At this weekend’s Bonnaroo, Lizzo was set to make history as the festival’s first-ever headliner. Instead, due to heavy rains from Hurricane Ida flooding the fest’s Manchester, Tenn., grounds, the 2021 event was canceled Tuesday (Aug. 31), and the weekend’s scheduled performers are lamenting the loss on social media.
“Honored to be your first female headliner @bonnaroo,” Lizzo wrote Tuesday on her Instagram Stories. “Take care of yourselves everyone who is in the path of the storm. Safety first,” she wrote, adding a red heart emoji.
Run the Jewels, Jason Isbell, Incubus and more also shared their disappointment on social media, with Isbell tweeting, “I’m sorry y’all had to make this choice but I believe it was the right one. I was really REALLY looking forward to it, but ya gotta be safe and smart. Love to everybody on the crew with a broken heart today.”
Electronic pop duo Sylvan Esso didn’t let the news get them down, writing on their IG Stories: “Anybody gotta good outdoor venue in Tennessee for this sick ass band? @Bonnaroo got cancelled but we are still practicing anyway cuz music is joy.”
Bonnaroo hasn’t hosted a festival since 2019, with the coronavirus pandemic forcing organizers to pull the plug in 2020 as well.
See all the performer reactions below: