photo by Jeff Kravitz

“We’ve played a million festivals, and this is my favorite one.” Maybe this wasn’t the first time Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea has uttered these words (slightly edited to fit a family-friendly publication), but honestly, it’s hard to not believe them when they’re coming from such an earnest, devilishly likable character. And with the magic that is Bonnaroo going strong as ever last night during the Chili Peppers’ headlining set, there wasn’t a soul in the main stage crowd that didn’t believe that it was the absolute truth.

Fun fact about festivals in general, while we’re on the subject: This weekend is the 50th anniversary of the very first U.S. rock music festival. Even before the legendary Monterey International Pop Festival, there was the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival, held June 10–11, 1967, in Marin County, Calif., featuring music from the likes of Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, The Byrds, Captain Beefheart and more.

Of course, Flea was little more than a larvae at the time, but his “million festivals” statement speaks to the lasting legacy of those first massive gatherings and celebrations of music and fan culture, a legacy that Bonnaroo has proudly upheld for 16 years. And counting.

That culture was on display in full last night during the Chili Peppers’ career-spanning What Stage set, bathed in a just-past-full moon and the multi-screen backdrop that broadcast the band to the furthest reaches of the thousands of gathered fans.

The show began with an instrumental funk jam—the first of many to come, to the delight of the crowd—from the trio of Flea (leopard-spotted hair and all), drummer Chad Smith and guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, who continues to prove a worthy bandmate and guitarist in his own right, despite the inevitable comparisons to his predecessor even eight years and two albums later. Then it was time for the hits.

The Chili Peppers have a best-of catalog that could have taken them well into the morning hours, but the group pared the selection down to the festival essentials, with some newer material and covers thrown in. Fan favorites “Can’t Stop,” “Dani California” and “Scar Tissue” got the train rolling before the setlist turned to material from the two Klinghoffer-era albums, including last year’s The Getaway—the focus of their current tour—which provided “Dark Necessities” and “Go Robot.”

The rest of the show also included covers of The Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and Funkadelic’s “What Is Soul?,” plus several other crowd pleasers like “Californication,” “Suck My Kiss,” “By the Way” and “Snow ((Hey Oh)),” all of which had thousands of voices matching Anthony Keidis’ resonating vocals. The band’s encore, kicked off by an impressive display of hand-walking from Flea, ran the emotional gamut over two songs, beginning with The Getaway’s touching “Goodbye Angels” and exploding—literally—with the grand finale of “Give It Away.”

photo by John Patrick Gatta

Just a few hours earlier, the What Stage crowd was similarly packed with thousands of fans, this time for Chance the Rapper, who hadn’t been on an official Bonnaroo lineup since 2014 but never let that stop him from making multiple appearances in the ensuing years, garnering him the honorary title “Mayor of Bonnaroo.” And, as in past years, Chance wouldn’t be confined to one stage, as he also introduced the duo of Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams for the live taping of their 2 Dope Queens podcast earlier in the day, along with participating in a pickup game at Bonnaroo’s volleyball court. Not to mention his SuperJam appearance later in the night (see below).

Speaking of dope queens, Saturday was full of them. After Bono and U2’s tribute to iconic women the previous night, the day’s lineup featured a parade of strong female acts, including power duo Deap Vally, Tegan and Sara (who welcomed Queens’ Robinson and Williams for their final tune), sister trio Joseph (who made a rare immediate return to The Farm after appearing last year), all-women rock quartet Warpaint, Richmond’s Lucy Dacus and more.

photo by Alec Gowan

The boys had notable contributions as well, kicking off with some low-slung-guitar rock from Big Jesus and continuing with Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real, who proved they don’t need frontman Neil Young to put on a great show and why real, hardworking country rock will always have a place on the festival scene.

Over on the main What Stage, New Jersey’s The Front Bottoms brought their acoustic-guitar-led pop punk while making sure not to take themselves too seriously. Near the end of the set, frontman Brian Sella—with considerable urging from the crowd—shotgunned a can of beer, noting, “This has gotta be the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”

Continuing the trend of dynamic frontmen, Rainbow Kitten Surprise’s Sam Melo led a powerhouse afternoon set, while Future Islands’ Samuel T. Herring took over the main stage with his patented energetic dance moves.

Elsewhere, Londoner Michael Kiwanuka appeared in This Tent as the sun began its merciful decline to the horizon, opening with his neo-soul Big Little Lies theme song “Cold Little Heart,” while The Head and the Heart stole hearts with their sing-along closer “Rivers and Roads” on the Which Stage. Just prior to the headlining set at the main stage, Cage the Elephant’s Matt Shultz primed Bonnaroovians for Kiedis with his own powerhouse-shirtless-frontman offering.

As always, the late-night Bonnaroo SuperJam brought together an eclectic group of acts on the lineup, along with some other additions. Preservation Hall Jazz Band led The Soul Shakedown, which featured the hosts playing “Everybody Dance Now,” bassist George Porter Jr. leading the way on The Meters’ “Hand Clapping Song,” Mayor Chance performing a couple tunes for his constituents, Nashville’s Rayland Baxter on Prince’s “Little Red Corvette,” Nicole Atkins belting The Rolling Stones’ “Time is On My Side,” Margo Price and Lukas Nelson teaming up for Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler’s “Love and Happiness” and more.

50 years after it was born in Northern California, the U.S. festival scene is alive and well, enjoying a plentiful golden anniversary. And, 16 years after its own birth, Bonnaroo has come to embody a kind of epitome of the genre, exemplified in this year’s festival, those that came before it and—we can only hope—the many happy returns to The Farm in store for the future.