Field Guide: North Carolina’s Biggest Festival Dreams On

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Hi! Happy weekend.

You may remember writer Ryan Cocca, who runs North Carolina hip-hop platform Super Empty, from his highly entertaining, John Jeremiah Sullivan-esque dispatch from last year’s Dreamville, Bury Me at Casa Bacardí.  

This year’s Dreamville recap was pitched as a swan song for the festival—which J. Cole announced, last year, would be the event’s final installment—but as you may have heard…the show is going on! Sort of? From the story: 

““We’re gonna continue on the same path that’s been successful for us,” Raleigh city manager Marchell Adams-David told reporters as part of the announcement, describing a new event that would definitely not be J. Cole’s annual April, Dix Park–based Dreamville Fest but would be held 1) in Dix Park, 2) around the same time every year, and 3) with involvement from J. Cole and his label, Dreamville Records.”

Did this year’s festival live up to the 2024 edition, replete as it was with a multi-story liquor villa and the dramatic imprint of the Drake/Kendrick Lamar feud? Read Ryan’s report to find out.

elsewhere in the culture section

Even in the breather between festival weekends (Biscuits & Banjos is right around the corner—keep an eye out for our print edition on it next week!), there’s still plenty to do. Here are my event recommendations for the weekend. (Teaser: A Lebanese festival, a library festival, and a Blue Cactus pre-release event ft. a magician.)

David Menconi wrote a tribute to Kenny Hobby, a longtime Raleigh scene fixture and owner and operator of the Brewery, a music venue on Hillsborough Street. Hobby passed away last week at age 71, the Brewery has long closed its doors, and that particular era of local music has passed. Nevertheless, Menconi has a way of transmitting Hobby’s legacy with immediacy and making you really feel like you’re standing shoulder-to-shoulder, in some sweaty crowd, on some sweaty night in the 1990s, listening to some future famous band. 

Joe Vanderford, meanwhile, has a very different piece up—a paean to Belonging, former Durhamite (and current NCCU artist-in-residence) Branford Marsalis’s cover of the Keith Jarrett classic. The piece makes the music jump off the page: “While the saxophones howl, the pianists hold the music together on both records, sketching harmonic roadmaps for everyone to follow.”

Another free fridge just opened in Durham; you can read about the initiative and others like it (and more on other local community fridges ) in this story by Eliza Benbow republished from UNC Media. 

Plus: Dawn-to-dusk, coffee-to-cocktail spots in Raleigh and Durham that remote workers post up at. A lifegiving feature on Catawba Trail Farm, via 9th Street Journal. And one more interview, on a documentary with local ties from last week’s Full Frame, about marriage and choices—I loved it. Read the Q&A here. 

— Sarah Edwards —
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