Bonnaroo 2026 Artist Spotlight: mercury

Like we’ve been doing for many years now, we’re making it our mission to help you get acquainted with many of our favorite acts from Bonnaroo‘s 2026 lineup. A pivotal year for the fest, this summer’s ‘Roo will see some significant changes after last year’s unfortunate rainout, including infrastructure improvements, a scaled-back capacity, and a smaller lineup (notably, cutting down Thursday’s programming the most). We’ll have to wait until we’re on the farm to feel the full extent of the changes and tweaks, but we’re cautiously optimistic that it will benefit the fest in the long-term, especially in helping make the site more resistant to weather. This will be Bonnaroo’s 23rd installment and 25th anniversary, and even with a more compact lineup, it packs a pretty stellar, eclectic slate of artists, per usual. Back once again in its dependable June 11-14 timeframe, we’re counting down the days until another great weekend on the farm.

As we dig through the entire schedule, we’ll highlight a spread of performers spanning across genres and stages, big and small, new and old, to bring you some of the most interesting, lesser-known, and most highly-recommended among this year’s crop of artists. And as our time at ‘Roo approaches, we’ll also be bringing you some special features and full list-style daily lineup guides, to help you plan your weekend ahead of the fest. While these previews won’t span every artist, and might omit some more obvious must-see acts, we hope they’ll serve as a way to help you navigate Bonnaroo’s gargantuan lineup, and to make the most of your busy weekend at the fest! Be sure to grab your tickets (available in weekend or single-day, with various upgrade levels and add-ons) and camping or parking pass (also available with a lot of flexible options and levels), and read on for our Bonnaroo Artist Spotlight!

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If you’ve been following along with our recent Bonnaroo coverage, you might’ve noticed a slight difference from the last 15 or so years we’ve been doing this: every artist we’ve profiled so far has been performing on one of the festival’s larger What or Which Stages, or the mid-sized Tent stages. An unfortunate trend that has been happening for years now, ‘Roo went from multiple small stages within Centeroo (the Who Stage, the New Music on Tap Lounge, Cafe Where, the Sonic Stage, etc), where local and up-and-coming artists made up a sizable portion of the lineup, and accounted for some real hidden gem performances over the years, to just the Who Stage in Centeroo, with a smattering of smaller performance areas within the campground Plazas, to, last year, moving the Who Stage itself to the campgrounds, before, this year, largely axing the plaza stages and the Who Stage altogether. Which is why we’re extra thankful to see the long-running music programming in Groop Galatea (Plaza 5) getting a lot more official festival backing this year, with showcases curated by Bummeroo, rocknite, Fractal Bloom, and more, and boasting a lot of local talent, which is sorely missing from the Centeroo lineup. It’s not as easy to stumble upon as the Club Stages were, and we know a lot of attendees probably won’t discover this stage at all, but we encourage you to deep dive into the Plaza 5 lineup (and we’ll do the same as we run our daily lineup guides soon)!

One of the most essential campground performances all weekend (and part of an enticing alternative to Thursday’s slimmed-down Centeroo programming, curated by Bummeroo), mercury is the brainchild of local musician Maddie Kerr, and is quickly becoming one of the most exciting rising artists in the Nashville rock scene. A native of nearby Franklin, Kerr was raised on artists like Mazzy Star, Radiohead, and Deftones, and knew from a young age she wanted to be in a band. Maddie formed mercury at the end of high school and briefly attended Lipscomb before dropping out to give music her full-time focus. Channeling a sound evocative of indie rock, grunge, and noisy shoegaze, the project formally debuted in 2022 with first single “I Don’t Know You Like I Used to,” and has been on a buzzworthy upward trajectory ever since. Signing early on to Big Loud Rock, a further series of great early tracks helped Kerr and the band attract positive buzz, and their Alex Farrar-produced debut EP, Together We Are One, You And I, boosted them to wider acclaim. Having already hit the road with artists like Arcy Drive, Colony House, The Backseat Lovers, and flipturn, and honed a really incredible, immersive, and sometimes surprisingly deconstructed live show throughout countless performances around Nashville and beyond (last year’s Live from Blackbird Studio EP really captures this well), mercury really feels like the next great Nashville rock artist about to break out in a major way. And, with a debut LP on the way soon, getting to say you saw them play in the Bonnaroo campground would be a pretty epic brag.

WATCH | “Trying” (Official Video)

LISTEN | “Heaven”

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