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Dreamville, a music festival created by Fayetteville native and rapper J. Cole, will be held Saturday, April 1 and Sunday, April 2.

RALEIGH, N.C. — This weekend's sold-out Dreamville music festival at Raleigh's Dix Park will include a greater police presence inside the park, as well as around the park's perimeter, officials said at a news conference on Monday.

Raleigh Police Department Lieutenant James Stokes said there is a "robust security plan" in place that includes support from multiple law enforcement agencies throughout Wake County.

The festival is set for Saturday and Sunday at Dix Park. It is created by Fayetteville native and rapper J. Cole, who will headline the event along with performers including Usher, Ari Lennox and Drake.

City officials and Dreamville organizers provide an update about the festival ahead of this weekend's sold-out event.

Make sure you prepare yourself before the festival and where you should be parking, how you're going to get here. So all that information is on the website. If you are not attending the festival, just use caution coming in this area. Like you can imagine with 50,000 people coming here to Dick's Park, there's going to be a lot of traffic in this area. So plan accordingly. If you are coming to the festival, know how you going to get here, know what you can bring. All that information is on the Greenville Festival website. And then if you're not attending the festival and you do have plans within this Dick Park area this weekend, just make sure you plan accordingly. It's going to be a lot going on. A lot of exciting things going on here at the park with all of the folks coming in and all of the festival activities occurring. So, are there any specific questions anyone has about the festival? Good morning. Will you tell me your name? Hey, Dina. Um Can you guys talk about um any security changes that you heard a lot about Mass Lieutenant Stokes with the Raleigh Police department to answer that question. Sure, we have a big robust security plan as we did last year, we have beefed up security, an officer presence this year because of the increased attendance. This year, we will have multiple agencies throughout law enforcement agents throughout Wake County helping us out. So you will see in addition to the Raleigh Police Department and the Wake County Sheriff's office and the State Capitol Police Department, you'll see various agencies from Wake County that will be coming in to help us out. So you will see a lot of officers in different, different uniforms and we do appreciate the help that they've given us for this weekend as well for people. I'm Destiny, um W R for people who have attended in the past, what will be different in terms of their experience. Um We talked about how there's different interns, what else will be different for you. Um So as far as security, things will be very much the same as they were last year in terms of the security, the entrances and the gates, I can refer to dream bill for those specifics. But as far as our law enforcement safety plan, things will be similar, you would just see more, more officer presence, Adam. Do you want to talk a little bit about that? This is on you? But um, within the site, will there be, um, emergency places or sets, is that your department where they may go help or something happens inside the park. Yes, we will have law enforcement inside the park on the field where the concert is happening. We also have officers out around the perimeter of the park. There will be emergency medical services inside the event as well. So if anyone needs any law enforcement assistance or medical assistance, it will be right there for them. I don't know if this is for you but um it within the next week or so up until the event, what can people that live in Raleigh expect in terms of any closure or anything that they need to know? So there will be a traffic impact around the event. There will be, you know, as you could expect with 50,000 people coming to an event, you're going to have traffic backups in the roads that are around, around Dicks Park as well as the interstate. A lot of people are going to be traveling from outside of Raleigh to get to Dicks Park. So you can just expect those delays. As mentioned already. There have been, there's been information put out about where people can park and what the best routes to take are coming in. But of course, you can expect that there will be some traffic backups I can add to that one too. So folks that are interested that usually come here to the park as you can kind of see the park is transforming into the Dream Festival set up So if you're used to coming to the park and visiting the dog park or just driving around the campus, I would definitely expect delays. The information is on our Dicks Park dot org website. On what to expect here on the campus. And like Lieutenant Stokes says around the area too, I would just expect heavier traffic, lots of trucks coming in and out, lots of traffic from staff that are here on the site helping build. So just more congestion, more things happening than on a typical weekday. Other questions. So I know that um the uh I know that like the media, the way that you guys are handling media this year has changed a little bit. Um How has, are you guys also modifying like who the vendors will be? How you guys choose who will be a part of the the experience doesn't think that pr director for the festival. So yes. So with respect to local vendors, ambassador programs, just staff we bring on, you know, the impact we make locally is very important to us. So we really try to source as much as we can from the rally in the Wake County community can't really speak to the media credential inside of it, but with respect to vendors. Yeah, again, that will continue to be a big emphasis for us if I'm not mistaken, I believe we have over 50 food vendors which we want to make sure everyone's nice and fed while they're here, I know that there's a greater impact with respect to local nonprofit organizations that we're inviting out as well. And again, all of this information will be provided via social media and our website. So