The post Inside Bonnaroo’s 2025 Lineup with Festival Director Brad Parker appeared first on Consequence.
Olivia Rodrigo. Megadeth. Luke Combs. Insane Clown Posse. What do these very different artists have in common? They’re all on the bill for Bonnaroo 2025, as it was officially revealed on Wednesday.
The big Manchester, Tennessee festival goes down from June 12th-15th, and this year’s lineup is as eclectic as ever. Tyler, the Creator and Hozier join Rodrigo and Combs atop the bill, with Queens of the Stone Age, Avril Lavigne, Justice, Vampire Weekend, and Glass Animals also set to play. Plus, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard will perform the first ever “Roo Residency” with three unique sets across three days, Remi Wolf will curate a Superjam with a “’70s Pool Party” theme, and the brand new 360-degree “Infinity Stage” will be mounted on the farm.
It may seem strange to see Luke Combs and Insane Clown Posse next to each other on a festival poster, but Bonnaroo remains proud of their “something for everyone” approach. For Brad Parker, Bonnaroo’s festival director and a part of C3 Presents (the concert promotion and event production company behind Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits), the lineup’s overall diversity is a big part of the challenge.
“Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, ACL… these guys have been around forever, and they do have to find ways to reinvent themselves,” Parker tells Consequence. “Ultimately, there is still a place for multi-genre festivals, but they have to be at scale. If you can have 70 bands play a day at your festival, you’ve got enough there that you can offer different kinds of fans with different tastes enough to get them to buy a ticket.”
This attitude epitomizes Bonnaroo’s 2025 lineup, which seeks to bridge gaps both generationally and in genre. “Bonnaroo is in a unique position — this is our 22nd festival, and not many events are able to live long enough to where they successfully cycle through a generation of fans,” says Parker. “ The fans that got us through the first 20 years of Bonnaroo are not going to be the same fans that get us through the next 20 years. So how can we start fostering and cultivating a new younger fan that’s going to be excited about coming to the show while also catering still to those loyal OGs that want to stick around and still come out and have fun?”
That question guided Parker and his team as they constructed this year’s bill, which seeks to honor the festival’s jam band past and electronic-centric ethos, its original fans and its new class of festival goers. The market for festivals may be more volatile than in prior years, and it’s a challenge for any event to come up with a fresh and authentic selection of acts. So, how did Bonnaroo’s organizers do it, and what can attendees expect for the 2025 edition? Read on for our Q&A with Brad Parker to find out.
Tickets to Bonnaroo 2025 go on sale Thursday, January 9th at 10:00 a.m. CT The guaranteed lowest-priced tickets will be available during the first hour of the on-sale. Fans will also have the option to purchase tickets with a payment plan.
Bonnaroo 2025 Interview Lineup Reaction Booking C3 Brad Parker
Let’s start by discussing some of Bonnaroo’s new features in store for 2025. There’s the brand new Infinity Stage, which boasts “the world’s largest 360-degree spatial audio experience.” How will the Infinity Stage add to the Bonnaroo experience?
That’s a great question, and it’s something our team is really excited about. We’ve partnered with a company called Polygon Productions. They’re based in the UK and have been pioneering advancements in 3D spatial audio. You’ll hear terms like spatial audio, 3D audio, or 360 audio thrown around a lot, but it’s important to clarify what this actually means.
There’s been some confusion, which makes sense… it’s a tough thing to market and explain since it’s such a new concept. In this case, 360 doesn’t refer to a stage in the middle with fans standing in a circle around it. Instead, it means the audio is coming at you from every angle. At a traditional show, the sound typically comes from the stage in front of you. With 3D spatial audio, it surrounds you completely, creating a much more immersive experience.
There’s actually a fantastic two-minute video on the Polygon Productions YouTube channel that explains 3D sound way better than I ever could. I’ve been sharing it with people and saying, ‘Let these experts break it down for you,’ because they really nail it. Essentially, what Polygon is doing for spatial audio is similar to what the Sphere is doing for visuals: It’s completely redefining how we experience music.
We’re super excited to work with them. The lineup for the 3D spatial audio stage will be entirely separate from the main lineup. That new lineup will roll out over the next couple of months as we finalize everything. The stage will be located in Centeroo, but we can’t reveal the exact location on the grounds yet, and it will not replace an existing stage. What’s really groundbreaking is that spatial audio on this scale has never been presented before. Even at smaller scales, Polygon has done incredible work — they’ve showcased this technology in Saudi Arabia and Thailand over the past two years. Bonnaroo 2025 will mark its first appearance in North America, which is so exciting for us.
