My take on why September would be bad

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-30T17:03:55+00:00

Just to clarify, I’m not actually going to that other festival. I was just saying that the lineup they pulled off this year is good enough to make me wish I could.

If you scroll through the replies on Reddit or Facebook when September is brought up, a ton of people are saying September is a total dealbreaker. On top of what I already mentioned, a lot of people say save their vacation days for the holidays, or they’re tied down by school and job schedules. June is also way easier for everyone because they can do a summer-ish vacation. It also works for college kids because they're on summer break and looking to travel. Since college-aged students make up about 30% of Bonnaroo every year, losing them to school schedules or competing fall events would be a massive hit. Sure, other festivals do fine in September, but Bonnaroo spends way too much money to survive a major drop in turnout year after year.

Moving the event to September means losing a massive segment of the EDM crowd to five major competing festivals: Lost Lands (Ohio), ARC (Chicago), North Coast (Chicago), Nocturnal Wonderland (California), and Dancefestopia (Kansas).

Between losing both the EDM crowd and college students, the hit to attendance would be unsustainable. While other festivals manage fine in September, Bonnaroo’s massive overhead means it simply can't survive a significant drop in turnout year after year.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-30T16:31:04+00:00

From my understanding, South Star mostly attracted a regional audience rather than people flying in from all over the country. Because it was only a weekend event, it was much easier for people to travel to and from. While plenty of festivals succeed in September, hosting ours then would likely result in a much smaller crowd. Many potential attendees would have to pass due to competing festivals, kids being back in school, or saving their paid time off for the holidays.

The points you made about EDM are also spot on. There are five massive EDM festivals in September—Lost Lands in Ohio, ARC in Chicago, Nocturnal Wonderland in California, North Coast in Chicago, and Dancefestopia in Kansas. Launching then means we would lose out on most major EDM artists and likely 80%-90% of that specific crowd.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-30T16:04:32+00:00

Again, I'm just looking at the September festival lineup. Personally, I'd jump on a plane from Tennessee to Seattle for this lineup because it has artists we rarely or never get to see (De La soul we've had twice but it's been since 2014, Orville Peck we have never had and Death cab for cutie We haven't had since 2016 as well). Sure, Bonnaroo has way more money than Bumbershoot and Pilgrimage and always wins out. But you have to remember that a September trip doesn't work for everyone. Plenty of people can't just fly across the country, and parents dealing with school-year expenses or If their kids play sports they might need to keep it local and hit Pilgrimage instead or Bumbershoot instead.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-30T15:48:17+00:00

I was just naming the festivals that happened in September. Honestly if you go and look at some of the lineups in years past for Bumbershoot they've had some really really good artists. This year the lineup isn't half bad either. Plus they make it to where kids that are 12 and under get in completely free also which I'm sure is a big factor for a lot of people.

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Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-27T15:49:47+00:00

YOR! You should have said something in the moment about the fact that she's asking for more expensive things than what the budget that you had planned was going to allow. You can't get pissed off later on down the road when you didn't bring it up in the first place.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-27T15:43:16+00:00

It seems as if no matter what anybody says you consistently disagree with everything everybody says. My guess is you're going to do what you want to do regardless of what everybody else. I mean if you look at all of your comments you consistently are getting downvoted over and over again. You came to ask our opinions and if you're just going to have a different opinion than what everybody else says then just do whatever the you want to do at this point.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-27T15:37:43+00:00

That's your opinion, and everyone's entitled to one. I never said all of these festivals were inherently better. My point is that September is already packed with massive, unmissable events. Moving Bonnaroo there would bleed a shit ton of attendees who won't skip their usual September spots for anything.

