Look, there’s no way to sugarcoat it. Being one year into the COVID-19 pandemic fucking sucks. But with the vaccine rollout gaining speed throughout the country, we’re starting to feel a tiny bit hopeful that maybe, just maybe, we’ll be able to have a semblance of normal life by the end of 2021. But some are perhaps too ambitiously optimistic. At the beginning of the month, San Francisco-based music festival Outside Lands announced that it’s returning in October. Now other big fests are following suit. Delaware’s Firefly announced on Tuesday that its next edition will run September 23 through 26; today, Bonnaroo declared that it’d be back even sooner: September 2 through the 5th.
Firefly hasn’t announced a lineup, but we can likely expect a similar one to what attendees were supposed to get in 2020, which included Rage Against The Machine, Billie Eilish, Blink-182, and more. Meanwhile, Bonnaroo’s lineup is stacked and very exciting: Megan Thee Stallion, Phoebe Bridgers, Foo Fighters, Lana Del Rey, Run The Jewels, Lizzo, Tame Impala, Tyler The Creator, Brittany Howard, Julien Baker, and plenty of other acts to potentially celebrate returning to normalcy.
These aren’t the only music festivals ambitiously eyeing September dates. New York’s Governors Ball announced back in January that it’s aiming for the same weekend as Firefly. Kentucky’s Louder Than Life and Las Vegas’ Life Is Beautiful are also set for September.
There’s a chance these dates will have to change once again if conditions don’t improve, but moving major festivals to September is a great idea for post-pandemic times. It’s warm but not too warm, and you’ll be around fewer high schoolers.
Check out the full lineup for Bonnaroo below:
Thursday, September 2:
Grand Ole Opry Featuring Special Guests
99 Neighbors
Andy Frasco