Is Bonnaroo saying 'Out with the old?'

Dave Paulson | The Tennessean

Show Caption Hide Caption Chance The Rapper ends his day at Bonnaroo with 'Hey Ya' cover Chance The Rapper, or the 'Mayor of Bonnaroo' as he's know, ended full day at the festival with a cover of Outkast's 'Hey Ya' with the Presevation Hall Jazz Band

Todd Hedrick went to his first Bonnaroo in 2003. He was 26. It was only the second year of the massive music festival in Manchester, Tenn., and traffic flow was very much a work in progress.

“I remember people being out of their cars, peeing in the woods and throwing frisbees on the Interstate,” the Nashville resident recalls. “You'd move every half hour or so.”

More: Complete coverage of Bonnaroo 2017

Twelve hours after they first reached the exit to Manchester, Hedrick and his friends finally got to set up their camp. Over that weekend — and an epic headlining set by Neil Young — they found a second home at Bonnaroo. Hedrick, now 40, has been to the festival nearly every year since.

His friend Jessie Matz, 38, has been a regular at Bonnaroo for more than a decade. She and her friends first made the pilgrimage in 2006, driving down from Minnesota to see Radiohead headline the festival.

“We had no idea it was going to be that huge, that epic and crazy,” she says. “I met the coolest people that I'm still great friends with now.”

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But when the 16th annual Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival opens its gates for campers on Wednesday, Hedrick and Matz won’t be in line. For the first time in years, both of them are staying home. And they made that decision after seeing this year’s lineup.

► Related: After big attendance drop, Bonnaroo at a crossroads

When the performers for this year’s Bonnaroo were revealed this past January, it was clear that changes were afoot. Yes, the top two names on the bill are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: U2 and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

But as you go through the next 100-plus names, good luck spotting another performer who was active in the 20th century.

That goes for fellow headliners The Weeknd and Chance the Rapper as well as the “undercard”: Major Lazer, Flume, The xx, Lorde, Travis Scott, Cage the Elephant and Marshmello. The longest-running act in this bunch was founded in 2005.

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Keep going, and things might get downright inscrutable, especially if you’re not a fan of electronic dance music, or “EDM.” Ever heard of Nghtmre? Getter? Borgore? Yellow Claw? You’ll find these names in the spots where acts like Mavis Staples, Loretta Lynn, Dr. John and other legendary vets used to be — and that group is nowhere to be found. Bluegrass, rock and jam bands (Bonnaroo’s original calling card) all seem to be on the retreat.

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When she first saw the lineup poster, Matz says she thought, “What happened to my Bonnaroo?”

“I've just opened a record store, and I'm like, 'Did I just get that out of touch in the span of a year?'” says Hedrick, who runs The Vinyl Tap in East Nashville. “But then when I saw the Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits (festival) lineups, and there's tons of stuff on there that I would go see. So I'm like, 'It's not me. It's this festival completely changing.'”

'Embracing new trends'

Bonnaroo’s co-founder Ashley Capps agrees the festival is seeing some changes this year, and doesn’t dispute that this year’s lineup features more young acts than ever. But in his eyes, change at Bonnaroo is nothing new.

“Throughout the years, we've endured a fair amount of criticism for being willing to change. But that change, I would argue, is at the heart and soul of the Bonnaroo aesthetic, and being open to embracing new trends in the worlds of music.”

In that spirit, Bonnaroo has redesigned one of its longstanding stages. “The Other Tent” – which used to feature everything from jazz to roots music and experimental rock – is now simply “The Other,” an open-air hub for nothing but EDM and hip-hop.

More: Bonnaroo introduces new stage

That’s a big move for an event that — until recently — seemed very well-settled in its identity as one of America’s flagship music festivals. But last year, Bonnaroo’s attendance hit an all-time low.

Roughly 45,000 tickets were sold in 2016 — a serious plummet from the festival’s 10-year average attendance of 75,000. Critics pointed to several culprits: underwhelming headliners, a ticket price hike and competition from smaller specialized festivals.

More: Red Hot Chili Peppers say Bonnaroo is favorite festival

And Bonnaroo organizers, of course, wanted to get to the bottom of this, too. You can get a window into their research on their website, dubbed the “Bonnaroo Census.” Workers polled attendees at last year’s festival on a variety of topics: where they traveled from, if they planned to vote, if they stopped at a local restaurant on the way in, etc.

The census doesn’t reveal how old the attendees were. But another result is very telling: 48.8 percent came to the festival for the first time that year. Another 35 percent had gone just once or twice before. Only remaining 15 percent had been to four or more Bonnaroos.

That data reinforces the observation anyone would make walking through the masses on the festival grounds: Young people in their 20s — even their late teens — are the backbone of Bonnaroo’s audience. And their tastes will shape the direction of the festival in the years to come.

Check out Bonnaroo’s interactive lineup on their website, and you’ll see that (slightly) more fans have added The Weeknd, Chance the Rapper and Lorde to their schedules than U2.

“We want to keep our finger on the pulse of who our audience is, and what they're interested in,” Capps said. “And the change is going on all around us. Let's face it. The people who came to Bonnaroo in 2002, many of them are married with families, and they've changed too. To stay fresh and vital, one has to be open to change. It's the only constant, as the cliche goes.”

Ticket sales 'on the upswing'

Dalton Hughes was 18 when he went to his first Bonnaroo in 2012 — and electronic star Skrillex was one of the main draws for him. The 23-year-old Nashvillian has gone every year since and will return this week.

“I liked (EDM) a lot more when I was in my teens, but I am glad they put in a stage for it,” he says. But the communal experience and sense of escape is what keeps bringing him back.

That’s another huge factor that Bonnaroo has to consider. Unlike Coachella, Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits and pretty much any other mega festival you can name, almost all of Bonnaroo’s attendees camp on the festival grounds. Between the summer heat, dust, thunderstorms and long hikes from the stages to the campsite, it’s a marathon experience — one you might be less interested in as you approach your 30s.

“It gets harder (to camp) every year, but then again, that's what I love about it,” Hughes says. “It feels like you're outside of the real world for a while.”

And after facing some harsh realities last year, Bonnaroo’s future may indeed be bright. Capps says ticket sales are “definitely on the upswing again this year.”

They’re attracting first-timers like 22-year-old Michael D’Errico of Kansas City, Missouri, who says he’s excited for all four headliners, from U2 to Chance the Rapper.

And Chance, in particular, is a beacon on this year’s bill. The 24-year-old not only has an incredible pull on young audiences, but he’s also embraced Bonnaroo as a fan, attending the festival for several years.

“I can't think of anything that embodies my dream of the Bonnaroo experience more than the way Chance the Rapper engages with the festival,” Capps says. “That is the spirit of Bonnaroo.”

Perhaps that’s the way forward for Bonnaroo in years — and decades — to come: preserving that “spirit,” even as its sound evolves.

“We'll continue to evolve in future years as well,” Capps says. “How that evolution takes place? None of us know.”

The 2017 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival takes place June 8-11 in Manchester Tenn. Four-day passes are $349.50, available at www.bonnaroo.com