We’ve got King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard doing a three-day “Roo Residency”. We saw a similar kind of “featured artist” route last year with Pretty Lights, but this is the first time someone is billed as having a “Roo Residency.” What can we expect from this, and will there be more in the future?
We’ve been toying with the idea of a residency for a while, but we wanted to make sure that whatever we presented as our first official residency felt true to the concept of having three distinct performances across multiple stages and multiple days. King Gizzard have obviously been on an incredible run over the past three years, and their last performance at Bonnaroo was a massive hit. And with such an eclectic catalog, they were the ideal band to approach for something as unique as a residency. When we pitched the idea to their team, they were just as excited as we were.
I don’t want to give away too much — I want to save some surprises for Christmas morning — but as a King Gizzard fan, you can expect three very unique and different performances from them across the weekend.
Every year, Bonnaroo seeks to go above and beyond with their annual SuperJam. But the SuperJam curator feels like the toughest act to book, because there are so many options. What made Remi Wolf the ideal fit this year?
This year’s lineup is one of the younger ones we’ve booked, and SuperJam is all about the spirit of collaboration. Remi Wolf is an artist who’s not only extremely topical with the new Bonnaroo fan but also connects with a lot of the fandoms of the other bands we’ve booked this year. Once we narrowed down a shortlist, we said, “If Remi Wolf is open to this idea, she’s a great target to try to put this together.”
SuperJam is something that’s really important to us. We’ve had iconic SuperJams in the past — D’Angelo, Skrillex, and so many others — and when we approached Remi about it, it became clear right away that she’s very well-connected to other artists and musicians in her space. That’s a key element of a great SuperJam because, unlike a normal festival performance, it requires weeks or even months of pre-planning, rehearsals, and pulling everything together with the other artists who’ll be performing.
She just seemed like the obvious pick for this year. We also make an effort to keep the SuperJam fresh thematically, so it doesn’t follow the same ethos every year. Remi brings us into a space we haven’t explored yet with the SuperJam, and that’s going to be a lot of fun.
So this ’70s Pool Party theme… was that all her idea or a suggestion from your team or the organizers?
I think it’s fair to characterize it as a little bit of both. We’ll go to them and say, “Hey, here are some ideas we have. We’d love to hear your ideas, too.” Most of the time, it ends up being a hybrid — a mix of something we’ve come up with and something they’ve brought to the table. Once we flesh the idea out a bit more, it becomes very clear what it should be.
For this, she wanted to bring an up-tempo vibe with sing-along anthems that people know and love, songs that might spark a bit of nostalgia, whether from their own childhoods or from what their parents listened to. That’s where the ’70s theme came from. And the pool party? That’s all about just having some fun.
Olivia Rodrigo is an exciting addition, one of the few pop superstars to appear on a festival lineup. She’s also the youngest headliner in Bonnaroo history. What’s it like these days trying to book superstars like her?
It’s tough, because artists at that level don’t really need festivals like Bonnaroo, you know? They have their own businesses. So, for us, it’s about presenting Bonnaroo as both a contemporary and a legacy festival that’s a great addition to their résumé, and the question then becomes: What do we need to figure out to make it work?
Olivia is obviously a powerhouse in her space: a strong, influential female artist. Diversity is really important to us, so having a female headliner, and actually two female headliners on the same day with her and Avril Lavigne, is something we’re really excited about.
I think over the next couple of years, you’re going to start noticing a new class of major festival headliners emerging. Things have gotten a little stale at the top, and that happens sometimes in our business. To stay fresh and keep things moving forward, we’ll need to take some risks. Not that Olivia is a risk — she’s not — but by putting artists at the top of the lineup who maybe haven’t headlined before, we’re shaking things up. And yeah, fans are going to have reactions to that, but it’s what we’ve got to do to stay fresh and keep the ball moving down the field.
Tyler, Olivia, and Hozier are great examples of this. Tyler’s been around for a long time, sure, but Olivia is out here selling out arenas on her own. She doesn’t need to do festivals and hasn’t really been part of the festival circuit before. So we’re thrilled to have her on Saturday and to welcome a new fan base that might not have experienced Bonnaroo yet. The hope is they come out, have a great time, and become part of the Bonnaroo family, coming back year after year.
