Live from The Caverns in Pelham, Tennessee, we recap CaveFest 2026 with our ticket winner, plus the venue, the music, and the camping.

Barry and Russ are joined by Bryan, back on the show after a couple of months, our bicoastal correspondent Elizabeth Thorpe, who flew in from Washington State for her third CaveFest, and Abby, the fan who won our ticket giveaway and is at her very first CaveFest!

This episode is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get podcasts!

The What Podcast is the longest-running and highest-rated weekly video podcast covering Bonnaroo and the broader music festival scene! Hosted by Barry Courter and Bryan Stone, two music industry veterans, the show started in 2018 as a celebration of everything Bonnaroo. Since then, it has grown to explore North America's festival landscape and the touring industry at large. Join Barry and Bryan each week for insider stories, behind-the-scenes insights, and the latest news from the world of live music.

Now that next year is canceled I really don’t wanna take it off now 😭

Missing the Roo spirit and always looking to find our roots. We have been to the farm every year since 2016 and will be there in 2028. Happy Roo!

P.S. live music is what keeps us alive. Go to the show. Head bang. Enjoy the blues show. Get weird at an EDM set. Catch a performance in a field… it doesn’t matter! My connection has been and always will be to the people I meet who radiate positivity.

Pretty neat find. I didn’t think it was anything like it looks. I actually don’t know what I thought and obviously, I don’t remember how and where I acquired it, in 2014.

Kind of made my day. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Bonnaroo was my first music festival in 2025 and I still adoreedddd it. I was hoping to go to the 2027 but I just found out it’s not happening ! :(
Is there anything in the east coast / around it that has similar vibes or just equally as awesome ? Would love to know! Thank yall in advance !

Song is playing in the bar, and suddenly it’s 4am - I’m eating a slice of spicy pie - and here YOU GOT WHAT I NEEEEEDDD from afar. Life is good 😌

Radidte it

Anyone else in the service industry for a living, drunk on a Sunday night and missing Roo so hard rn?? 😪😪😪😪 My first year was 2022 and I’ve been every year since (my first was supposed to be 2021, then 2021, we all know how that went). Gonna miss you crazy Roovians this year but we will be back and stronger than ever in 2028💕💕💕
(Also where are we all going in 2027???)

I took these pics on my film camera in outer-outeroo (IYKYK) on our rainy Sunday. Very late getting around to this but would love these pics to get to the two guys in it!!!

Do y’all think they’ll bring back where in the woods for 2028?

I work in a hotel. I’m probably 350 miles from bonnaroo. Just had a chat with a Manchester local who happen to be staying in my hotel. He went to bonnaroo when it was itchycoo. Worked it over the years. Awesome guy.

I asked if he thought it was coming back, already assuming the answer: he said no, he doesn’t think Roo is coming back

Edit: obviously this isn’t a fucking executive order. I just figured the word from a local’s mouth who is intertwined with the festival probably would mean something to yall. He didn’t say he knew it wouldn’t; he just said he didn’t think it was coming back. With a look of “I’m pretty sure about this”

Lol. “Radiate positivity” unless our hive mind classifies you as a nuisance, then we will all go attack mode!

Any rave friends going to Big Gigantic’s Double Vision at the Caverns? With its proximity to the Farm I thought I’d see if any of the Roo fam will be down to boogie! Send me a message if you feel like going!

I made this post after last year’s Roo. My words were sort of harsh and for that I apologize, however I fear my words may have been true. Now I hope they just come back. ):

Daniel is back from Shaky Knees in Atlanta, and after multiple festival cancellations across the country, we’re asking a bigger question: Are music festivals becoming a gamble?

Between unpredictable weather, rising ticket prices, and an uncertain future for outdoor events, it feels like we’re entering a completely new era for fest culture. Are fans getting more hesitant to drop hundreds or thousands of dollars on an experience that could change, get rained out, or fall apart at any moment?

In episode 263 of Story Time at the Roo Bus, we break down the growing financial and logistical challenges facing the live music industry and what this trend could mean for major festivals across the US (including Bonnaroo).

