Bonnaroo: Politician Arrested for DUI After Leaving Festival

The 2022 Bonnaroo Music Festival got off to a raucous start on Friday night, and local politicians were involved. According to a report by The Tennessean, Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett was arrested after the night’s concerts were over and charged with driving under the influence. In a public statement on Saturday, Hargett seemed to confirm that the charges were valid.

“On Friday night after leaving the Bonnaroo Music Festival, I was stopped by the Tullahoma Police Department and subsequently arrested for DUI,” Hargett wrote in an email to local reporters. “Driving Under the Influence is a serious matter, and I regret the circumstances that led to my arrest. I respect law enforcement and will trust the legal process as we move forward.”

Hargett is 53 years old and is a lifelong Tennessee native. He served in the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1996 to 2006 representing District 97 – the area including Memphis, Tennessee. He was nominated to the position of Tennessee Regulatory Authority chairman in 2007 and then to Secretary of State after that.

Hargett was reportedly booked into the Coffee County Jail just after 1 a.m. on Saturday and released just before 5:30 p.m. local time. It is not clear when he will be due in court.

Bonnaroo is one of the biggest and most eclectic music festivals in the U.S., and like many others it pulled out all the stops for its return in 2022. It was created in 2002 and is always held in Great Stage Park in Manchester, Tennessee on the second Thursday in June. The festival was canceled outright in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then again in 2021 due to excessive rain caused by Hurricane Ida.

Like all such festivals, Bonnaroo tends to come with some arrests related to intoxication. A 2019 report by The Tennessean noted that arrests were down from the previous year, but citations were increased significantly. Police said that most of those citations were related to drugs and alcohol. There is not enough data to say whether this trend has carried over into the 2022 festival – the first one since.

Bonnaroo continues through Sunday, June 19. So far Hargett and the state government have not offered any updates or further details on his arrest.