Trotter mural will be unveiled outside the Clay Studio in South Kensington. On Thursday, Roberto Lugo’s The Talented Mr.
Roots Picnic weekend will also include a series of events around Philadelphia. The QuestLoves Food Cookout area is curated by Philly food YouTuber J.L. Comedian Clint Coley hosts a spades tournament. Short films chosen by the BlackStar Film Festival will be shown. The Skyline Stage will be the Podcast Stage, programmed by Philly hip-hop personalities Wallo267 and Gillie Da King, with highlights including Questlove Supreme and Jemele Hill interviewing North Philly hoops legend Dawn Staley. This year, it will be done with many nonmusical attractions. “This is the Philadelphia festival for Philadelphia by Philadelphia,” says Trotter, talking on the phone from his office at 30 Rockefeller Center before a taping of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last week. The Roots Picnic is the model and originator, the shining star in the LN Urban constellation. Blige’s Strength of a Woman, which debuted on Mother’s Day weekend in Atlanta.Īll those fests have a shared focus: “Black culture from a Black perspective,” says Gee.
Gee puts on festivals around the country like H.E.R.’s Lights on Festival in California and Mary J. “We’ll probably - knock on wood - have upwards of 60,000 tickets sold across the weekend,” says Gee, the founder of Live Nation Urban, the Los Angeles-based division of the concert promotion behemoth. The first day of the fest - when The Roots and Blige’s set will close the show on Saturday night - will be livestreamed on YouTube. There will be sets by gospel stars Kirk Franklin and Tye Tribbett, country vocalist Mickey Guyton, jazz pianist Robert Glasper with Bilal, and rappers Rick Ross, Rakim (with DJ Jazzy Jeff), Chief Keef, Freddie Gibbs, G Herbo, and Tierra Whack. Blige, R&B singers Summer Walker and Jazmine Sullivan, jazz bandleader Kamasi Washington, and Nigerian pop star Wizkid. Headliners includes The Roots playing with Mary J. More than double in size, it’s now a two-day event with four stages spread throughout the expanded Mann campus. This weekend, the festival will return after two virtual-only years. And when rapper Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter and drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and crew moved to the Mann Center in 2019, it exploded, drawing over 22,000 to the campus of the Fairmount Park venue. Over the course of a decade on that Penn’s Landing blacktop, the Picnic quintupled in size. How big? When the festival created by Philadelphia’s - and the world’s - most beloved hip-hop band debuted at the Festival Pier in 2008, “2,000 people showed up in a parking lot,” Roots manager Shawn Gee remembers. The Roots Picnic is back, bigger than ever.