we're getting ready to kind of unveil that information here in the next few days. So make sure to look at dream fest on social media to learn more. I can't give you a specific number, but I would say a strong, strong majority are all from the Raleigh Wake County community. We have an outside concessionaire experts that we bring on and their real target is to bring in those from the local community so that we can make a bigger economic impact here as well as their businesses off site. Can we get your name? Yes. Hicks, T R E Y H IC K s. Um Just circling back to her question earlier about the entrance. What's different when the people who are ticket holders come through? What should they expect? Yeah. So, you know, we're always looking to improve the festival going experience, which includes entering and exiting the festival. So we're always, if I'm not mistaken, you looking to kind of always tweak that kind of egress system to make sure that we don't into any issues during the show. So we've kind of expanded the box office. Again, we do have an east and west depending on where you all come in. So we're able to service our attendees regardless of what entry point they access. Yes, it's been every year since we've originated. But again, with respect to this year, we have expanded those capabilities. Again, just to make sure we can get folks in and out a little bit quicker. I can add to that just to, just to make sure everybody's on the same page. So from a local perspective, so this whole campus will be closed to the public. So if you're not, if you don't have tickets for the festival, this whole campus will be shut down. So if you're used to coming into the park over the weekend or things like that, you will only be able to access the park site if you have credentials for the festival. Other questions, I think this might be for Lauren um in terms of just bringing people into the area restaurant. Yes. So, you know, year over year, we work closely with Adam and the dream team in trade to substantiate and measure the impact year over year. Last year, we were roughly around 6.8 million in direct economic impact. The pre event calculation this year based on the trends based on 80% of the ticket holders last year being actual visitors either day trip or overnight and the increase in capacity. So that's 2000 more a day. We're looking at 7.8 million pre event projected post event will again work with Adam and Trey and the team to look at ticket data to look at zip codes, city state great event. All 50 states were represented last year over 12 international countries and the ticket holding population. So we expect another really big number. I think the other thing to add to that, we ran about 92% occupancy Countywide last year. So that's all hotel rooms county wide and we were almost completely sold out. The room demand this year is somewhere around 27,000 room nights over the 2.5, 3 day period. Yep. Oh Right. Um So aside from the economic impact, which is enormous, there's a huge, almost like uh I wanted the culture impact that's happening here with Ville, coming back every single year, the number of people, you guys are obviously expanding. Talk to me a little bit about why that's important to like kind of hone in on and, and, and treat volley with this with this culture. Well, Adam Rodney would uh dream, dream, dream co-founder and president. Um This is our, our home state. This is where J Cole is born. This is where he's from. Um This is his uh where he want, he lives here and he wants to set up here and bring this festival back every year to impact his home state. That's first and foremost. Um On top of that, we felt like there just weren't enough uh of any festivals on the east coast that really cater to hip hop and R and B in the same way that we care about it. So, um it's exciting to be back here. This is our, our home, my home away from home. Um And you guys have always welcomed us in and we have a good time here. It's incredible actually, like to see it year over year. Um And then over the hurdles that we've dealt with with COVID and hurricanes and everything and still see this festival come back stronger and stronger. Every year is pretty awesome to see, just to feel like the excitement around town and we talk to people just downtown or wherever, doing other stories and, and there's a buzz. Do you, do you notice that as well? Like a palpable kind of excitement for this event here? Absolutely. I think any time you have a lineup that includes Cole and Drake, which them performing on stage together is going to be historic, uh Usher Summer Walker, some of these big names. Um This, this is the biggest festival in the state and we, we try to bring talent that can get people excited. Anything else we can answer or address a I was just gonna say I, I work with the city of Raleigh but um it seems like this is um is generational because my son is 14 in high school. Holy crap. They're all excited about it. You know, then I've got my bosses who are all excited about coming here to see Usher and you know, J Cole and stuff. So, um are you guys seeing that, that multigenerational? Yeah, it's intentional. Uh We, we intentionally try to book talent that we feel caters a little bit to, to our generation a little bit over. Um We, we always call it kind of a throwback slot that we try to have in the lineup. You know, these guys Payne is really relevant right now with his new record out, but that was something that we paid attention to last year to make sure that we have t Pain and then put that alongside somebody who else who might have a buzz right now. So you get these different levels, you get high school kids, you get college kids. We're right next to N C State. It's important to have artists that resonate with them, but also older and above that. So my parents are coming, they have artists that they're excited to see. Uh And so it's that we do, it is intentional. I one last question um If for any reason, you all were not from the Raleigh North Carolina area just seeing as Raleigh is growing to become one of those cities, would you have still chosen Raleigh North Carolina to be the place to do this? Could you repeat the question one more