Kicking off Black Music Month on June 1 and June 2, more than 30,000 people flocked to the grounds of Philadelphia’s West Fairmount Park, for Roots Picnic 2024, a celebration of culture and togetherness.
Rapper Lil Wayne performs with the legendary band The Roots at Roots Picnic 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 2. (Brigette Squire/The Washington Informer)
Despite regular rhetoric about dueling presidential campaigns and violence, this year’s Roots Picnic was a place to promote peace, encourage civic engagement and vibe out to outstanding acts from Lil Wayne and The Roots, Jill Scott, Nas, Gunna, Babyface, Funkmaster Flex, The Dream, Sexyy Redd and DMV artists such as Wale, Backyard Band (with Scarface and Amerie) and Shaboozey.
For a moment in time – well, a weekend, to be exact – thousands jammed in the name of peace and unity.
Singer Babyface performs at Roots Picnic 2024 on June 2. (Brigette Squire/The Washington Informer)
“No one was thinking about who the president is, or what alternative facts or agendas were. In that moment, everyone was present, with the music, with each other, just living our best moment,” said Alicia W., of Columbus, Ohio, who preferred not to use her last name.
This was Alicia W.’s first time coming to the annual music festival, and she was amazed to see the camaraderie in action.
“I have friends that come every year. I figured I needed to be in the mix this year,” she told The Informer. “I have never seen so many people of different shapes, sizes and colors all on one accord. So to be able to see a diverse group of people, bobbing to The Dream, Nas, and even dropping it low for Sexyy Red was an amazing experience.”
Alicia W.’s friend, Alea B., who also preferred not to use her last name, emphasized the beauty of the diversity found at the annual affair.
“It was just so amazing to see old and young vibing together — white and Black, Hispanic, everybody was just coming together. People were so pleasant and respectful,” said Alea B. “It was one big family picnic and I really enjoyed it.”
She considered historic events like Bethel, New York’s Woodstock, in August 1969 and the Harlem Cultural Festival, which happened the same year and inspired the 2021 documentary “Summer of Soul (…Or When the Revolution Could not be Televised),” directed by Questlove of The Roots.
“Nobody was caring about who was president today or tomorrow. If you look at history, music really brings people together and that is what it did,” Alea B. told The Informer.
For Alea B., the annual Roots Picnic is also an opportunity to check out new artists.
“I didn’t know October London – was not familiar with his work. But to be able to see his work, now he’s got new fans,” she said. “The times that we’ve gone to the Roots Picnic, there were people we weren’t familiar with, and we were there and now they’ve got new fans just because we can come together and listen to them. It was a great experience. So to kick off [Black Music Month], it was the best place to be.”
Celebrated singer, songwriter and arts mogul Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds noted music’s ability to connect people and transcend time and space.
“Music is like the one thing that connects us all. It’s like we get to time travel. Anytime you hear your favorite song it takes you back to that perfect place, that perfect time, that perfect person,” Babyface said, before adding a joke, “or maybe not that perfect person.”
Keeping Advocacy at the Forefront of the Musical Celebration
While Roots Picnic offered two days in musical heaven, with an abundance of legendary artists performing, collaborating and sharing their bountiful talents with the massive crowds, it was also an opportunity to promote the need for a more just, peaceful, and equitable society.
Rapper Sexyy Red performs at Roots Picnic 2024 on June 1. (Courtesy of Roots Picnic, Frankie Vergara)
When walking onto the festival grounds, one of the first booths fans engaged with was sponsored by Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote, where people were encouraged to check their voter registration status and offered free swag bags that were perfect to use during the two-day festival.
A few booths down from When We All Vote was Garry Mills’ Shoot Basketballs Not People, a community-based organization in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood.
“Our mission is to use basketball as a vehicle to change and save lives, and our long-term goal is to open up a facility in our neighborhood,” Mills told The Informer. “We started in 2013. I was doing this with two full-time jobs. No grant money. We actually just got our first grant after 10 years.”
The organization, which serves youth through the positive foundations taught in basketball, is featured in a documentary on Prime Video and Fox Soul, called “Bad Things Happen in Philadelphia.”
Mills said Roots Picnic was the perfect place to spread his message about promoting peace instead of violence.
Fans dance at Roots Picnic 2024. (Brigette Squire/The Washington Informer)
“The Roots Picnic is one of the more peaceful events in Philly that brings all cultures together, honestly. But we felt this fits our mold because it’s a basketball town and we wanted to make the social cause cool,” he explained.
Kristal Bush, executive director of Free My Weedman, told The Informer she came to Roots Picnic in order to continue advocating for equity in the cannabis space.
“This is where the community is. As the cannabis industry unfolds, they can create these dispensaries, they can lobby to not include us, but what they cannot take away is that [Black people] are the culture. And that’s what the Roots Picnic is, it’s the culture,” Bush said.
The equity advocate explained the historical connection between Black music and the criminalization of cannabis.
“Music is really [involved]in this whole war on cannabis. When you talk about this whole war on drugs, it was targeted for the jazz players. They said it was the jazz players who were the ones that were smoking up the reefer and raping the white women. And they were blaming it on cannabis,” she emphasized.
She said Roots Picnic was a perfect place to discuss addressing the root cause of challenges facing the Black community.
“When we talk about gun violence, when we talk about all these issues that are plaguing our community, we’ve got to get to the root cause. And the root cause is there was an intentional war against Black people. They created a war in 1971, so we’re coming up on 53 years of this,” Bush told The Informer about her advocacy work in Pennsylvania and beyond.
During the festival, she also promoted her upcoming rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to encourage Black participation in the cannabis field.
Thousands flocked to Philadelphia’s West Fairmount Park for Roots Picnic 2024 on June 1 and June 2. (Brigette Squire/The Washington Informer)
“We’re organizing a rally here in Harrisburg, and we just want to make sure as the Adult Use Cannabis Bill rolls out here in Pennsylvania, we want to ensure that they’re [giving]us our money,” Bush said.
After years of African Americans facing criminalization, convictions and long-term prison sentences for marijuana-related incidents, Bush used her time at Roots Picnic to remind attendees that Black people should be at the forefront of the legal cannabis industry.
“It’s time to undo those harms, and the only opportunity — and our last opportunity – is ensuring equity in this cannabis industry,” she emphasized. “Run us our money. We ain’t playing. Period.”
