Bonnaroo Announces Two of the Headlining Spots

After much speculation across Bonnaroo online message boards such as Inforoo, the organizers of the festival have released some news today concerning this year's headlining slots.

Phish will be playing two shows: they will be closing out the festival on Sunday evening, as well as playing a special late night show on the What Stage on Friday evening, or what are actually the wee hours of early Saturday morning. Last year, Kanye West brought up the sunrise on Sunday morning, which was the very first late night show on the festival's main stage, also called the What Stage. The stage holds a capacity of 100,000 people, but the festival has never offered more than 90,000 tickets. The Kanye West early morning show caused a stir amongst fans, resulting in chants of "Kanye Sucks!" Apparently pedal-steel virtuoso Robert Randolph even started one of them. Needless to say, I think that if Phish brought up the sunrise this year, there probably wouldn't be a single complaint. Most people are welcoming the idea.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will be Saturday's headliner, probably playing somewhere in the time frame of 8pm-12am. I doubt they'll play a four hour show, although I'm sure they could handle it, but I'd expect we get at least two-and-a-half hours, if we're lucky maybe three. A lot of new material, a lot of hits, probably even some covers.

I know it's not exactly the news everyone was hoping that Bonnaroo would release today, but it does set things straight. We've all been hoping for that first round of artist additions, which should've come by now. The initial lineup is very strong, so I think I can wait a little while for another list of bands, which will most likely only cause more scheduling conflicts.

Some Speculation Resolved

With the announcement of Phish on Friday and Sunday, and the Boss on Saturday, that leaves us with the spots that the Beastie Boys and Nine Inch Nails will get, which we already know.

The Beastie Boys have been listed for Friday, for awhile now, as has Nine Inch Nails for Saturday.

The Beastie Boys will be your Friday night headliner, and Nine Inch Nails will be playing a special latenight show on the What Stage, just a couple hours after Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.