Over the past few years, the first
weekend in April has marked a musical celebration — the Dreamville Festival,
which attracted top performers and fans from around to world to Raleigh’s Dix
Park.
However, since Raleigh officials
and Dreamville organizers announced
a new music festival would be taking over, details have been scarce.
WRAL Investigates obtained
documents that explain the city’s deal with festival organizers, which includes
the agreement for the multi-year deal.
A 2021 contract requires Live Nation
to book and promote a certain number of events. The
Dreamville Festival is not mentioned by name.
However, a 2025 event agreement show the
festival agreement is between the City of Raleigh and ScoreMore
Holdings, LLC. Live Nation has
a majority stake in ScoreMore Holdings, LLC.
The event agreement still sets the
dates for future festivals in April. However, the language does not show an
obligation to hold a festival.
“Such options are available
regardless of whether a festival is held in a particular year,” the agreement
reads.
It even gives an example: “(for
illustrative purposes only, Event Organizer and Dreamville Festival, LLC shall
have the option described herein for 2029 regardless of whether a festival is
held in 2026, 2027, or 2028).”
For the 2025 Dreamville Festival, tickets went on sale in mid-December and the
lineup of performers was announced about a month before the
festival. But for spring 2026, neither of those milestones has been reached.
“The traditional date for Dreamville
is the first weekend of April, and Easter falls on that weekend this year. We
are discussing other possible dates with the organizers, but don’t have a firm
date at this point,” City spokesperson Julia Milstead said.
WRAL also reached out to Live
Nation, Dreamville and ScoreMore Holdings, LLC via email. We did not hear back
before our deadline.
“This would be about the time we
would be getting excited about Dreamville,” said Kiyomi Ownbey, the owner of
vintage shop Father and Son. “I believe adding R&B and rap to
another festival was amazing. It sort of makes Raleigh a great music hub –
which we already have been, but it put us on a different platform. It opened us
up to a bigger audience.”
Economic Impact
WRAL talked to Ownbey about the
uncertainty of the festival’s future.
“No small business wants to
encounter any dip in sales,” she said.
Ownbey said she, and other small
businesses, always look forward to major events in the city. She said it brings
more foot traffic and a sense of community.
“I hope that we are able to continue
to have it in whatever form they would like to give us. We will support it, if
they bring it,” she said.
She said she wants to see another music
festival come to Raleigh but understands if organizers need more time “depending
on who would be taking over the logistics for it.”
“[Organizers] did their homework.
They put the effort in to understand the demographics of the area, the
logistics of the area,” Ownbey said. “You want to complement what’s already
there, so you’re adding higher quality to their living. I think that does take
time.”
Visit Raleigh and the City of
Raleigh previously said they expected the Raleigh’s “reputation as a music
destination” would continue to grow in 2026 when
WRAL previously noted the departure of two major music festivals.
In 2024, Raleigh raked in $145.9
million in economic impact from Dreamville. The economic impact from 2025’s
festival has not been released yet.
The agreement sets a fixed fee of
$125,000 per year for a single festival and $225,000 per year for two
consecutive festivals during the 2026–2029 period to the City of Raleigh.
If the festival does come together
this year, the contracts says that at least one of the Dreamville
“key festival decision-makers” need to be a part of the future festival as an
operator, producer or lead Live Nation representative. The contract does
not name those key festival decision-makers,” but Dreamville originated as
the brainchild of Fayetteville musician J.Cole.
The festival would also be allowed
to sell up to 52,500 tickets. An estimated 52,000 people attended each day of
Dreamville Festival in
2024.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.wral.com ’
