Broccoli City’s Eighth Year Topped by DaBaby, Roddy Ricch, Megan Thee Stallion


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Washington, D.C.’s Broccoli City festival continues to prove its one of the most relevant and taste-making hip-hop events in the country, with this year’s lineup featuring red-hot artists including DaBaby, Roddy Ricch, Megan Thee Stallion, Burna Boy, Ari Lennox, Doja Cat, Lucky Daye, IDK, and Soulection, May 9 at the redeveloped RFK Campus.

“As a black-owned, millennial-led festival, we take great pride in our ability to create safe and authentic spaces for the black community to gather and celebrate the beauty of our culture,” stated Brandon McEachern and Marcus Allen, founders of Broccoli City Festival, which is produced in partnership with Live Nation Urban. “At a time like this, it’s imperative for us to protect these spaces and encourage one another to make their voices heard, which is why our return to Washington, D.C. is so important. Not only does this move symbolize a return to WHERE we started, it’s also symbolic of our return to the root of WHY we started — to educate, equip and mobilize millennials to build thriving urban communities that sustain future generations.”
Last year’s event took place at the grounds at FedexField, home of the NFL’s Washington Redskins, April 26-27 with Childish Gambino, Lil Wayne, Ella Mai, Teyana Taylor and many others, with about 28,000 people in attendance according to Live Nation Urban’s Brandon Pankey.
“It’s Washington DC’s largest urban festival, and to see over 25,000 millennials there having a great time, particularly African-American millennials, it was something to behold,” Pankey told Pollstar at the time.  
Beyond the music, this year’s Broccoli City promises an expanded festival footprint, improved entry lanes, enhanced brand activations, and more. New this year will be a Crown Royal-branded Royal Experience pass, allowing special viewing areas, a VIP lounge and more.
“We are excited to welcome Broccoli City Festival back to the District of Columbia to celebrate our culture and our values at the newly redeveloped RFK Campus,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a statement. “DC is the capital of creativity, and as it is every summer, we expect that creativity will be on full display at Broccoli City.”
General Admission tickets start at $79, with tickets going on sale Jan. 24. 
Live Nation Urban, led by Shawn Gee, has been very active in recent years, continuing long-running artist-curated events such as the Roots Picnic in Philadelphia, and producing a new Lights On festival led by R&B star H.E.R. to go along with other events including Kirk Franklin’s gospel event and Lil Wayne’s Weezyana.
“The beauty of what we’re doing is building these platforms from scratch,” Gee, also a partner at artist management firm Maverick, told Pollstar previously, . “We’re 100% entrepreneurial in spirit. We’re not sitting and waiting for agents to call us with a tour idea. [VP of talent and touring] Heather Lowery had the idea for ‘Femme it Forward,’ and from initial vision presentation by us to our first onsale was probably a matter of weeks. We’re in a unique position where we can incubate those ideas and bring them to market relatively quickly.”