Grammy-award-winning artist J. Cole held his annual Dreamville Festival concert this past weekend. This is his fifth year putting on the event at Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh, North Carolina. In 2022, the festival brought in 5 million dollars in revenue with a crowd size of 80,000 people.
This year broke records with over 100,000 people cheering in the crowd for music’s biggest acts out right now. Day 1 of the festival started off with R&B legend Usher headlining the show. Usher decided to play into April Fools by making the fans believe that Beyonce’ would join him on stage.
“I said I would have a special surprise,” Usher said.
“Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, put your hands together for the one, the only, Beyonce.” Even though the crowd was bamboozled by the R&B artist, he did bring to the stage the dynamic duo the City Girls. The city girls and boys sang along to their summer hit “Good Love.”
While on stage, Usher also took a chance to reflect on the 19th anniversary of his Diamond selling album “Confessions.” The album sold about 10 million copies in the U.S. alone. Other artists that took the stage were Lil Durk, Ari Lennox, City Girls, Sean Paul, Earthgang, Jessie Reyez, Toosii, SiR, Lute, Omen and Marqus Clay.
R&B artist Ari Lennox, who is signed to the Dreamville family, took the stage in an eye-catching silver dress with her abs on display. She performed fan favorites from her new album “Waste My Time.”
“My name is Ari Lennox and I’m so happy to be here,” Lennox said during her performance.
Dedicated fans were outside from 2 p.m. till almost 11 p.m. the first night. Day 2 wrapped up the festival with performances from Reuben Vincent, Jordan Ward, Cozz, Baby Tate, Ayra Starr, Mario, Waka Flocka Flame, Bas, JID, Summer Walker and Burna Boy.
To close out the show, the head of the festival, J. Cole took the stage to flex with some of his hit records “No Role Modelz” and “Power Trip.” While performing “Love Yourz”, J. Cole brought out special guest Drake, the headliner for Day 2.
Fans erupted in roars as Drake took the stage to “Sicko Mode”. Drake also brought other artists including Glorilla, Lil Uzi Vert, 21 Savage, and his boss/mentor Lil Wayne to the Dreamville stage. To close out the night and festival, Drake dedicated Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” to J. Cole while fans sang along. Dreamville Festival is not only a fun time for fans but has a huge fiscal impact on Raleigh, North Carolina.
Around 40 percent of vendors are local and this year it is expected this event will generate about 7.8 million dollars. Dreamville Festival announced that it will be returning in the spring of 2024. Make sure to visit https://dreamvillefest.com/ to stay updated on next year’s lineup.