It’s interesting that you mentioned this year as having one of the “youngest” Bonnaroo lineups in recent years, because there’s actually quite a lot for the millennial crowd: Natasha Bedingfield, Avril Lavigne, Aly & AJ, Queens of the Stone Age, etc… artists that really bridge the gap between Olivia Rodrigo and Remi Wolf. What has your attitude been towards these throwback bookings in recent years, and how does Bonnaroo accommodate the culture’s current demand for nostalgia?
Bonnaroo is in a really unique position. This is our 22nd festival, right? Not many festivals survive long enough to successfully cycle through a whole generation of fans, but that’s exactly where Bonnaroo is now. I talk about this a lot in interviews: the fans who got us through the first 20 years of Bonnaroo aren’t going to be the same fans who get us through the next 20. So, how do we start fostering and cultivating a younger fanbase that’s excited to come to the show, while still catering to the loyal OGs who want to stick around and keep having fun?
That’s what you’re seeing with this year’s lineup, putting a band like Queens of the Stone Age next to an act like Olivia Rodrigo. They obviously have separate fanbases from a generational perspective, but sonically, there are ways to bridge the gap. And hopefully, we’re also introducing some of our younger fans to acts their older cousins or even their parents grew up listening to. For example, a band like Megadeth: They’re an iconic metal band, but let’s be honest, no Olivia Rodrigo fan grew up listening to Megadeth. Still, putting them on the same lineup creates this interesting mix where everyone might discover something new.
We always try to present a well-rounded lineup, not just sonically, but also in terms of the fans we’re appealing to. It’s always going to be important for us to bring that next generation down to the farm. That means booking younger, up-and-coming acts. Take Olivia, she’s 21 years old and she’s already skyrocketed into being a powerhouse pop star. For us to have her at Bonnaroo this year is kind of crazy, but it’s exactly the kind of move we need to make to keep evolving.
That brings me to my next question: Insane Clown Posse is on the lineup this year. They have a very strong flavor that some people like and some don’t. How do you feel that they fit into the culture of Bonnaroo? Especially given the festival’s proclivity for booking a handful of heavy music acts each year (like Megadeth) and honoring some of those heavy subcultures?
People were really excited about the ICP booking on social media, and here’s what I’ll say: The fun thing about Bonnaroo as a brand is that we don’t fit into any box. That gives us the freedom to get quirky and weird whenever we want to. Insane Clown Posse, to me, is one of those bookings we make every year that appeals to a very niche subculture. But for us, it’s also an opportunity to give our fans something that challenges them — to step out of their comfort zone in a space where they feel safe.
My hope isn’t necessarily that we’re going to get a ton of ICP fans who wouldn’t otherwise come to Bonnaroo, but if they do show up, that’s amazing. What I really hope for is that people who are already coming to the show will trust us and say, “Hey, if they’re booking this, it’s at least worth checking out once in my lifetime.” Like, GWAR last year was a great example of this idea working. Every year, we’ll have something a little bit of a novelty, a booking that might not seem to fit with the rest of the lineup, but that’s completely intentional on our part. We love having stuff like that.
For example, Megadeth are part of the strong subculture of metal fans at Bonnaroo. The challenge with metal is that so many of the big bands are in Europe in June for festivals there. So it’s always a challenge to find bands that are available or willing to fly back from Europe to play. But we’ve had some great ones over the years — Slayer, Lamb of God — and this year, we felt Megadeth was a great fit to check that box for our metal fans.
Speaking of, how was this year’s booking environment compared to other years?
I think in general, coming out of COVID, so many artists were touring, and then in 2023 and 2024, we saw people take their foot off the gas and take a little breather. Now, in 2025, I think you’re going to see more tours hitting the road than ever before. It’s a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, it’s great for us because it gives us a lot of variety to make our lineup stand out from other festivals. On the other, it means fans will have more chances to see some of these acts at their own shows if they want to.
Exclusivity is something that matters to us. If we can say, “Hey, you’re not going to be able to see Fred again.. on tour, you need to come see him at Bonnaroo,” that’s great for us. 2025 is one of those years where everything’s firing on all cylinders and everybody wants to be out on tour, so we had a lot to pick from. I think we did a great job offering something well-rounded that has a little bit for everyone.
Another thing we haven’t talked about yet is that we’re continuing to invest more in the electronic world. As much as some of our OG fans hate the idea, the electronic underground scene and subculture right now is what the jam band scene was when this festival started. It’s a bit of a changing of the guard there, but you’ll continue to see us get more experimental in the electronic space.
