J. Cole announces return of Dreamville Festival to NC’s Dix Park. Here’s when.
North Carolina rapper J. Cole announced Tuesday that his second annual Dreamville Festival will return to Dix Park in Raleigh next year.
Dreamville Festival will be staged Saturday, April 4. Limited specially priced tickets go on sale Wednesday, Dec. 11, at noon.
In its first year, the festival attracted 40,000 people to the 308-acre park south of downtown with at least 70% of visitors from out of town. It was a showcase for artists on Cole’s Dreamvillle label, but also included nationally known talent like SZA, Big Sean, 21 Savage, 6LACK, Nelly and the Triangle’s Grammy-nominated Rapsody.
Cole will curate the lineup again, with an announcement of acts expected in early 2020, according to a news release.
The daylong festival was held on two stages across the park, with art and other activities everywhere in-between.
The 2019 festival had been in the works for several years, with Cole wanting to hold a large-scale event in his home state. Cole was raised in Fayetteville and now lives in Raleigh. It originally was scheduled for September 2018, but was postponed as Hurricane Florence hit the state.
The day after it was held this April, Raleigh officials deemed the event a success, and a positive test for staging events of that size in Dix Park.
Attendees mostly complained about long lines at food trucks and spotty cell service. Despite rain the previous day, the event was only a bit muddy.
“The city definitely had a great experience with Dreamville,” said Joseph Voska, program supervisor for Dix Park, after the festival, The News & Observer reported.
“One of the big attractive piece to the city of Raleigh, for why we decided to do Dreamville, is we wanted a test,” Voska said. “We wanted a test to see what this area of Raleigh, what Dix Park, with downtown Raleigh — how would it all come together? As future opportunities come up for the the city of Raleigh, how did we handle it? And what we’ve seen so far, we handled it pretty well.”
Sascha Stone Guttfreund, president of ScoreMore, told Billboard.com in April that organizers hadn’t set out to sell 40,000 tickets. But sales went well, even without a lineup announcement. ScoreMore obtained permission from the city to increase festival capacity.
Like last year’s festival, a portion of the 2020 proceeds will go to Cole’s Dreamville Foundation and the Dorothea Dix Park Conservancy.
The festival announcement comes as Cole and his label are celebrating the Grammy nomination of “Revenge of the Dreamers III,” a compilation of music from the label’s artists (and Dreamville Festival entertainers). The album is up for Best Rap Album.
Cole also earned a nomination for Best Rap Performance for “Middle Child” and “Down Bad” with J.I.D, Bas, EarthGang and Young Nudy.
Cole is nominated for Best Rap Song for his contribution to 21 Savage’s “A Lot” as well as for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration in support of Young Thug’s “The London,” featuring Travis Scott.
Ticket information
Early-bird GA (starting at $79) and VIP (starting at $229) passes are available for purchase now by signing up for the ticket presale at DreamvilleFest.com.
Various VIP Packages this year include JV VIP ($229), Varsity VIP ($269), and MVP VIP ($399).
This story was originally published December 10, 2019 at 12:27 PM with the headline "J. Cole announces return of Dreamville Festival to NC’s Dix Park. Here’s when.."