The Strokes, Wednesday and More Turn It Up on Bonnaroo Day 2

Morning rain showers caused some apprehension among Bonnaroovians on Friday, but festivalgoers tiptoed, waded and waddled bandy-legged through the freshly drenched mud, eager to get a head start on the day’s shows down on the Farm. Even at the relatively early hour of noon Nashville indie rockers Crumbsnatchers tore up the stage at Plaza 5: Groop, encouraging stragglers to come in and join the party. Lead vocalist “Guetts” Guetterman, dressed in his staple tan overalls and matching sunglasses, serenaded the steady-growing audience with songs like their psychedelic-groove rock anthem “Satin Glow,” tossing broken baguettes — a few pieces of which had containers of Narcan stuffed into the side — into the crowd and slow dancing with a life-size plastic skeleton.

About an hour later, Lambrini Girls took over Which Stage, blasting anti-fascist and revolutionary rhetoric that criticized the U.S. government. “Your government may make you feel small,” said frontwoman Phoebe Lunny, “your government may make you feel like you have no power. But you are the ones with all of the power.” It was a thrilling comeback for the English punks after Lunny took medical leave in the spring due to serious injuries sustained while touring Australia.

The crowd chanted various political phrases on topics including frustrations with ICE deportations, President Trump’s administration and the lack of global attention to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Fans moshed in front of the stage while the band played singles “Craig David” and “God’s Country.” At the end of the set, moshers slid through a mud pit with the band’s adrenaline-inducing guitar riffs and drum rolls as the backing track. 

A packed crowd was waiting to pour into That Tent 10 minutes before Wednesday’s set on Friday afternoon, their first time playing the festival. “Y’all ran up here — scary!” joked singer-songwriter-guitarist Karly Hartzman, wearing a blue trucker hat and holding her signature bedazzled Danelectro guitar. Hartzman has an incredible way of building the energy of a song with her voice: One moment, her lyrics are soft and tender, and the next they’re dissolving into a wordless scream. As the crowd sang along to “Elderberry Wine” and “Bull Believer,” the band left it all on the floor — right between the porcelain dolls, clowns and framed artwork onstage that referenced their 2025 album Bleeds.

Around 4 p.m., a slew of punks huddled under That Tent, ankle-deep in mud and thoroughly psyched for the grunge-y sounds of Australian “shed rockers” The Chats. As lead singer Eamon Sandwith strutted on stage, baby-blue bass in hand and black bandanna tied around his forehead, the crowd was already getting down and dirty, throwing elbows and smashing bodies to the guttural sounds of Sandwith’s vocals. Mud-covered moshers screamed along to fan favorites, including the brash and satirical “6L GTR,” an ode to cars that are cheap and brutally powerful. Sweat-soaked, dirt-covered concertgoers embraced the elements as The Chats raged, with overcast skies and a steady-blowing breeze offering a bit of relief from the heat. (The band would later hightail it to Nashville to play alongside Osees as one of the mystery guests at Snooper’s show outside United Record Pressing.)

English rockers Wet Leg stepped out onto a Which Stage covered in fog and a mighty roar from a growing crowd of onlookers. With her signature pink coif and chrome-white outfit glinting in the sun as it crept toward the horizon, lead singer Rhian Teasdale and the band kept the energy electric for their entire one-hour set. So many songs from the group’s catalog have become fan favorites, but highlights of the set included “Catch These Fists” and “Mangetout” from last year’s Moisturizer as well as “Wet Dream” and their breakthrough single “Chaise Longue” from their eponymous 2022 debut. Teasdale danced and flexed, drawing in the audience by turning the “Excuse me — what?” moment in “Chaise Longue” into an enthusiastic call-and-response.

A short while later at What Stage another Brit, YUNGBLUD, transformed the Manchester night into a riot of sound, fire and attitude. The charismatic 28-year-old from Doncaster, aka Dominic Richard Harrison, emerged from clouds of smoke — generated by both fog machines and cigarettes — dressed in black leather. He took command of the crowd and never let go.

Microphone stands flew, drinks splashed and pyrotechnics erupted as the flamboyant pop-rap-rocker urged fans to climb onto each other's shoulders. The crowd responded instantly, jumping in unison and reaching toward the flames. Amid the chaos, moments of sincerity emerged.

“Tennessee, I think I'm in fucking love,” YUNGBLUD told the crowd before thanking fans “from the bottom of my heart” for attending. He paid tribute to the late, great Ozzy Osbourne with a rendition of “Changes,” accompanied by doves soaring across the giant screens before the set concluded with a newer original, “Zombie.” As the final notes faded, a simple message resonated: “Don't forget to live.”