time, Raley's growing? So I'm asking if you guys, this wasn't home base if you were just looking for a place to hold this incredible festival is Raley still a place just based off of how much it's grown and continues to grow. Yeah, Raleigh was always in our sights from, from day one when we met with the city, uh goes all the way back to, I think we've been, we initially started playing this thing in 2015, maybe a little bit earlier. Um Those were just conversations then and then I kind of grew into something real. I think Raleigh's, they've been great to us. So I don't see another home for this thing anywhere else in the home state of North Carolina. You with the way it's improved and grown each year. Do you plan on keeping, doing this in the future as well? Yeah. As long as y'all have us and as long as we sell tickets, I think we'll, we'll be here, I think uh the park is, is excellent. I don't think you could have asked for a better venue for a Dream festival. Um There's not too many festivals that have, you know, blue skies a little gray today, but uh blue skies and green hills and trees. So, um, you know, we love it here. Yeah, this is with the news and observer. I don't know if this question has been asked already, but what are some other events and special I take other than my last year? Sure thing. Yeah. So we work tirelessly on putting together different art activations. Um different activities within the festival. Uh We brought back our massive ferris wheel. Um There'll be different um photo opportunities on the ground. Uh Also, I think the food and, and getting a different taste of different vendors and different tastes of North Carolina is also a point that people should check out. And then when you kind of venture outside of the festival, we try to schedule different programming throughout the city. We're doing an event over at Cam that I'm super excited about that has a focus really on the other parts of music, the producers, the behind the scenes, we call it a little bit of our creative and industry panel. Um So over there, there's a ton of different producers and artists who will be speaking about their experience in the music industry. Um We're also doing our pop up shop down on Southwest Street as well. Um There's a few parties, some of them official, some of them aren't ours, but you know, go check those out too if you like, we just try to generally bring a vibrance to the city for the whole weekend. So if you're not on the festival grounds, there's certainly a lot to do in the city and I hope everybody can step out and enjoy it. The panel is at, at, at Cam Raleigh. Yeah, I'm just curious and again, I'm Luke with W R L. I'm curious just getting the bigger names to come here, the Usher and the T I mean, did it take much coercing or is Jay Cole just says, hey, dream and they, they're in, it's, it's a combination of both. Um you know, Cole myself Eve and then Sasha, we, we mull over what our lineup is gonna look like. Some of those require some favor, some of those require some calls. And then our booking agents also work tirelessly to get that enacted. So yeah, it's a combination. But then also over at Can, we've got talent over there too. We've got Timlin is going to speak about his production process over there. We've got different producers like O G Parker and Jetson May, some of our dream old producers, one of whom is going to be honored uh for his career in production as well. Um So most of it is family, you know, uh we've been in this industry a long time and been blessed to have met a bunch of incredible people and we just try to tell them about this place and bring them here on anybody's mind. I just want to say on behalf of the city of Raleigh, we are just so thankful to the partnership with Dream Bill and working with Adam and Trey and the whole dream team. We love the opportunity to expose the world to Dick's Park and to the city of Raleigh. So we're just so grateful and say thank you to you all to continue to come back to our community and bring this amazing event. So, thank you very much. Thanks everybody for your time. No, we also on the festival side, like we understand how important this is to the community and we really couldn't do this without folks at the Dicks Park, at the city, the state, the county level P D fire E M, all those things. So really, this is a huge collaborative effort and we are just so grateful for their support. And the other thing that I wanted to touch upon, I know we talked about improvements to safety and whatnot, but there are big infrastructure changes that we've made with respect to the fan experience. One of which that will impact everyone is improve bathrooms, which is going to be used by everyone, not the traditional port a potties. Otherwise we are working with 18 T Verizon to improve cell reception on site. We are in terms of transportation, working with Lyft and Uber to provide more drop off and pick up locations. We've almost doubled the amount of transportation buses offered to fan from the downtown location. We're also working with the state and county for train access, scooters, bicycling, et cetera. So we really try to improve that experience. Not to mention the art activations, more food and drink on site. We also have a new ticket offering for G Plus which has its own grove. You know, VIP has expanded to provide better sightlines and more just enjoyable room and also one of our third kind of DJ stage, we have kind of reoriented that to put the Ferris Wheel there to ultimately offer more space for the stage, two attendees. So across the board, you know, we felt like we've had a lot of success the first two years. But again, we're always looking to improve and innovate. And so we're really excited to get started on Saturday. Yes. So we have the two stages. And what's great for fans too is the music is alternating back and forth. So ideally you can catch every second of main stage action, depending on whatever performer you'd like to see, which is a great offering for fans. Uh There will be some DJ S performing in between. Yes, that's correct. Any other questions? Thank y'all for coming out. We appreciate it. Thank you. Hm. No, I meant I meant that, um I

Dreamville organizers give update ahead of sold-out festival

Dreamville Festival

With thousands expected to crowd the park each day, festival organizers have added "improved bathrooms," instead of the typical portable potties featured at events, and are working with ATT and Verizon to beef up cell reception, Dreamville festival spokesperson Trey Hicks said Monday.

In addition, Hicks said that 50 food vendors will be on site, many of them locally based.

Traffic around the festival grounds is expected to be heavy, so Hicks said the festival has worked to double the number of buses shuttling festival-goers from downtown Raleigh to the park, between Western Boulevard and Centennial Parkway.

Dreamville festival lineup

Dreamville Records Creative Director Adam Rodney said the lineup each year is put together to appeal to a variety of generations.

Usher, Lil Durk, Ari Lennox, City Girls, Sean Paul, Earthgang, Jessie Reyez, Key Glock, Sir, Lute, Omen, Marqus Clae and Victony are set to perform on Saturday.

J. Cole and Drake will headline the second day of the festival, which will also include performances by Burna Boy, Summer Walker, J.I.D., Glorilla, Bas, Wake Flocka Flame, Mario, Ayra Starr, Baby Tate, Cozz, Jordan Ward and Reuben Vincent.

"There just weren’t enough festivals on the East Coast that catered to hip hop and R&B the way we care about it," Rodney said of the festival's origin.

As the sky brightened into a Carolina Blue on Sunday, J. Cole's Dreamville Festival was a celebration of North Carolina's culture. 

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Dreamville Festival 2022

An estimated <a href="https://www.wral.com/80-000-people-attended-dreamville-in-raleigh-generating-more-than-6-7-million/20308141/">80,000 people attended the festival </a>in 2022 after a years-long break due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first festival in 2019 attracted a crowd of 40,000 for just one day.

Last year's event featured multiple stages and popular artists like T-Pain and Ari Lennox along with new rappers. There was also a family-style cookout, artists, vendors, muralists and performers.

Loren Gold, the executive vice president of Visit Raleigh, said the city saw about $6.7 million in direct economic impact from the 2022 festival. On Monday, Gold said this year's projected impact is about $7.8 million.

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What's new at Dreamville this year: Better bathrooms, more security

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