Bonnaroo 2017
Festival guide
As if securing two of the world’s biggest rock bands as headliners wasn’t enough of a coup, Bonnaroo have managed to deliver an entire bill packed with talent. We’ve looked beyond U2 and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to highlight some potential highlights of this year’s festival, which takes place from 8 to 11 June in Manchester, Tennessee. From D.R.A.M. to Margo Price, see our pick of the line-up below.
Top picks
D.R.A.M.
If anyone’s capable of getting the crowd bouncing this weekend it’s D.R.A.M. Offering a joyous fusion of skewed soul, weirdo-pop and trap, his beatific debut album Big Baby D.R.A.M. would have been the undisputed soundtrack to last summer, had it not arrived in October. Friday evening at Bonnaroo will be one of the first opportunities the Virginian rapper’s had to play “Cash Machine”, “Broccoli” and the rest before a US festival crowd. You’d be mad to miss it.
The xx
While The xx have always been spellbinding live you’d probably have struggled to describe them as uplifting previously. That’s all changed with the release of their third LP, which finds Jamie xx taking the lead creatively. Though they’ve managed to retain the crepuscular feel for which they were first famed, I See You is the South London trio’s most extroverted collection to date - capable of moving listeners emotionally and physically - and therefore perfect for festival season.
Margo Price
Offering welcome respite from the sanitized, chart-friendly country music that’s become ubiquitous in recent years, Margo Price channels her own colorful past with remarkable candour. Hedonism, emotional trauma, uncertainty: very little is off limits on last LP Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, which was released via Jack White’s Third Man imprint, and named one of Rolling Stone’s albums of 2016. Don’t miss your chance to hear her Loretta Lynn-esque vocals in the flesh.
Big names
Don't miss
More from the line-up
- It’s good to feel like you’re ahead of the game a little bit.
- I’ve learned to open up a lot. There are so many things bottled-up inside of me...
- We don’t write b-sides; it’s all solid gold. It’s like, why write a song if it’s no good?
- When I listen to the record now, I hear that bond – that collaboration – and that level of creativity.
- I was scared; I didn’t want people to be able to see into my soul.
- We hung out with Jimmy Page in our dressing room, and grilled him about Led Zeppelin.