Avid fans of rapidly rising New York indie-rock four-piece Geese traversed the swampy patches of the field housing both What Stage and That Tent for a tent set that was both poignant and cloaked in ironic nods. In the most New York fashion possible, the set opened with an on-screen montage featuring highlights of the Knicks’ recent successes in the ongoing NBA Finals. The band soon strutted onstage, with lead man Cameron Winter sporting a vintage T-shirt from one of the Clinton-Gore campaigns. As geese-themed (the animal) totems and balloons bobbed in the crowd, the band belted tunes from a range of their discography, including songs from their 2023 rock ’n’ roll-tinged album 3D Country as well their jammy, more tenderhearted 2025 release Getting Killed. The audience sang along to the emotional “Au Pays du Cocaine,” and a bit later Winter shouted out a totem depicting a cauldron full of semen, which prompted the crowd to repeatedly chant “Bowl! Of! Cum!” Welp, that’s “R-Rated Totem” marked off our Bonnaroo Bingo card, sigh. If you know Geese, though, the juxtaposition makes perfect sense. 

Later on the same stage, Blood Orange created a soothing space with a set that showed off Devonté Hynes’ influences from R&B and post-rock. After opening with “Saint,” he surprised the crowd with an electric cello, which he used for a quick cover of The Smiths’ “How Soon Is Now?” Some artists prefer to stick to their most recent records for their ’Roo sets, but Hynes offered songs from throughout his impressive two-decade discography, from crowd favorites like “You’re Not Good Enough” and “Champagne Coast” to sleeper hits like the single “Jesus Freak Lighter.”

The addition of That Tent to the former pasture that’s long been home to What Stage increased foot traffic in the area, which combined with the aforementioned morning rains to turn the whole field into a thick, sticky, stinky soup by nightfall. But thousands still braved it for what you’d probably have to say is Bonnaroo 2026’s sole headlining legacy act, The Strokes. As much as the term “legacy act” might sting for the aging millennials among us, it’s an apt one — The Strokes are a rock band 28 years and more than half a dozen albums deep, miraculously featuring the same lineup they started out with as teenagers in late-’90s New York. Well, pretty much: Guitarist Nick Valensi was absent on Saturday, replaced by Steve Schlitz as Valensi takes a “temporary break” from the band’s tour in support of their upcoming seventh album, Reality Awaits.

The Strokes kicked off at 11 p.m. with a double shot of “Killing Lies” and “Hard to Explain,” the stage lit up like a neon slot machine. Julian Casablancas leaned into his now-familiar onstage candor, pacing the stage and peppering the set with banter and stray observations. Choice selections from throughout the performance included telling us he loves the South (“I’m not just pandering!”), reminding us about the brief fad of NFTs, some light bickering with guitarist Albert Hammond Jr., musing about how they should probably reorder the set list, and thanking the fictitious “Mr. Bonnaroo — Mr. John C. Bonnaroo” for inviting them to play his festival. 

But the songs are the thing, and those came across as tight as ever. Schlitz’s and Hammond’s guitarmonies interlocked behind Casablancas’ vocal melodies and on top of the unbeatable rhythm section of drummer Fabrizio Moretti and stoic bassist Nikolai Fraiture. The leather-vested Casablancas proved he still has his falsetto with 2020’s “Selfless,” and a note-perfect rendition of Is This It’s “The Modern Age” transported us back to 2001. The set peaked with the explosive combination of “Reptilia” and “Last Nite” — the latter, Casablancas admitted, should probably be their closer — before wrapping up with “Ize of the World.”

The band did not, notably, conclude with messages condemning the United States’ military actions in Iran and Gaza, as they did just two months ago at Coachella. They did, however, play for 15 minutes longer than planned, pushing rapper Lil Jon’s set at That Tent to 12:30 a.m. The aging millennials among us didn’t complain.

Meanwhile, over at Which Stage, Baltimore’s buzzy melodic hardcore outfit Turnstile offered their first-ever Bonnaroo performance to a full and vibrating crowd. As expected, they churned up a circle pit down in front with songs like “Dull” and “Real Thing” as the clock ticked past 1 a.m. While Turnstile’s chugging, athletic punk diverges from most of the usual late-night ’Roo fare, frontman Brendan Yates stayed on-theme by issuing positive messages like “Pick your friends up!” and “Is everyone all right? Let’s dance together!” to the moshing masses. Powered by an absolute basher of a drummer — the perpetually shirtless Daniel Fang — tunes like “Holiday" and “Blackout” from 2021’s Glow On are undeniable bangers that got the crowd bobbing in unison.

Back at That Tent, flashing lasers and light-up totems scattered the muddy pit as Lil Jon delivered a genre-spanning show. The Atlanta-based MC began the set with his high-energy LMFAO collab “Shots” and worked the crowd hard, jumping and dancing his way around every inch of the stage.

Songs on the club-inspired set list ranged from the party anthems you’ve come to expect from the King of Crunk (another LMFAO collab, “Drink”) to rock classics like Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer,” to beltable sing-alongs like Neil Diamond’s immortal “Sweet Caroline.” Lil Jon brought out songs every music fan knows, and brought the performance home with his club classics “Get Low” and “Turn Down for What.” He jumped on top of his DJ table one last time, commanding the crowd to “turn it up.” They did just that, capping off the night with a conga line that refused to be slowed down by the muck.

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• Stephen Trageser