Organizers unveil the future of Raleigh's Dreamville Festival
Raleigh's Dreamville Festival will continue in the city under a new brand, Sascha Stone Guttfreund, a promoter with Dreamville and Live Nation, said in a news conference Thursday with Raleigh officials.
Why it matters: The news, which comes two days before the fifth Dreamville is set to begin, is welcome after North Carolina-born rapper J. Cole announced earlier this year that this festival would be the last in its current form.
Cole will remain involved, but it's unclear whether he will perform in future festivals.
Driving the news: The city has been in talks with Live Nation for months about continuing the festival.
The pair signed an agreement Thursday that commits the festival to running in the city for another four years at Dix Park.
Raleigh city manager Marchell Adams-David said the agreement does not include a financial subsidy from the city.
The big picture: Since it launched in 2018, Dreamville has become one of Raleigh's signature cultural events and a serious driver of the local economy. It brings in tens of thousands of visitors who book hotels, eat at local restaurants and shop local vendors.
In 2023, Dreamville visitors spent $122 million in the area, according to a report commissioned by festival organizers.
Between the lines: But with J. Cole taking a step back, it has left the future of the festival, especially under the Dreamville name, uncertain.
State of play: While no name has yet been picked for the new festival, Adams-David said she expects it to remain similar in content and style.
"We're going to continue on the same path that's been successful for us," she said. "Consumers have told us what they like, and we're going to try to provide that to them for the next four years."
What they're saying: Ibrahim "Ib" Hamad, president of Dreamville Records and J. Cole's manager, said Dreamville has always wanted to create something special for J. Cole's home state.
"North Carolina is Cole's home. This is where he started ... so we always wanted to bring something back to the state," Hamad said.
But in Raleigh, he added, it's found a helpful partner that is also strategically located on the East Coast.
"The location is great because ... you can drive from Atlanta, you could drive from New York, you could drive from so many places because [North Carolina] is really right there in the middle," he said. "I always felt like there was a void of, you know, a big festival like this" in the state.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Associated Press
19 minutes ago
- Associated Press
World's most popular TikTok star Khaby Lame leaves the U.S. after being detained by ICE
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Khaby Lame, the world's most popular TikTok personality with millions of followers, has left the U.S. after being detained by immigration agents in Las Vegas for allegedly overstaying his visa. The Senegalese-Italian influencer, whose legal name is Seringe Khabane Lame, was detained Friday at Harry Reid International Airport but was allowed to leave the country without a deportation order, a spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed in a statement. Lame arrived in the U.S. on April 30 and 'overstayed the terms of his visa,' the ICE spokesperson said. The Associated Press sent a message seeking comment Tuesday to the email address listed on Lame's Instagram account. He has not publicly commented on his detainment. His detainment and voluntary departure from the U.S. comes amid President Donald Trump's escalating crackdown on immigration, including raids in Los Angeles that sparked days of protests against ICE, as the president tests the bounds of his executive authority. A voluntary departure — which was granted to Lame — allows those facing removal from the U.S. to avoid a deportation order on their immigration record, which could prevent them from being allowed back into the U.S. for up to a decade. The 25-year-old rose to international fame during the pandemic without ever saying a word in his videos, which would show him reacting to absurdly complicated 'life hacks.' He has over 162 million followers on TikTok alone. The Senegal-born influencer moved to Italy when he was an infant with his working class parents and has Italian citizenship. His internet fame quickly evolved. He signed a multi-year partnership with designer brand Hugo Boss in 2022. In January, he was appointed as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador. Last month, he attended the Met Gala in New York City, days after arriving in the U.S.
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
Live Nation to open 18 new venues across the U.S. See where they'll be located.
Where to get the latest CBS Mornings Deals Where to get the latest CBS Mornings Deals Live Nation is building 18 new venues across the U.S., the entertainment company announced Tuesday. The new concert hubs — which will run the gamut from intimate clubs to large outdoor amphitheaters — are expected to open over the next 18 months and will cost $1 billion to build, according to Live Nation's press release. This adds to the company's existing portfolio of 150 venues. The move was described by Live Nation as a way to reach smaller markets, which might not have a music venue nearby. "Live Nation's commitment to expanding into smaller, underserved music markets means fans in vibrant places like Birmingham, AL, Virginia Beach, VA or Allentown, PA can now experience world-class events closer to home," the company's announcement said. Where will the venues be located? See below for a list of cities where Live Nation is planning to break ground over the next year and a half. Allentown, PA Atlanta, GA Birmingham, AL Denver, CO Indianapolis, IN Memphis, TN Milwaukee, WI Nashville, TN Orlando, FL Portland, ME Portland, OR Pittsburgh, PA Raleigh, NC Richmond, VA Riverside, MO Seattle, WA Shakopee, MN Virginia Beach, VA
National Geographic
3 hours ago
- National Geographic
Do dogs need people to survive? The truth might hurt.
