Bonnaroo Gets Cooking With Skrillex, Vince Staples and More

After rain caused Bonnaroo to shut down after just one day in 2025, and numerous music festivals have struggled in the months since, the vibe has been somewhat off as this year’s festival season got underway. But with a pledge to make numerous site and scheduling tweaks to improve safety and make the event more weather-resistant, Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival returned to The Bonnaroo Farm in Manchester, Tenn., on Thursday. And despite some hiccups — including a partial power outage for a couple of hours — the communal positive vibe came right back, too.

This year’s festival includes a broad swath of up-and-coming acts from the Nashville area, hand-picked by local show promoters and performing on the stage at Plaza 5: Groop out in the campgrounds. For a few hours in the peak heat of Thursday afternoon, the Bummeroo crew and a stout roster of Nashvillians (and a few touring acts) welcomed those camping nearby to cool off and hear a few songs before wading into the circus of Centeroo. 

The crowd swayed and bobbed along as rock band Tobacco Road offered a folky, groovy psychedelic sound. Later in the afternoon, Chloe Kerch and Lauren Wessling’s Allegory, playing here as a five-piece, blended alternative and punk for a heavier audience. Franklin-based indie rockers Meadowglade followed with a wholehearted and emotional performance of their latest release, “Magnolia.” Lead singer Luke Cooper offered tearful gratitude to the cheering crowd. 

“Music is everything, and I think we all feel a lot of emotions and this is just a way of getting them out,” said Cooper. “It’s really cathartic and necessary, it brings people together and it’s awesome.”

Kicking off the action at the main What Stage — the one big stage to feature regular programming this day — grunge-y, New Wave-y San Francisco band Spiritual Cramp walked out to the riff from “Money for Nothing” snarling over the P.A., looking like they meant business. A still-small crowd of Bonnarooivans grew in a steady stream of wizard hats and flow stars as the sextet dug their heels in for the bombast of “Go Back Home,” a ripper from last year’s Rude, marking the start of the weekend for many in the audience. The sun glared down, cranking up the early June heat we know so well in Tennessee. Rockers, ravers and in between could be seen shaking along with the propulsive beat, and Bonnaroo started to feel like itself again.

A little while later, Long Beach-born rapper and singer Vince Staples had fans in the palm of his hand. Just one week prior, Staples released his latest LP Cry Baby, its cover art featuring a cartoon of an angry infant resembling a certain thin-skinned U.S. president (wearing the American flag as a diaper, no less) and its sound characterized by an aggressive rock rhythm section and his deadpan, almost-monotone delivery. One might wonder whether the new material would be hype enough for Staples’ first Bonnaroo show in a decade and first main stage appearance. Judging by the crowd’s response to songs like Cry Baby’s “Blackberry Marmalade” and the slippery “Little Homies” from 2024’s Dark Times, it certainly was.

A power outage delay and the resulting pared-down visuals didn’t faze Four Tet, the project of British electronic artist Kieran Hebden, whose additional stage names include KH and △▃△▓⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ. His set began with a mix of ambient tones and bird calls before building into groovy, percussive house music. Samples flowing from lush strings to PinkPantheress lyrics created a dynamic mix of mellow and high-energy vibes — the perfect thing to usher in the evening and calm frustrations as the party rolled on with partial power on Thursday night at The Farm.

The electrical issues affected roughly half of the festival grounds, and the time required to sort it out ultimately pushed back the night’s headline performance by an hour to 11:30 p.m. But when the time came, thick clouds of smoke rolled across the stage and thousands of Bonnaroovians packed in tight, cheering for Skrillex’s long-awaited return to the Farm. The electronic producer and EDM figurehead born Sonny Moore last played Bonnaroo in 2014, when he was the curator of a legendary Superjam.

As bass rattled the crowd on Thursday, the air filled with the smell of sweat and marijuana while beach balls and balloons drifted overhead. The performance carried both nostalgia and celebration, creating an experience that united longtime fans and first-time attendees on Bonnaroo’s opening night. Skrillex mixed fan favorites with surprise snippets of songs including “Rush” by Troye Sivan and “Where Are Ü Now,” enticing the audience to sing along at the top of our lungs.

There’s a party vibe around dance music, to be sure, but seasoned entertainer Skrillex prioritized safety: At one point, he halted the pyrotechnics after spotting a fan standing too close to the flames. Later, at least one other fan appeared to collapse, but getting them to safety didn’t cause the show to halt again. 

As the final beats echoed across the field, Skrillex thanked the assembled crowd and told us he loved us before leaving the stage, no doubt ready for some down time before his surprise-announced late-night set, a back-to-back tag-team with ISOKNOCK at The Other. After the chaos of the afternoon and evening, his set was a bright exclamation point that kept totems bobbing and dancing high in the air into the night.

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