Bonnaroo Day 4 in pics (Bon Iver, The Shins, Kurt Vile, Black Lips, Antlers, Kenny Rogers, Lionel Richie & more)

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

Bon Iver/The Shins

Oddly enough, 73-year-old Kenny Rogers--a last-minute Bonnaroo addition several decades past from his peak hit-making days--was among the day's breakout acts. Playing for one of his youngest audiences in recent member, Rogers offered a set of hits that included "The Gambler," "Islands in the Stream" and other songs most of the crowd had never seen live. Near the end of his show, Rogers also brought out the weekend's biggest surprise guest, cross-generational pop icon Lionel Richie, to sing on his own "Lady" and "All Night Long" (Richie considers Rogers his mentor and joined the veteran country star at SXSW this past March.) Every year The Mayor of Manchester also awards one Bonnaroo artist the keys to the city, and The Gambler received ths year's honor during an unexpected mid-set ceremony...

Bon Iver, who spent his early years in jam and roots-rock bands but functioned as Sunday's What Stage indie rock headliner, made a point to stretch out his songs a bit more than usual. At one point he called the audience "sunburnt," and he asked them to join him in a call-and-response jam. As more than a few artists pointed out throughout the weekend, hippiedom is still fully engrained in Bonnaroo's DNA. -[Jambands]

If you missed it, make sure and catch up on our coverage of Bonnaroo with pictures of day 1 HERE, day 2 HERE, day 3 HERE and our Beach Boys coverage on day 4 HERE.