Fifth-Year Dreamville Ushers In New Era For J. Cole Festival

Having endured hurricanes and a pandemic shutdown over the course of its seven-year history, the 2025 edition of the J. Cole-owned and curated Dreamville Festival ushers in a new era for music festivals at Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh.

“We’re super proud of the fact that this thing has grown to the scale that it has lasted as long as it has,” says Adam Roy, Dreamville Festival president and co-founder of Dreamville Records. In the week leading up to the April 5-6 event, the festival was 99 percent sold out with only MVP VIP suites remaining, and those expected to be sold come showtime. Capacity is 50,000 per day. “It’s been cool to see. Hats off to all the other artists who do go this route. It’s not an easy thing to do, but it’s been pretty incredible to have made this home for our fanbase and watch this thing blossom over the years.”

Leading the lineup over the weekend were Lil Wayne and New Orleans hip-hop super group Hot Boys, 21 Savage, Ludacris, Ari Lennox, Chief Keef, Keyshia Cole, Erykah Badu, Tems, GloRilla and, of course, North Carolina’s own J. Cole himself closing out Sunday night. Dreamville labelmates like J.I.D and EarthGang help round out the event, which features a tighter lineup than festivals of its size.

“Dreamville has incredible fans,” Roy added. “We can only take so much credit for that, but, they set the tone and part of the vibe for the festival. It’s certainly a contributing factor to how smooth and plugged in everything is. I think we got the best fans in the game.”

Starting at a time when artist-curated festivals seemed to be the wave of the future, with new events like Post Malone’s Posty Fest and Travis Scott’s Astroworld doing stadium-sized shows, Dreamville has endured as an anchor event at Raleigh’s Dorothea Dix Park, which recently announced a four-year deal to host a new music festival with Dreamville’s operators. It’s being called a new brand with the same team, with J. Cole’s direct involvement and under the Dreamville brand, but not necessarily including performances by the artist.

“We’re going to be here for years to come,” said Sascha Stone Guttfreund, whose ScoreMore Shows was instrumental in developing Dreamville festival, later partnering with Live Nation. “This is a multi-year deal, and we’re so excited to be working with the city of Raleigh together on something new and exciting, and to continue to build on this incredible thing that we’ve done over the years.”

Roy says the growth of the festival has been steady and deliberate, starting with early touring days with partners including ScoreMore Shows and shepherded by longtime J. Cole agent Robert Gibbs, now a partner at UTA co-heading the agency’s Atlanta office. Roy says Raleigh was always receptive to the idea of Dreamville festival and has remained valuable partners with an ideal site for the event.

“It all made sense on paper, and we started talking to the city and they had a new park that they were trying to turn into their (version) of Central Park, pretty much, which sounded like something that we could contribute to,” says Roy. “We met with (former) Mayor McFarland and one of her big goals and really one of her major legacies was the creation of Dorothea Dix Park, which has its own history and was once a kind of sordid history, but it’s been revived with this new vision. I’m on the park’s board of conservancy and got to visit the new Gibson Play Plaza today and was just floored. They’ve got a full master plan for the entire 300-plus acres. It’s world class, and public and for free. I’ve been kind of in awe every year that Dreamville Fest helped open up this grand goal for Raleigh, North Carolina.”

He says Live Nation’s involvement has been crucial in organizing the event, calling it an “incredible partnership” that “I don’t think we could have done it without.” He adds that Dreamville Festival is wholly owned by Dreamville, making it the largest artist-owned festival.

While mum was the word for what the future holds for whatever new festival brand is taking Dreamville’s place, Roy says he’s proud of what he and the team has produced, and was eager for the weekend, with favorable weather conditions appearing likely.

“I think we’ve put together an incredible lineup,” says Roy, also proud of the event’s continued success while doing blind presales and last-minute lineup announcements. “I’m from New Orleans, so getting Lil Wayne and Hot Boys and Big Tymers all together is going to be a pretty awesome moment for me. The team is super excited about Keyshia Cole and it’s the 20 year anniversary of her album The Way It is, so I think that’s going to be a pretty special moment.”
But, perhaps especially being potentially the last time as Dreamville Festival, the event begins and ends with Cole.

“The base of it all is the incredible fanbase J. Cole has put together,” Roy said. “He always gives 100 percent and he’s one of the most incredible performers to watch.”