An annual tradition returns to D.C. this fall after last year’s pandemic cancelation.
The Broccoli City Festival returns to the RFK Stadium grounds on Saturday, Oct. 2.
This year’s music headliners are Lil Baby, Snoh Aalegra and Moneybagg Yo.
The lineup also includes Lucky Daye, Rubi Rose, Justine Skye, 3oh Black, Moecella, Esta, Andre Powers, Sasha Marie, DJ Domo, Malcolm Xavier, Everything Nice and Adobo DMV.
The entire event will be hosted by Rodney Rikai and Little Bacon Bear.
Tickets are on sale now, starting at $89 for general admission and $199 for VIP.
The festival will also honor 2020 tickets if you bought them before the event was canceled.
Broccoli City bills itself as the largest festival in the country for young people of color, featuring a pop-up marketplace, DJ tent and selfie art. Apply to be a vendor here.
The 2019 festival was held at FedExField, but this year returns to RFK, which Broccoli City recently converted into a drive-in event space called Park-Up DC during the pandemic.
Past events have provided a launch pad for hip-hop and R&B titans such as Childish Gambino, Kendrick Lamar, Cardi B, Lil Wayne, Erykah Badu, Nipsey Hussle and Anderson .Paak.
The event was founded by longtime friends Brandon McEachern and Marcus Allen as a nod to their hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina.
“If you break it down, ‘green’ is broccoli and ‘boro’ is city,” McEachern told WTOP in 2019.
The festival debuted in L.A. in 2010, starring Dom Kennedy and Kendrick Lamar; it drew 500 attendees. In 2013, the festival moved to D.C. and drew 5,000 guests.
The D.C. festival has grown from St. Elizabeths Gateway Pavilion, in Southeast, to the Half Street Fairgrounds, outside Nats Park. In 2018, more than 30,000 folks flocked to RFK Stadium.
“There’s just something about D.C.,” McEachern said. “I don’t know if it’s the mumbo sauce, but it’s something in the energy of Washington, D.C. You have so many people of different walks of life. … There’s just something special in the water. Folks are bold, brave.”
