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As the gates opened for attendees for this year’s Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, organizers announced it had sold out Thursday which was on full display from the crowds congregating The Farm throughout the weekend.

While there was a brief pause in festivities due to storms, causing Centeroo, gates and tollbooths to temporarily close, Bonnaroo had liftoff Thursday with headlining performances from Zeds Dead and Liquid Stranger, along with other sets from 070 Shake, Big Freedia, Briscoe, Celisse, CVC, Daily Bread, Diarrhea Planet, Elephant Heart, Neighbor, Suki Waterhouse and more. Also kicking off Thursday was the numerous calls to 911. According to a statement from the Manchester Police Department, they had responded to multiple accidental 911 calls on the festival grounds, noting that the calls were more likely a result of the “Crash Detection Mode”, a feature on the Apple iPhone 14 models. Officials asked attendees to “Please be mindful and consider deactivating this feature on your phone until Bonnaroo concludes.”

The wave of crowds, positivity and hot temperatures continued to Friday with highlights from AFI, Baby Keem, GRiZ, Portugal. The Man, Three 6 Mafia, who brought out special guest rapper-turned-country artist Jelly Roll, Fleet Foxes, DJ Diesel and Knocked Loose.

Friday’s headliner Kendrick Lamar took The What Stage at around 11 p.m., backed by a small group of dancers performing choreographed sequences throughout the evening. After a long, packed hot day for festival goers, Lamar brought some energy out of the crowd with hits like “King Kunta,” “Humble,” and “alright”. As the clock struck midnight, attendees wished and sang “happy birthday” to Lamar, which he thanked them for the love. Yet, shortly after a few more songs, including a guest appearance from rapper Baby Keem, Lamar ended his set 15 minutes early and said he appreciated everyone who attended.

Saturday continued to radiate positive vibes throughout the day with electrifying performances by Lil Nas X, GRiZ’s “Chasing the Golden Hour,” The Band Camino, Cory Wong’s Syncopated Superjam, Danielle Ponder and Remi Wolf.

Also performing this year was Sheryl Crow, who will be inducted in this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, talked with the crowd in between songs and shared that this year was her favorite time of the year, as well as using her platform to speak about transgender rights and mental health, where the latter she dedicated “Cross Creek Road” to those in attendance who were “struggling with their low lows” just like she had done in her career.

“Sometime you’re just born with melancholy,” Crow said to the crowd at the What Stage. “I was.”

Tyler Childers made his return to Bonnaroo later that evening and captivated festival goers from the Which Stage alongside his backing band, which included the debut of a new song. He also shared his appreciation to everyone who made the stop at the Which Stage to see him.

“I appreciate y’all hanging out here,” Childers said. “I know there’s a thousand things that you could be doing, and this is the one place you chose to be in the moment.”

The evening closed out with Saturday’s headliner ODESZA drawing a large audience as the electronic duo lit up The Farm with their set up and performance, concluding their show with a light show of fireworks. The waves of positivity kept on going to sunrise from performances like KoRN, My Morning Jacket and STS9.

While the chances of storms returned Sunday, it did not put a damper on festivities with performances from Marcus Mumford, of Mumford and Sons, The Revivalists, Pixies, Umphrey’s McGee, Franz Ferdinand, Kip Moore and Paris Jackson. Paramore took the main stage at sunset for their return to the festival since 2018, which Hayley Williams thanked the crowd throughout their set.

“We’re right here in our backyard, thank you Tennessee,” said Hayley Williams, frontwoman of Paramore. “Last time we played here was one of the most memorable shows we’ve ever had.”

As the band played their hits old and new, Williams kept the audience engrossed with both her performance and engagement with them throughout the evening by having them sing along with her. Before concluding, Williams once again thanked the crowd for hanging out all weekend and stopping by to see them.

“You made our evening at Bonnaroo one of the most memorable forever,” she said.

Even though there was light sprinkle of rain, it didn’t rain on the parade of Foo Fighters who hit the stage and made clear they were playing until they were kicked off. While Dave Grohl told the crowd they had a lot of songs to go through in a short period, and they made the most of their time with both classic and recent hits. The audience then received a treat when during “My Hero,” the band were joined by Hayley Williams of Paramore, who during her set said they were basically opening for Foo Fighters and thought that was amazing. Grohl then welcomed his “favorite singer”, his daughter Violet, to sing duets with him on “Shame, Shame” and “Show Me How,” which she sings on the tracks. The band did go a little over time, and before concluding the weekend with “Everlong” Grohl addressed the crowd one more time to say this was not goodbye.

“I never like to say goodbye,” Grohl said, “only see you next time. I hope to see you next time.”