What So Not & Alina Pash Turn Bonnaroo’s Rainout Into a Rave Revolution

When Bonnaroo 2025 was called off, What So Not and Alina Pash didn’t sulk—they built something better. Within a day, they pulled together three sold-out shows across Nashville, featuring new collabs, unreleased tracks, live experimentation, and suprisingly—hot chicken handed out to the crowd. I know, I’m jealous too.

So what happens when your biggest festival set gets canceled? Apparently, a city-wide pop-up rave trilogy.

“I was asked, ‘Do you want to do this 4,000-person show and throw a party?’ And then it sells out in two minutes,” What So Not (aka Chris Emerson) said. “Then they’re like, ‘Wanna play this little bar?’ That sells out. So we just kept going. We ended up doing three sold-out shows that one night with like nine hours’ notice.”

Bonnaroo’s Out, But the Party’s Not

Some artists and agents saw the Bonnaroo cancellation coming. “A couple of the managers were already trying to lock down venues,” Emerson explained. “They knew it could go south.”

Levity and INZO kicked things off with a Pinnacle show invite, and the momentum took off fast. ATLiens joined in, fans poured out of their canceled weekend plans, and suddenly, Nashville turned into its own DIY festival.

And even in the chaos, there were moments of magic. “Alina and I had only worked together the Monday before,” Emerson said. “We wrote a track, and I was like—should we open my Bonnaroo set with this?” Instead, it made its live debut at a pop-up.

Backstage Mayhem, Chicken, and Drum & Bass

The night was anything but easy – “I had Maiah [Manser] and MNDR jumping in on the fly,” Emerson said. “The original set was time-coded and tightly programmed, but when everything flipped, I was calling out cues from the wings. Maiah performed three times that night—twice I accidentally played the wrong version of the song, and she still crushed it.”

MNDR, another long-time collaborator, also joined in to bring some of the live show elements to life – performing their tracks from What So Not’s latest EP, Motions. “Everyone was rolling with the chaos,” he said. “And somehow it felt even more alive.”

Each set took on its own personality:

• Pinnacle was the polished version, complete with guest appearances – similar to the original plan for Bonnaroo.
• The second show was for the diehards, with deep cuts and an anti-scalper door-only ticket model.
• The final set? A sweaty, unhinged warehouse drum & bass blowout with chicken served straight to the crowd.

Between busted USBs, last-minute laptop runs, and missing stage monitors, the team stayed flexible. “It forced us to be creative,” Emerson said. “I love doing different sets, and with the chaos, we just leaned into it. Unreleased tracks, surprise guests, pure spontaneity.”

The Collab: Slavic Vocals Meet Future Bass

The new track between What So Not and Alina Pash wasn’t just a last-minute add-on—it became the heartbeat of the weekend.

“We had a pretty deep conversation,” Alina said. “I’m Ukrainian, from the mountains. We have traditional singing. I asked Chris if I could bring that into the track. Not everyone’s open to it—it’s not English, it’s experimental.”

But he was in. “He said, ‘Yeah, of course, drop it.’ So we recorded choirs in Ukrainian—and then said, maybe let’s do it in English too. It was an amazing experiment.”

The message? Unity. “It’s about being one heartbeat,” Alina said. “That we’re all frequency. That we can feel connected without words.”

And people felt it. “That moment—people didn’t understand the language, but jaws dropped,” Emerson said. “That’s what dance music can do.”

Work in Progress, In Real Time

The duo is already working on more tracks—literally in between interviews. “This is the break between track one and track two,” Emerson laughed. “She’s got something new for me I haven’t even heard yet.”

“The first one was romantic,” Alina added. “The second? Totally not. We’re humans—we’re complex. Let’s explore all of it.”

Lessons Learned and Love to the Fans

Of course, adapting on the fly had its moments. “My manager was at a wedding when Bonnaroo canceled,” Emerson laughed. “Suddenly he’s on a group call with all the main agents trying to reschedule shows. We had a team of like eight or nine people out there. Even the logistics of getting people to the site, fixing USB formatting issues, running to a house to grab a laptop. This stuff happens—but when you’re doing so much on a whim, it compounds. I was just glad I had really good people around.”

Still, he holds no grudges. “I feel for Bonnaroo so much. It’s such a cool festival. The community they’ve built is special. It deserves to thrive.”

 And as for the fans? Alina put it best: “From hard times, we’re learning. Let’s keep believing. Let’s support Bonnaroo. I only heard positive things about them. Peace to the world. And let’s make festivals, not wars.”

From last-minute lineups to cultural fusion tracks, What So Not and Alina Pash proved that when the main stage goes dark, you make your own light.

Three shows. One night. Zero regrets.

And if this is what they can do on a whim… just wait ‘til they plan it.