Manchester, Tennessee

For most of the year, Manchester is a relative non-starter along the I-24 corridor, just another blip on the asphalt ribbon heading toward Nashville. At about 10,000 people, it doesn’t even break into the list of the state’s most populous towns.

Since June 2002, however, it has served as the host of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, and for the three days gates are open, it graduates from a mere pit stop to pretty much the center of the musical universe.

With the arrival of the festival, Manchester’s population swells tenfold as fans trek sometimes hundreds of miles to rock out at an event that Rolling Stone magazine once included on a list of “50 Moments that Changed Rock & Roll.” Set on a sprawling, 700-acre farm, the event effectively turns Manchester into Tennessee’s seventh largest city.

But while Bonnaroo is the most feathery plume in Manchester’s hat – and the inroad for an estimated $50 million to the statewide and local economy, according to a 2013 report – there are plenty of reasons to visit year-round. Even when the stages are silent and the campgrounds deserted, visitors can still find plenty to do, from grabbing a bite to eat to working up a sweat at a 69,000-square-foot recreation center to rambling through the historic and natural splendor of Old Stone Fort Archaeological Park and May Prairie.