Bonnaroo’s multi-genre approach comes at a time when the overall festival market is more in flux than ever. We’ve seen several smaller festivals opt not to hold events in 2025, while other festivals have struggled to move tickets. Several have abandoned a multi-genre approach in favor of capturing once specific scene or sub-culture, or gone full-send on the nostalgia angle. How do you see Bonnaroo fitting within this, especially given the “something for everyone” attitude?
C3 produces a ton of different events of all shapes and sizes. I work on shows that range from 15,000 people a day to 100,000 people a day. What you’re asking is interesting because what we’re seeing is that smaller shows are becoming more successful when they’re narrowly programmed and cater to a very specific fan. You know, you’ll see shows like Railbird in Lexington, Kentucky, where you’ve got Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan — it’s catering to a very specific crowd, right? And that show has been extremely successful.
Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, ACL… these festivals have been around for a long time. They do have to find ways to reinvent themselves to stay competitive, but ultimately, there is still a place for multi-genre festivals. But it has to be at scale. You can’t try to be multi-genre if you’re only offering 15 or 20 bands a day. But if you have 70 bands playing a day, you’ve got enough variety to offer different kinds of fans with different tastes enough to get them to buy a ticket. If you’re only offering, let’s say, two electronic acts and five rock bands, you’ll probably get the rock guy to buy a ticket, but you’re not going to get the EDM guy to buy a ticket.
Overall, I think live music right now is still extremely healthy. There’s a lot of press out there that I feel is an unfair characterization of the overall health of live music. Touring is still alive and well, and the festival landscape is extremely competitive. But competition is great — it can drive innovation. That’s what drives things like the Infinity Stage for us.
Ultimately, it’s going to be up to these promoters to focus on whether they understand the audience they’re trying to sell to, and whether they’re programming for that audience. For a while, the demand for live music was so high that people just booked the bands selling the most tickets, thinking that would guarantee success. But now, with all the competition and noise, you can’t just rely on that. You need a bit more strategy behind it.
So, the TLDR of the question is: The festival space is extremely healthy right now. The big guys are going to have to do something different to stay in their lane, and the small guys are going to have to be a bit more narrow, finding a really unique audience to over-serve. Both of those can be successful together if they point their compass in the right direction and stay on course.
That’s fascinating, because in this day and age, it often seems like more artists are saying no to festivals like Bonnaroo more regularly than they would have 10 years ago, and a lot of signs are pointing towards decreased demand on both the artist and fan sides. But perhaps it’s that a new class of artists are more willing to play festivals these days than others. Do you feel like artists are more inclined to reject festival offers right now?
I think a lot of that fatigue from the artist side comes from being pigeonholed. If I’m Hozier, and every festival offer I’m getting is just another show with Noah Kahan on it, you might get tired of thinking, “Is this the only box you’re putting me in? Is the only show that I’m worth booking for also one that has Noah Kahan?”
And those two are amazing artists, but it’s the promoter getting lazy and saying, “Oh, Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan are hot right now. Let’s just book them.” So I think big shows like Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza can be appealing for acts that are that large because there’s not many days you’ll see Luke Combs have the opportunity to be on a bill next to Tyler, the Creator. So those are the unique, contemporary looks that some artists are looking for, not just being on a bunch of posters with artists that are exactly like themselves.
Which booking are you personally the most excited about this year?
This one might shock you, but I’m really excited. I’ve seen a lot of comments already — not negative, just observations — about the presence of country music at Bonnaroo. Luke Combs is headlining on Thursday. Obviously, Luke is commercially one of the biggest artists in the world. He sells out football stadiums in Australia and 80,000 tickets in the U.S. in any market he goes to. And people will often question the presence of more mainstream country music at Bonnaroo. When it’s been something like Sturgill Simpson, it feels a little more organic to the brand.
But I’m excited for people to see Luke Combs this year. The Bonnaroo name comes from a French Creole word meaning ‘the best in the streets.’ And no one can deny that country music is at its peak right now. You have artists from other genres — Beyoncé, Post Malone — crossing over to put out albums in country because of the scale that genre is at. So, I really want people to be open-minded and check out Luke Combs and acts like The Red Clay Strays. It might be a bit out of their usual country lane, a little more mainstream than what they’re used to, but these are phenomenal live shows with incredible musicianship.
If I were to point out just one performance — oddly enough, of all the great things we have with Justice and Tipper, which will be phenomenal —I’ve got to shout out Luke Combs. It might seem crazy, but I’m going to do it.
Inside Bonnaroo’s 2025 Lineup with Festival Director Brad Parker
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