Since its debut on a rural Tennessee farm two decades ago, the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival strived to be one of the country’s greenest music festivals, investing in recycling, composting, solar energy and other improvements.
But last August Tennessee received the highest 24-hour rainfall ever recorded in a non-coastal state, resulting in deadly flash flooding that killed 20 people. Additional rains leftover from Hurricane Ida dumped more water on the area in subsequent days. The Bonnaroo campgrounds were waterlogged and roads impassable, forcing organizers to cancel.
