J. Cole, Yes Jermaine Cole and the entire Dreamville family are bringing fans another installment of their annual Dreamville festival in 2024! It will take place at Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh, NC on April 6th and 7th, 2024. The festival is like a big family reunion for music lovers, as it showcases the continued growth of the Dreamville record label (J.Cole, JID, EARTHGANG, Bas, Ari Lenox, Lute, Cozz & Omen) and also includes special guest performances from the top R&B artists and Rappers. In this year’s lineup, SZA, Chris Brown, Nicki Minaj, and J.Cole will headline the festival. To see the full lineup checkout the post below.
When people hear the word Dreamville, a vast majority of individuals probably think of J.Cole first, but the entire label of artists features grammy nominated and world renowned acts. The festival is put together each year to celebrate how far this label has come in relatively a short amount of time. In order to fully understand the significance of the annual Dreamville Festival, you must understand the history behind the rise of Dreamville the record label.
Dreamville: Dreams to Reality 
Dreamville Records was first formed back in 2007. It was originally formed to help J.Cole (co-founder) release his music and his manager Ibrahim Hamad (co-founder) wanted to form a label. Ibrahim had known Cole since they both attended St. John’s University, so it was a no-brainer for them to team up to create the label.
Dreamville member Omen has been around since its first days. You can hear him on some of Cole’s earlier projects such as The Warm Up (2009) and also in Friday Night Lights (2010).
In January of 2014, Cole announced some major news at the conclusion of the show he was having at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. Attendees received a flier that announced Dreamville had signed a distribution deal with Interscope records. Also on the flier was the announcement of a mixtape, Revenge of the Dreamers. This would be the first installment of collaborative projects featuring members of Dreamville. That same day Cole announced the signing of the NY native rapper, Bas.
In late June of 2014, J.Cole had officially announced the signing of LA Native, Cozz. In 2015, Omen officially signed his deal after he released his debut album Elephant Eyes. Later that year Dreamville released Revenge of the Dreamers 2 in which they also announced the signings of Washington D.C. native Ari Lennox and Charlotte native, Lute.
In 2017, Dreamville signed two more rappers to their label, JID and also EarthGang which consists of a duo (WowGr8 and Olu). Both acts are based out of the Atlanta area and each bring a unique sound to the label.
On January 6th, 2019, Dreamville did something the rap game has never seen before. They announced on their social media that they were doing a 10-Day recording session for their latest installment in their collaborative project entitled Revenge of The Dreamers 3 and invited artists from all over the music world to come be a part of this unique opportunity. They dropped a mini-documentary on YouTube entitled “Revenge (Documentary) directed by David Peters. In the documentary viewers got an inside look of the process behind the project and how collaboration in music is what the game has been missing.
The project released on July 5th that year and debuted at number one on the US billboard 200. It sold 115,000 album-equivalent units in its first week and was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2020 Grammy awards. “Down bad” and “Middle Child” were also nominated for Best Rap Performance. In April of 2020, the album was announced as certified Platinum.
On March 31st, 2022 the Dreamville label released D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape. The tape featured the likes of Young Nudy, ASAP Ferg, 2 Chainz, Reason and more. The tape gave fans that nostalgic feel of how hip hop used to feel growing up in the mixtape era.
Festival History
The first ever Dreamville festival was announced by J. Cole on April 27, 2018. He announced it would feature local talent, food and art, and also include mixtures of up-and-coming acts as well as nationally known ones. Unfortunately, due to Hurricane Florence the event was postponed and rescheduled to be held at the historic Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh, North Carolina on April 6, 2019. The lineup includes the entire label of Dreamville as well as Big Sean, Nelly, SZA, 21 Savage, Davido, Teyana Taylor, 6lack, Saba, Mez and Rapsody. The festival sold out to a capacity of 40,000 supporters, which made this event the largest in Raleigh.
For 2020, Dreamville Festival was initially scheduled for April 4, 2020, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic the event was eventually canceled. The festival came back as scheduled in Raleigh in 2022. This was the first time that Dreamville made the festival a multi-day event with dates of April 2nd and 3rd.
The festival included all of Dreamville artists once again, as well as Lil Baby, Kehlani, Wizkid and Fivio Foreign on Day 1. Moneybagg Yo, T-Pain , and Lil Wayne performed with Jeezy and TI as part of Dj Drama’s “Gangsta Grillz” on Day 2. The festival was able to sell out to an attendance of 80,000 supporters across the two-day festival, making it one of the most attended music events ever in North Carolina. Dreamville Fest 2022youtu.be
The third installment of the Dreamville Festival will go down as one of the best festivals of all-time. The two-day festival took place once again at Dorothea Dix Park on April 1-2, 2023. The festival featured the Dreamville signed artists, as well as Usher, City Girls, Sean Paul, Jessie Reyez, Toosii, Marqus Clae and Lil Durk on day 1. Mario, Rueben Vincent, Waka Flocka, Baby Tate, Lil Uzi, Ayra Starr, Glorilla, Summer Walker, Burna Boy and a legendary joint performance by Drake and J. Cole concluded day 2 of the festival. The event once again sold out over the two days seeing 50,000 supporters each day. The festival generated about 8 million in economic impact.
2024 Dreamville Fest Info
Dreamville fest 2024 is currently scheduled for April 6th-7th 2024 at Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh, North Carolina. VIP tickets are currently sold out but General Admission and GA+ tickets are currently available for purchase until sold out on Dreamville Fest official website.
Full Schedule
Saturday, April 6:
- SZA
- Chris Brown
- J.I.D.
- Lil Yachty
- ScHoolboyQ
- Sexyy Red
- Jeremih
- EARTHGANG
- Teezo Touchdown
- Amaarae
- Lute
- Luh Tyler
- Domani
Saturday, April 7:
- J. Cole
- Nicki Minaj
- Rema
- Jeezy
- Monica
- Rae Sremmurd
- Key Glock
- Bas
- Muni Long
- Cozz
- Omen
- TiaCorine
- Chase Shakur
For more information head over to Dreamville Festival website.
