Rain delays put a damper on Friday’s festivities at Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, forcing many to take shelter in cars, tents and campers for hours before organizers canceled the remainder of the four-day festival.
“Don’t have a vehicle? Find a friend,” Bonnaroo said in an Instagram post.
Despite canceled acts and flooded grounds, spirits for many remained high for the festival in Manchester, Tennessee.
“It’s weird how [thousands of] people can move in [and make a] community [with] no rules, except for the Bonnaroo code,” said Harlee Pope, a returning festivalgoer.
Prepare thyself, play as a team and radiate positivity is the code mentioned by Pope that Bonnaroovians remember through rained-out shows and flooded fields.
Some attendees believe rainy, imperfect days play an important part in the festival experience; they give festivalgoers the chance to form a community, bonding through unexpected storms.
“It honestly makes people grow closer. So people are meeting new friends right now,” Pope said. “There’s still so much to do.”
Centeroo, the main festival grounds, closed for much of the afternoon and early evening, leaving campers to deal with soggy tents and faulty shelters at the campgrounds, called Outeroo. So, as they waited out the storm, Bonnaroovians found creative ways to fill time.
While some met new friends, others played frisbee or created pop-up slip-n-slides through the muddy campgrounds.
“It’s great spirits,” said Lenny Walls, a returning festival-goer. “People are walking around with bags of wine.”
But unhappy campers also had to wait out the rain, and some left the festival.
“A lot of people are leaving. A bunch of my near campmates are leaving right when the rain stops,” said Ethan Madachik, a three-time Bonnaroo attendee.
Friday’s storm brought Madachik’s camp soggy carpets and broken canopies. Still, he and his friends persevere in hopes of catching more of the festival.
“The people who do stay [make a] closer sense of community and [have] a general helping hand that’s always reaching out,” Madachik said.
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