🇺🇸 Manchester, Tennessee, USA
What to Pack for Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival 2026
Built from about 15 years of weather records at the site: typical highs of 29°C, overnight lows of 19°C and around 2.5mm of rain per day.
The weather you're packing for
| Day | High | Low | Rain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu 11 Jun | 29°C | 19°C | 4.8 mm |
| Fri 12 Jun | 29°C | 19°C | 1.6 mm |
| Sat 13 Jun | 29°C | 19°C | 1.8 mm |
| Sun 14 Jun | 30°C | 19°C | 1.9 mm |
Long-run averages for each festival day, not a forecast. Check the Bonnaroo forecast page in the week before you travel.
Always in the bag
- Refillable water bottle — sealed or empty so it gets through the gate.
- Sunscreen SPF 50 — even a cloudy festival day is six hours outdoors.
- Power bank — your phone is your ticket, your map and your group chat.
- Earplugs — for the front rail and for the campsite at 4am.
- More socks than days.
Heat kit — this one matters here
Typical highs of 29°C, peaking around 30°C on the warmest festival day, put heat near the top of the list at Bonnaroo.
- A wide-brim hat and sunglasses beat a cap for full-day sets.
- Loose, light-coloured long sleeves cover more skin and feel cooler than a vest.
- Electrolyte tablets — water alone won't keep up with a day of dancing.
- Shade at camp: a tent in direct sun is unusable by 9am.
Rain and mud kit — don't skip this
Rain falls on roughly 100% of Bonnaroo days, averaging 2.5mm a day and about 10.1mm across the main days.
- Wellies or waterproof boots, plus dry shoes for the good spells.
- A real rain jacket and a cheap poncho — the poncho covers your bag in a crowd.
- A tarp under the tent and pegs that hold in soft ground.
- Dry bags for phone, power bank and one sealed set of dry clothes.
Sleeping and night layers
Overnight lows average 19°C, with the coldest festival night typically near 19°C (Thu 11 Jun). A 1-season bag or even a duvet-style liner is enough — most nights you'll sleep on top of it, not in it.
- An insulated mat — the ground takes more heat than the air.
- A hoodie you don't mind losing.
Why the Bonnaroo site matters
Heat and humidity are the dominant challenge — Bonnaroo runs free water stations and misting tents for a reason. Severe thunderstorms can roll across the farm fast and have forced multiple weather evacuations over the years, and when it rains heavily the open farmland turns into red Tennessee mud that sticks to everything.