A miniature dachshund survived in the wild for 529 days. Could your dog? Experts say it depends on these traits. A group of dogs greets their human family on a farm. Photograph by Kendrick Brinson, Nat Geo Image Collection In late April, a miniature dachshund named Valerie was found healthy and alert on Kangaroo Island, just off the coast of Adelaide, Australia—after she had been missing for 529 days. Surprisingly, Valerie, who had become separated from her family during a vacation to the island in November 2023, had even gained about four pounds in the wild. 'She went out as a skinny little sausage dog and came back as a rippling mass of muscle,' says Jared Karran, a director at the nonprofit Kangala Wildlife Rescue, who released footage of Valerie's rescue. 'Just the healthiest dog you'd ever want to see—perfect teeth, perfect hair, perfect skin.' During her time in the bush, Valerie became somewhat of a celebrity, and fans rejoiced when they learned she had reunited with her family in May. But some wondered how she did it. Was she just lucky, or can pet dogs—animals that have lived and evolved alongside humans for thousands of years—really survive without us? Well, it depends on who you ask. From scuba diving to set-jetting 'I don't think that [the story] is that outrageously surprising or amazing,' says Jessica Pierce, a bioethicist who focuses on the human-animal relationship. Pierce wrote 'A Dog's World,' which delves into what might happen to dogs if humans disappeared from Earth. 'It is amazing that she did this because she lived the first part of her life as a pampered pet dog, so really hadn't developed the skills that she would have needed to survive on her own,' Pierce clarifies. 'But obviously those were instinctually intact.' Vanessa Woods, the director of the Duke Puppy Kindergarten at the Duke Canine Cognition Lab, and author of 'Genius of Dogs,' isn't so sure. 'I have a dog right now who would probably not last a minute in the wild,' she says, adding that she believes some dogs would adapt while others would sit and wait for their owners to rescue them. 'I think some dogs would be great and some dogs would die.' Children play with puppies outside the town visitor center in Seymour, Indiana. Photograph by Andrea Bruce, Nat Geo Image Collection Pierce and Woods agree that certain characteristics would make an individual dog more apt to survive without people. First off, Valerie would have needed a pretty high IQ to protect herself from predators, secure food and water, and shelter herself from the elements, Pierce says. 'Figuring those things out in a new environment is something a lot of humans would find challenging,' she adds. Luckily, there probably weren't any large predators for Valerie to deal with on Kangaroo Island, Woods says, but she likely would have had to dodge serpents like the venomous tiger snake and pygmy copperhead. 'She kind of had a natural aptitude,' surmises the Australian-born Woods. 'But then she also would have gotten lucky because let me tell you, there are parts of the Australian bush where she would have lasted about two days.' In most places, dogs with stronger hunting drives would generally fare better, Woods says. For instance, a Jack Russell terrier that's been bred and trained to use this skill regularly would be more successful than a show husky that hasn't honed the art of catching prey, she notes. 'You don't really want dogs to hunt and kill every living thing in your neighborhood, including a neighbor's cat,' she says. 'So there would be some dogs [where] the skills that would help them survive have been watered down, really bred out of them.' However, Pierce emphasizes that these instincts have never truly disappeared. 'Even a pet dog who's never had to hunt for food, but always just had a bowl of kibble placed in front of her twice a day, still knows how to hunt,' she says. 'Those instincts are still there.' Dogs bred for extreme traits, such as short legs or long or large bodies, might not do well either, Pierce hypothesizes. For instance, it's generally harder for short-legged dogs like dachshunds to run long distances. Plus, these extreme traits can eventually lead to genetic health issues like hip dysplasia and chronic pain, she says. On the other hand, smaller dogs like Valerie could have more of an advantage in some settings, Pierce adds. 'They're not going to be quite as visible and easy to spot for a predator,' she says. Plus, small dogs need fewer calories and could potentially survive on small insects like grasshoppers instead of relying on taking down larger prey, she explains. In general, dogs also possess a few traits helpful to wilderness survival. For instance, they 'can and will eat anything they can get their paws on,' Pierce notes. Plus, their behavior is flexible, making them more adaptable to new environments and situations. But Valerie's success could have also come down to personality. 'It's hard to put your finger on exactly what it is about her, but she obviously has this belief in herself,' Karran says. 'Nothing seems to faze her.' So, do dogs need us? Stray dogs, which number around 200 million worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, live fairly independent of humans. 'A relatively small slice of the world's dogs live as pets, as captive animals,' Pierce says, noting that stray dogs use their instinct to survive in the wild. But Woods says life isn't easy for these free-ranging pups. For one, young strays have a high mortality rate—one study from India found that only about 19 percent made it to reproductive age (which is generally around 6 months old). Still, Pierce believes that if humans disappeared from the planet tomorrow, dogs would do just fine. 'Dogs would have a pretty good shot because of how adaptive they are,' she says. 'They'd have, I would say, as good a shot as any other animal in making it without us.' Woods questions, though, how long they would make it without our waste to pick at. After all, early dogs survived by scavenging trash around human settlements, and that's how most feral dogs make it today. 'The last 14 to 40,000 years, that's what they've been surviving on, basically,' she says. But regardless of whether dogs could survive without us, would these social animals miss our companionship? 'I think a lack of any social interaction would probably be felt as something missing,' Pierce says. 'I'm not sure there would be loneliness, but there might be.' However, she says dogs don't need humans to meet their social quota. They can also bond with other dogs and even other animals. Still, 'your dog who's curled up next to the couch with you would certainly miss you,' she says. 'But dogs as a species…would be okay without us.' This paradox might be best summed up by the way Valerie—a dog who did just fine for herself in the wild for nearly a year and a half—warmed up to her family immediately during their reunion. 'It just took a split second and you could see her recognize each one individually,' Karran says. 'She was so happy; she jumped up on them licking them, cuddling them, running around. It was just such a beautiful moment.'
