Bonnaroo never really went away, but it’s back all the same. The Tennessee festival paved the way for a new generation of festivals when AC Entertainment and Superfly Productions launched it in 2002 and the vibe is still positive, but it had experienced some hiccups since its sale to Live Nation in 2015, particularly when total tickets sold reportedly dropped to an all-time of low of about 45,000 in 2016. In 2019, though, the clouds cleared (literally and figuratively – the weather was splendid) and the festival sold out its 80,000 tickets, lifting it back toward the level of 2013, when Paul McCartney headlined.