Photo by Alec Gowan

​Relix is currently on site at Bonnaroo creating the official festival newspaper, the Bonnaroo Beacon. For more from the paper, check out the official ​Bonnaroo Tumblr.

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During Mumford & Sons headlining set on the festival’s What Stage, frontman Marcus Mumford proclaimed that Bonnaroo just might be “the best festival in America, if not the world.” The guitarist/singer/mandolinist/drummer extraordinaire made his statement before explaining the important part that the state of Tennessee played in his musical development. However, last night’s performance was more grounded in the present than the past, as the band sought to redeem itself after canceling their headlining slot just a few days prior to Bonnaroo 2013.

The British four-piece was flanked by a pair of horn players when they took the stage before a massive and densely packed audience. What followed was a crowd-pleasing show that shifted between the acoustic instrumentation of band’s first two albums and the electric—though no less electrifying—sound of their latest effort Wilder Mind.

Mumford and Sons also took some time to thank Jack Johnson for taking over their headlining spot at the last minute after bassist Ted Dwane’s emergency brain surgery forced them to cancel two years ago. Marcus Mumford then recalled the band’s first Bonnaroo in 2010, where they met Ed Helms (of The Office and The Hangover fame), before inviting the comedian, actor and banjo player to join them on stage for “Awake My Soul.” Other highlights included a full on singalong during “I Will Wait for You,” a bombastic “Thistle & Weeds,” a fireworks display, and an encore that featured the hit “Little Lion Man,” just to name a few. However, the night’s biggest moment came at the very end of the show, when Mumford & Sons invited a bevy of guests—including My Morning Jacket’s Jim James and Patrick Hallahan, Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith, Hozier, rock photographer and harmonica player Danny Clinch, War on Drugs saxophonist Jon Natzhez and more—for an appropriate, one-of-a-kind cover of The Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends.”

Only a couple of hours before some of them joined Mumford on stage, one of the bands that helped make Bonnaroo what is today spent two hours reminding everyone how they did it and, from the looks of it, they had a lot of fun in the process. Jim James didn’t say much during My Morning Jacket’s 8 PM set on the What Stage, but his periodic triumphant poses told us all that we needed to know.

In their fifth appearance on The Farm—and their second on the festival’s main stage—the Louisville, KY-based rockers dug into their catalog for a set that was heavy on older material. While the group is currently touring in support of their latest release, The Waterfall, they only went into four songs from the album, as the rest of the set was filled with classics like “Mahgeetah,” “I’m Amazed,” “Gideon,” “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt 2.,” “Evil Urges” and a beautifully haunting “Dondante” that brought the show to its peak.

Earlier sets on the What Stage included a well-received early evening performance by Irish singer-songwriter Hozier, who took the crowd to church on a Saturday, and a pleasant opening set from Trampled by Turtles, who laid a foundation of string music in anticipation of Mumford and Sons’ headlining set.

The Which Stage also pulled some large crowds throughout Saturday, especially during a highly anticipated set from Childish Gambino—the hip-hop alter ego of actor and comedian Donald Glover. The rapper followed blues-guitar revivalist Gary Clark Jr., who also drew in a number of fans with his laid-back, old-school style. The Which Stage had something for everyone yesterday, as festival darlings and indie rockers The War on Drugs once again proved themselves to be consummate professionals as they worked through much of their magnificent 2014 album Lost in the Dream with precision and grace. Earlier in the day, Carolina Chocolate Drops frontwoman Rhiannon Giddens proved that she could go it alone with an uplifting set that drew from her new debut solo album Tomorrow is My Turn, while Malian exiles Songhoy Blues opened the day with their blend of rock, funk, reggae and West African rhythms.

Saturday featured plenty of other standout performances, including an excellent That Tent set from Nashville-based alternative country torchbearer Sturgill Simpson. “This is either a beautiful things or we’re a bunch of stupid ass people for being out in this heat,” he noted, no doubt echoing the thoughts of the countless Bonaroovians that were braving the day’s 90 degree weather. Simpson and his band dug deep into one of many jams—much of the setlist came from his psychedelia-tinged 2014 LP Metamodern Sounds in Country Music—which allowed him to perform in front of an unabashedly trippy visual display that few country musicians could pull off. That Tent also saw sets from singer-songwriter Bahamas, while an assortment of musicians paid tribute to Nigerian one-man-funk-band William Onyearbor during the “Atomic Bomb” show.

This Tent kept delivered a varied lineup as well, with an afternoon set from psych-rock masters Woods and an hour of power-pop from Bleachers—the ‘80s-inspired side project of Jack Antonoff, who hails from Bonnaroo veterans fun. and Steel Train. Slayer also graced This Tent, unleashing a heavy dose of metal into the generally laid back Bonnaroo atmosphere.

Fans of electronic dance music were able to get their fill over at the Other Tent, which hosted sets from remix masters Jamie XX and SBTRKT, while neo-soul singer-songwriter SZA and indie-rockers PHOX also dropped by for earlier sets.

While music may be the selling point for Bonnaroo, Saturday was nevertheless filled with an assortment of entertainment options, including a Comedy Theatre that welcomed Chris Hardwick, Ralphie May, Jeff Ross and others. The festival’s roots in improvisational music were kept alive in—of all places—the Cinema Tent, where virtuoso jazz drummer Antonio Sanchez put a new, off-the-cuff spin on his acclaimed score for Birdman during a live-scoring of the Academy Award winning film.

Photo by John Patrick Gatta

Late night highlights abounded at the SuperJam where Jon Hamm and Zach Galifianakis introduced the proceedings. Highlights included Rhiannon Giddens performing the Police’s “Roxanne,” Jack Antonoff and SZA joining forces on the Queen/David Bowie tune “Under Pressure,” and hip-hop throwback numbers from Chali 2na, Cherub, Reggie Watts, Chance The Rapper and DMC. Elsewhere on site, Robe Rage at Snake & Jake’s Christmas Club Barn featured a set from Grupo Fantasma who performed on Friday as Brownout Presents Black Sabbath. Meanwhile Bassnectar appeared on the Which Stage while D’Angelo returned to Bonnaroo, following his 2012 appearance in the SuperJam, for an animated set at This Tent.

When all was said and done, with so many stellar acts to choose from at all times, Saturday seemed to confirm what Marcus Mumford suggested, that Bonnaroo is the best festival in America, and yes, the world.