re making the commitment to it.”

In December, Parker flew to Thailand to observe the stage himself. He explains that it’s hard to describe the experience, comparing it to how videos of Sphere hardly do the Las Vegas venue justice and that it’s something fans truly need to step into in order to understand.

“I was immediately sold. I said, ‘We’ve got to figure out how to do this in America.’ Bonnaroo is the perfect fit,” Parker says.
“It was transformative – had just never heard audio in that way. It’s one of those things where I keep coming up short with words to describe it, because you just have to experience it to understand it. It presented music to me in a way I had never heard before. I think our fans are going to be very excited by that. As a legacy festival that’s been going now for 20-plus years, we’ve got to keep finding ways to push the envelope and keep reinventing ourselves to make sure this brand and this festival have great continuity.

“What Polygon Productions is doing with live spatial audio is what the Sphere is doing with visuals,” Parker says. “They
are taking the audio side of the show to the next level, where you are getting fully mixed audio hitting you from every angle
you can imagine. Above you, behind you, to your side. It’s moving around at all times. Any channel that’s being mixed on stage, a guitar, a vocal, it has the ability to take a complete circle around your head, as if someone were holding their phone speaker and walking in a circle around you. It’s fully immersive.”

He notes the festival is also bringing the stage in to help attract a new audience, with Bonnaroo celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The festival wanted to attract a younger audience with a diverse lineup, Parker noting he feels this year’s lineup is one of the most diverse they’ve had since 2020. This year features headliners Luke Combs, Tyler, the Creator, Olivia Rodrigo and Hozier with the goal of attracting Gen-Z audiences.

Bonnaroo takes place June 12 to 15 in Manchester, Tennessee, with tickets on sale now.

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