Michelle Obama, Black Thought, Questlove To Host The Roots Picnic Virtual Festival Experience

The Roots will once again be putting on their annual Picnic, this time in digital form, in partnership with Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote nonprofit.

The event is being streamed exclusively on YouTube June 27 with performances from The Roots, H.E.R., Roddy Ricch, Lil Baby, SZA, Kirk Franklin, Snoh Aalegra, Earthgang, G Herbo, Polo G, D Nice and Musiq Soulchild. It is being hosted by Michelle Obama, Black Thought and Questlove. There will also be appearanes from Lin Manuel Miranda, Chris Paul, Tom Hanks, Janelle Monáe, Kerry Washington and more.

The event is being executive produced by Live Nation Urban’s Shawn Gee, Questlove, Tarik Trotter of Two One Five Entertainment and Dan Parise of DPS. 

One of the goals of the event’s partnership with When We All Vote is to reach and engage 500,000 eligible voters – specifically black people between the ages of 21-35 – and have volunteers reach out to them throughout the program through the organizing platform Outvote. Volunteers can sign up here. 

“Historically, Questlove & Black Thought have always been very active participants in the voting process, however I felt that it was imperative that this year I open up both The Roots and my Live Nation Urban platforms as vehicles for both voter education and voter registration,” Shawn Gee, The Roots manager and President of Live Nation Urban said in a statement. “Our goal is to aggressively impact change and we’re going to have some fun while doing so. This year, we are incredibly proud to partner with Mrs. Obama’s When We All Vote to ensure our audience has the resources they need to register and vote in November’s election.”

The in-person Roots Picnic at Fairmount Park has been postponed to 2021. It has historically been co-produced with Geoff Gordon and Live Nation Philadelphia and grossed $819,811 on 13,747 tickets sold in 2017.