Bonnaroo’s Back! C3 Fest Dir. Brad Parker On Immersive Stage, First Country Headliner Luke Combs, Hulu Livestream, Way More

This year’s Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, which started Thursday (June 12) at the fabled Farm in Manchester, Tennessee, is perhaps the most eclectic in the event’s continuous 23-year history (with two years canceled in 2020 and 2021 for Covid and a hurricane, respectively).

Featured acts include Luke Combs – the fest’s first country headliner – on Thursday, followed by Tyler, the Creator (Friday), Olivia Rodrigo (Saturday) and Hozier (Sunday), with everyone from Vampire Weekend, Dom Dolla, John Summit, Avril Lavigne, Justice and Queens of the Stone Age to, yes, Insane Clown Posse.  King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard will play three separate sets over three days as part of a “residency,” while Remi Wolf will lead the fest’s traditional Superjam, this year dubbed the “Insanely Fire 1970’s Pool Party,” featuring Hayley Williams, Maren Morris, Mark Foster, Geese, Grace Bowers, Royel Otis and Mt. Joy, among others.  Arcade Fire will perform at Bonnaroo for the first time since 2011 as part of their “After Hours” lineup with a 1 a.m. performance Friday night. The entire event will be streamed once again on Hulu.

C3 Presents Festival Director Brad Parker, who is from East Tennessee, attended his first Bonnaroo festival in 2009 as a fan on the cusp of his 18th birthday, and it literally changed his life. He went to the University of Tennessee for concert promotion, then ended up working at the legendary event starting in 2013, first for AC Entertainment, and then for C3 Presents when Live Nation acquired full ownership in 2020. “Every day I pinch myself,” he says. “It’s like living in a dream. This is my favorite place on the planet.”

Pollstar: How’s the weather looking for the weekend?
Brad Parker: It’s looking like standard June Tennessee Bonnaroo weather. This time of year is always humid and in the afternoon, at the hottest point, there’s always a chance of some pop-up rain showers coming through. The meteorologists are telling us nothing severe, and as long as there’s not a lot of wind involved, those showers are a nice relief.  They cool us off. I’m just glad when the rain comes after everyone is already parked here and camping and not while we’re trying to get them in.

How many people do you expect to attend this year’s Bonnaroo?
We’re back in the 70,000-80,000 area. Our capacity is not dictated by the number of people we can fit to watch the shows on the stages, but how many people come in with each vehicle. That’s our limit… how many vehicles we can park on the property. That’s why the capacity fluctuates. This year, we tried something for the first time, offering a “carpool camping” pass, a discounted ticket if you came with a minimum of three people per vehicle. Which helps cut down on our carbon footprint as well.

The campground element is what distinguishes Bonnaroo, the sites themselves have become communities, with their own installations, much like Burning Man.
It is the community, the environment which the camping creates that is our edge. We opened our campgrounds yesterday, and those first fans camp right under the arch.  I was talking to our staff, telling them if they need a jolt of energy, just check out the campgrounds. For the most dedicated fans, this show is so much more than a music festival.  It’s a place where you can come and be yourself, unapologetically, with like-minded people. The camping element adds fuel to that fire. But we’ve had to build an entire infrastructure for a mid-sized city – we have to feed them, shower them, collect the garbage and have a full medical staff.  There’s something in the water here that captivates you and makes you seem like you’re in tune with the human experience.

This year’s lineup is incredibly eclectic, a little something for everyone, including the first country headliner in Bonnaroo history.
We’re so excited to have Luke Combs.  It doesn’t get any more exciting in country music than him.

And are there any fans of both Luke and Insane Clown Posse, who play the same night?
We’re going to find out. The one thing I will tell you is the Bonnaroo fan is the most open-minded and versatile on the planet. That’s what makes Bonnaroo special, seeing those two acts on the same lineup on the same day.

What are some of this year’s most interesting brand activations?
We have a bodega dubbed Flavoroo Alley located on our campgrounds by Tapatio, which  makes frozen meals; and the Liquid Death Country Club, which is one of the best-looking sponsor activations.  My personal favorite, because it’s my one vice, is Jolene Coffee, a canned cold brew which will be giving out free samples. Fans seem fired up about Montucky Cold Snacks being our beer partners this year. The fans are incredible in wanting to know who our product sponsors will be each year, They get locked in on that.

Tell us about the new Infinity Stage, the world’s largest outdoor 360-degree spatial audio experience.
It’s been crazy watching it come together over the last few days.  We’re partners with a company called Polygon Productions out of London. It’s going to be unlike anything presented on this scale.  It’s important we’re the first.  Bonnaroo is an iconic festival brand, and this year, the Infinity Stage is our crown jewel. Most expensive stage we’ve every built by three times. There’s nothing out there like it.

You’re going to be streaming on Hulu again.  That’s become an increasingly elaborate production.
I love it. I think there’s an intangible value to streaming.  One, it builds FOMO for those who didn’t go this year, it pushes them over the year for next year when they see how much fun everyone’s having. It does a ton to bolster the brand and legacy.  Just to get our name out there. Nothing replicates the live experience of being at the show, but this is the next best thing.

Are there tickets available?
The campgrounds are sold out, so all we have left are daily parking options. You have to drive in and leave each day.  We have a significant amount of local fans who do just that.

There have been several cancelations of festivals over the past few years.  Do you worry about burnout and how do you keep things fresh?
There are a couple of things Bonnaroo has going for it that we must continue establishing as a leader.  We’ve been here 22 years and my job right now is to focus on the next 22. We have something nobody has, and that’s the Farm and the community of fans that come to this show. We have a ton of people who buy tickets to Bonnaroo even before the lineup is announced, and I think that shows a lot of love and affinity for the brand itself and the experience we cultivate here.

Three of the Governor’s Ball headliners (Olivia Rodrigo, Tyler, Hozier) are also appearing at Bonnaroo. Does that diminish the excitement?
There are only a certain number of artists who can headline shows this big, so you’re going to see a degree of overlap.  But there aren’t too many places where you can see Luke Combs, Insane Clown Posse and Nelly all at the same place.  It’s the undercard at these shows where we really get to define ourselves.  The Superjam continues to be something unique to Bonnaroo, which gives us some creative freedom.  We’re going to hone in on the artist residency idea, like this year with King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. And things like the Infinity Stage. We have to do stuff that pushes the envelope. Every idea is a risk, but we have to be open to taking some shots.

What happens to the property the rest of the year?
Our fans know the property where Bonnaroo takes place collectively as The Farm. For the other 325 days a year we’re not building and having the festival, we have a full-time groundskeeper who grows crops on the land. So, it is a farm as well as The Farm.

Any thoughts on doing companion festivals like Coachella does with Stagecoach?
We have thought about doing the back-to-back weekend thing, but it’s always been a challenge to us because the weather is so much more unpredictable here than in California. We’ve thrown around a lot of ideas about how to use the property, but it’s definitely on our mind.  When the right opportunity comes along, I think we would highly entertain a look at that.

Wildi Stallion: Megan The Stallion performs at either the Which, What, Who, Why or Where Stage at 2024’s Bonnaroo (Josh Brasted for Bonnaroo)