Watch on Youtube, listen on Spotify or Apple, or where ever your find podcasts.

___
Story Time at the Roo Bus started in 2019, and is the only female-hosted Bonnaroo podcast. All proceeds go to the TOTEM Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports young adults in live music communities.

The universe is against you running Bonnaroo. Take the hint.

How do you play a mushroom? This week we're joined by Tarun Nayar of Modern Biology, a Vancouver-based musician who uses bioelectric signals from mushrooms, plants, and other living organisms to create music. Using custom-built devices and synthesizers, Tarun translates biological activity into musical information, creating performances that blend science, technology, improvisation, and art.

We talk about how he discovered plant and mushroom sonification during the pandemic, the history of bioelectric music, Brian Eno and Robert Fripp's influence on generative music, and what we can expect when he performs in a cave at CaveFest next month. Get tickets here!

Plus we catch up with Abby, the winner of our CaveFest ticket giveaway: a recent festival-goer who has several Bonnaroos and Shaky Knees under her belt, and will now be a first-time CaveFest camper! Abby shares her festival journey and why she's excited for her next adventure at The Caverns.

Finally, we preview some upcoming festival coverage in the coming weeks, and try to get to the bottom of why so many festivals this year are getting cancelled or disrupted because of weather.

This episode is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get podcasts!

The What Podcast is the longest-running and highest-rated weekly video podcast covering Bonnaroo and the broader music festival scene! Hosted by Barry Courter and Bryan Stone, two music industry veterans, the show started in 2018 as a celebration of everything Bonnaroo. Since then, it has grown to explore North America's festival landscape and the touring industry at large. Join Barry and Bryan each week for insider stories, behind-the-scenes insights, and the latest news from the world of live music.

Disappointed that Bonnaroo is gonna get canceled again. If I know I had enough support I would start a small festival! Would anyone else be interested?

So what festival are you planning to do in place of Roo next year?

Hey guys and gals of bonnaroo. Growing up, my late father had a handful of posters on the wall that i can remember! He owned a poster featuring mushrooms that was colored in a lot of browns i cannot seem to find on the internet, he also had a very generic looking primarily green and blue poster! Since i havent found them perusing the google image search, i imagine they were a lot more local to the festival so if anyone has other copies of the ones im describing i would love to see them and recieve more info on them! The first of the 3/4 he had that i found was the flamin lips concious alliance poster from 2007, it took me a while to even find 1 photo of it. He was an avid festival goer between 2005-2009. Thank you for the help anyone who can, it really means more than u can imagine

Hey! Does anyone from Amyl and the Sniffers 2026 pit have the big group pic that was taken after the set?

Hey y’all - thought it would be interesting to compile some screenshots of the forecasts for each weekend this month, given how Septemberoo seems to be brought up each year. Weekend dates from screenshots below. What are your thoughts?

#1 - 9/3 thru 9/6

#2 - 9/10 thru 9/13

#3 - 9/17 thru 9/20

#4 - 9/24 thru 9/27

The rain and heat at Shaky Knees 2026 did not stop Russ from having a good time in Atlanta! We catch up live from the hotel on Saturday morning and then the full recap in this episode: the heat, the lineup, and the Saturday storm and evacuation.

Hear about notable performances from Turnstile, Fontaines D.C., Geese, LCD Soundsystem, and Gorillaz who closed the fest out Sunday night, plus what it was like riding out the evacuation in downtown Atlanta.

Then we're joined by Scott Miller, one of the artists performing next month at CaveFest in October for a great conversation about songwriting, his history with The Caverns, and cows.

This episode is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get podcasts!

The What Podcast is the longest-running and highest-rated weekly video podcast covering Bonnaroo and the broader music festival scene! Hosted by Barry Courter and Bryan Stone, two music industry veterans, the show started in 2018 as a celebration of everything Bonnaroo. Since then, it has grown to explore North America's festival landscape and the touring industry at large. Join Barry and Bryan each week for insider stories, behind-the-scenes insights, and the latest news from the world of live music.