Bonnaroo, a four-day music and arts festival that’s been held in Tennessee since 2002, announced a day after it started that it would be shutting down due to severe weather.
The iconic festival, initially scheduled for June 12-15, gave notice to attendees on June 13 that the remaining days were canceled.
Charleston funk rock act The Psycodelics were scheduled to play Bonnaroo’s Who Stage at 6:15 p.m. on June 14, but unfortunately the performance didn’t pan out.
A six-piece Charleston funk band is the subject of a new documentary “The Psycodelics The Movie” by local filmmaker Cory Schwartz of The Grilled Cheese Show. The band was set to play Bonnaroo on June 14 before the festival was canceled due to severe weather.
The notice posted on the festival website and social media expressed regret and asked for patience.
“Today the national weather service provided us with an updated forecast with significant and steady precipitation that will produce deteriorating camping and egress conditions in the coming days,” the website notice read. “We are beyond gutted, but we must make the safest decision and cancel the remainder of Bonnaroo.”
The notice included information on how best to exit and details on refunds. Attendees were refunded all single-day tickets for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, as well as partially for four-day passes.
The closing remarks read: “We have put our heart and souls into making this week the most special in the year and cannot express how crushed we are to have to make this decision. Thank you in advance for your patience, your positivity and your unfailing Bonnaroovian spirit.”
Heavy rains from Hurricane Ida in 2021 led to the festival’s first cancellation due to severe weather since its inaugural run in 2002. Additionally, it was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic.
The Psycodelics are a Charleston-born six-piece slinging Black American music. The act formed in 2019 and just released their debut album “Please Keep Off the Grass” in April of this year.
The band was featured in a documentary, “The Pyscodelics The Movie,” produced by Charleston filmmaker Cory Schwartz, which premiered in September 2024 at the Terrace Theater on James Island.
The band reposted the festival cancellation notice to their Instagram page. They didn’t immediately respond to The Post and Courier’s request to comment.
Other Charleston music acts have played Bonnaroo over the years, including electro-rock band Stop Light Observations in 2013 and folk rock duo Shovels & Rope in 2019.
The husband-wife team behind Shovels & Rope, Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent, are the founders of High Water Festival, which has been held in Riverfront Park in North Charleston since 2017.
Hearst and Trent ended their partnership with the High Water Festival in May 2024 after the three-day event had issues with liquor permitting, parking, traffic and weather. The festival was held for the first time without its affiliation with Shovels & Rope in April of this year.
High Water Festival’s management company, C3 Presents, co-produces High Water Festival and Bonnaroo.
