Bonnaroo has long been a staple in America’s festival scene, and after Skrillex’s famous SuperJam, thousands more flocked in recent years to attend the spectacle. However, Bonnaroo is starting to fall from its past success.
Despite adding bathrooms and other infrastructure, ticket sales for the acclaimed event dropped 46% from the festival’s peak in 2011. Bonnaroo’s 10 year average is around 75,000 tickets, but only 45,537 tickets were sold for the festival’s 2016 edition. Many are claiming a lackluster lineup as the reason for declining sales, and along with rising competition from other festivals, the dispute has begun as to whether the ticket price is worth the festival’s four days of entertainment. Still, that’s not stopping Bonnaroo from renewing their agreement with Coffee County, and they’ve got hopes of investing further into the festival grounds and hosting more events at Great Stage Park
At $324 per ticket, Bonnaroo saw a loss of $9.07 million in ticket revenue compared to 2015’s sales. Coincidentally, this last year has been the first full year since Live Nation has had a commanding share in Bonnaroo. Though no comment has been made as to whether this ownership impacted the event, the organizers did issue the following statement encouraging a return to form next year.
“For the past 15 years we’ve been extremely fortunate to have over a million fans share the Bonnaroo experience with us. While our attendance is slightly lower this year, the Bonnaroo community is as vibrant as ever and excited about celebrating this milestone year on The Farm.”
H/T Tennesean