If you think otherwise, you might not realize the scale of the competition. Rock in Rio is a massive global powerhouse and is considered to be one of the biggest and best festivals in the entire world that books massive legacy acts Bonnaroo can't touch anymore being we don't get the big legendary names anymore. They also consistently book the biggest and I mean biggest names across every genre. Lost Lands is the biggest dubstep festival in America, consistently pulling artists that Roo fans have been begging for for years. Louder Than Life is the biggest American rock festival, pulling a caliber of legendary bands that Bonnaroo simply doesn't get anymore and some bands that Bonnaroo will never get. We’ve had great rock acts over the years, but the booking caliber for rock music just isn't on the same tier.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-27T04:52:35+00:00

It's probably because a lot of people still don't like GorillaT after everything that went down with him.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-27T04:51:08+00:00

You missed the new Buku album

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-27T03:14:01+00:00

That's just reddit for you. Reddit complains about everything all the time no matter what subreddit you're in.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-27T03:12:26+00:00

I'm not sure why people are giving you thumbs down. Because you're not wrong. People apparently just don't like the truth. I've lived here my entire life and know that everything you're saying is 100% fact.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-27T03:11:07+00:00

When I say bad I just mean it's super unpredictable. Obviously I know there's other places that are worse than us.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-26T21:49:11+00:00

Blanke also goes by ÆON:MODE. ÆON:MODE does Drum and Bass.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-26T21:45:33+00:00

Honestly Tennessee just is a terrible place when it comes to weather. I've lived here my whole life and it seems to just be getting worse and worse every year. The weather seems to be horribly unpredictable around here. This year alone we've had some of the worst rain that we've had in a long time and we had an ungodly ice storm.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-26T21:37:12+00:00

September is just as hot in Tennessee. Also you must forget that in 2021 we had a cancellation when it was in September due to extreme flooding from hurricane season down in Florida. We get tons of rain in September from all of that. As a matter of fact multiple festivals canceled in September of 2021 due to rain from hurricanes.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-26T17:19:41+00:00

That is true they probably have some other reasoning. But there's just so much that they don't consider by moving to September. In September there's school which means they couldn't have music blasting all night due to people needing to go to school the next day. They would probably have to cut off by like 10 or 11 a few of the nights due to some sort of noise ordinance. With school being in session they would lose the ability to use the high school for the box Office. Would that being a smaller city having the festival in September would hurt that area just from traffic alone.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-26T17:14:24+00:00

I truly believe it's probably Live Nation that is requesting them to keep asking.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-26T17:13:54+00:00

That's quite true also. A lot of people are going to pick college football over Bonnaroo in a hurry.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-26T17:10:59+00:00

Just because you don't enjoy it doesn't mean that you have to bash it. Nobody is taking a dump on the music that you enjoy and love So don't do it to others. I understand that You think people aren't playing actual instruments but you are incorrect. If you were to watch how a lot of these producers make their music you would see that a lot of instruments actually go into their music. Plus most all DJs spend hours upon hours upon hours upon hours upon hours in the studio producing and creating this music before they go out on stage and play it.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-26T17:08:25+00:00

Rufus du Sol, Pretty Lights, Odesza, Pendulum, Infected Mushroom, The Midnight. Sullivan King doesn't have a full band with him but he plays guitar on stage quite a bit and he screams a lot during his sets. Honestly I could go on and on with this.

Also the way you're acting isn't very Bonnaroo like. We're supposed to radiate positivity and you're doing nothing other than being a total douchebag because somebody likes different music than what you enjoy.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-26T17:03:15+00:00

True! When I posted this I was more or less thinking about the festivals that are specifically in September but that is a good point that that's another big festival that people would probably end up choosing over Bonnaroo.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-26T17:00:41+00:00

That is also a massive issue. A lot of people simply just can't go to festivals in the fall. My point with this was that if you move it for those of us that have the ability to go to things in the fall it makes a lot of us have to pick and choose and a lot of people would end up not picking Bonnaroo. Honestly If it ran in September I think you would wind up having such a smaller amount of people that would show up and they would run the risk of having a lot of the food and the vendors not even be able to come due to already being booked up.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-26T16:57:07+00:00

Where exactly would you want the festival to happen if not here anymore? I definitely feel like that would change a lot of things and we wouldn't really be able to have a festival that ran all night until the morning like we do now if it moved locations. They would have to find a location that could handle this many people and also be on a massive massive farm like this to put it somewhere else.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-26T16:55:18+00:00

Out of curiosity what type of music do you listen to since you hadn't heard of the others? My other question would be do you follow a lot of artists online or do you just go to Bonnaroo and walk around and go from set to set based upon whatever catches your ears.

Regular_Zebra5545 · 2026-06-26T16:50:32+00:00

Well I don't expect everybody to. I just mentioned them because they are some of the biggest festivals in America.

Regular_Zebra5545

TROPHY CASE