Photo by John Patrick Gatta

Throughout its 16 years, Bonnaroo has hosted celebrated, history-making sets. The festival can add U2 headlining its first ever U.S. festival to that list.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame act stopped by the Farm as part of the band’s tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Joshua Tree. That release was played in full as the main part of the group’s performance.

The aim of the show was to be more than a rock concert and more than a live representation of the band’s biggest release. Prior to Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. stepping onstage, poems by Walt Whitman, Sherman Alexie and Allen Ginsburg appeared on the giant screen behind their instrument set-up.

Like most everything about the band’s set, there were political and social overtones throughout the performance. During “Pride (In the Name of Love)” Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech scrolled onscreen. That number was one of three pre-Joshua Tree tracks in the setlist, the others being the opener “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “New Year’s Day.”

The Joshua Tree features the band falling in love, but not blindly in love, with America. Starting with “Where the Streets Have No Name,” there was new video footage by Anton Corbijn, who took the iconic images for the album’s cover. Like the other 10 songs on the album, it was played with the passion of a group that recognizes its role in the rock ‘n’ roll world and embraces the idea that the message is as important as the music.

The band performed a rearranged version of “Red Hill Mining Town” with a horn section, which it had never played live until this tour. After the tune’s conclusion, Bono said, “The song speaks to a lot of things in this country and around the world.”

Following “Mothers of the Disappeared,” the quartet left the stage and returned for a lengthy encore that opened with “Beautiful Day.” During this number, U2 quoted “Under the Bridge” from tomorrow’s What Stage headliners Red Hot Chili Peppers (it remains to be seen if RHCP will return the favor). The quartet then performed “Elevation,” followed by the tour debut of “Vertigo,” which was dedicated to “the great women we know…women who insisted resisted and persisted.”

After Bono congratulated America for contributing funds to help fight AIDS, which has saved 18 million lives, the show ended with “One.”

Earlier in the day, during a special presentation that benefited the Bonnaroo Works Fund, guitarist The Edge was given the Les Paul Spirit Award by the Les Paul Foundation, whose mission is to honor and share the life, spirit and legacy of Les Paul. The award is presented annually to an individual who exemplifies the spirit of the late, great Les Paul through innovation, engineering, technology and/or music.

The Edge was not the only musician to be honored on Friday, as Preservation Hall Jazz Band received the key to the city of Manchester prior to its set on That Stage.

Tove Lo – photo by Alec Gowan

All told, it was an international day of artists. Besides U2 (Ireland), The XX (England) played its third Bonnaroo, Kaleo (Iceland) ascended to the Which Stage, Tove Lo and Leon (Sweden) offered their own versions of pop, Cold War Kids and Wilderado (USA) delivered anthemic and gritty rock ‘n’ roll, Angelique Kidjo (Benin in West Africa) reinterpreted the Talking Heads Remain in Light and The Strumbellas (Canada) also rose to the occasion.

In addition, Bonnaroo’s collaborative spirit resounded throughout the day. During Francis and The Lights’ What Stage performance, the “Mayor of Bonnaroo” himself, Chance the Rapper, who will precede the Red Hot Chili Peppers on Saturday night, appeared a day early to join in for a version of
“May I Have This Dance” (the song originally appeared on Francis and The Lights’ Farewell, Starlite! record but Chance appears on the recently-released remix of the song). Over at This Tent, Car Seat Headrest invited a fan, who had been sending videos of herself playing their music, to appear with them on cowbell. Later in the evening, Portugal. The Man brought out celebrated photographer Danny Clinch for a few songs and welcomed Cage The Elephant’s Matthew Shultz for “Feel It Still” and a take on Oasis’ “Don’t Look Back in Anger.” Cage’s Nick Bockrath also appeared on “Feel It Still,” “Purple Yellow Red & Blue” and a cover of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.” Still later in the evening, Trey Anastasio Band’s Jen Hartswick and Natalie Cressman guested with Big Gigantic at The Other.

Also seen around the Farm on Friday: Khruangbin toasted the crowd during an “anti-drum solo,” Cold War Kids nodded to Rihanna with a version of “Love on the Brain” and Joseph delivered a pop-up set in State Farm’s #HereToHelp Lounge

“What an extraordinary thing Bonnaroo is,” Bono announced during U2 performance. Then he joked, “Thank you for naming it after me.”

While this may not be accurate, what can be said is that given the gorgeous weather and splendid music, Friday on the Farm certainly embraced and embodied the title of U2’s first encore tune.

It was indeed a beautiful day.