Dreamville festival review - April 1st-2nd, 2023 at Dorothea Dix park, Raleigh NC, United States

on the way to fuck it up for day 2

Damn dude. Yeah, if you didn’t get a chance to go to this show, I feel for you ‘cause you low key fucked up xD. This shit was 10/10 lit. Surprise guest performances, super aesthetic photo-ops and some chill vibrations - this music festival had it all. Read on to hear more about my experience at the Dreamville music festival.

vibing in line on day 2 lol

Soo this was my husband and I’s first time in Raleigh, NC and omg. we love that city! Right when I stepped off the plane, it was just so chill - very quiet and calm at the airport. I felt almost as if a blanket of anxiety finally fell off of me especially after all of the traveling we did to get there. Raleigh reminds me of a mix between Portland, Oregon and the state of Maryland. The chill calmness of the city, streets and people along with the elevation changes reminded me of Portland while the southern greenery, slight humidity and high percentage of black people gives Maryland. No wonder I felt so comfortable there. Even when it was raining, it still felt nice and warm like it does in the south, which was super nice since we were coming from a cold, dry af California. Definitely a great location for an outdoor music festival.

and iiiii will always love youuuuu

We get to our hotel which was the residence in Marriott located downtown. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this hotel if you’re going to this festival. It’s a short ~20-minute straight shot from the park, offers a great breakfast buffet, has a dope rooftop bar with amazing views and drinks (peep the pics) and has super huge, clean rooms. You’re gonna wanna stay somewhere near the fest because, from what I heard, uber/lyft/taxi or driving/parking in general was a mess during the weekend. I noticed many people driving their car and using our hotel parking lot to leave their car and walk the rest of the way. I believe this hotel may be the closest one to the park, so just take my word and book your room there as soon as humanly possible because the rooms WILL sell out or get super dummy expensive as the event gets closer.

thanks rye bar for getting us trashed on our first night lol

We settle into the hotel on Friday night at like 8pm so we decide to do a little going around to see the area. We went to a super nice restaurant up the street called Rye Bar and Southern Kitchen which was bustling with concert goers. I loved the energy there. Our server was super cool. Unfortunately, our orders for food reached the kitchen too late (damn the south and their early closing times), but our server offered us free drinks for the inconvenience. We ended up going to cookout (my first time there) and I can now say with confidence that cookout > in n’ out. Sorry cali lovers, but cookout gives you more bang for your buck, more flavor and better French fries. It was great drunk food.

a cool chick came by and took these super cute pics of us <3

Sooo anyways we go to bed and wake up, enjoy breakfast and its concert time! Peep the pics/vids for my day 1 fit. We woke up to some decent rain so the doors were pushed forward to 3pm instead of it’s original time of 1pm. We got some drinks from the rooftop bar (select businesses in the area were participating in a “sip and stroll” program where you get a drink from the business, they stamp it, and you can open carry with it! It was very cool and convenient. peep the pics/vids. I got their turmeric and ginger drink with redbull both days. Gotta get the anti-inflammatories up lol) and start walking over. I think the pushback to 3pm was a good call because by the time we started making our way to the fest it was perfect and warm and sunny. Another reason to walk – lots of other ppl will be walking too. It’s a great opportunity to meet some people, see some cool fits and just enjoy the energy or the other show goers.

the hotel had free ponchos thank goodness

Dix park was a cool location for this festival. This park is HUGE, surrounded by tall trees and just gave mushroom forest fae vibes. The first day, we were able to stroll on through the front gates pretty easily and head to the drinks/merch line before they got too crazy long. Peep the pics for some glimpses of the black hoodie, blue long sleeve and the blanket we got. The merch was amazing btw! Very good quality clothing with some interesting designs. If you know me, you know I love love love sunflowers, so to have a whole fest based around this plant and to have so many sunflower-embroidered choices to choose from was like a dream to me. The drinks were expensive as usual but definitely strong. The portapotties were flushable!!! I’d never seen anything like that at an outdoor fest before so thank you dreamville for not allowing poop to fester in the stalls all day!!

peep the blanket around neem's neck. it was so comfy to sit on while we rested our feet

Of course, music performances were going on all day. While we were getting drinks/merch on day 1, SiR was on one of the stages. He was amazing of course. He played a good collection of songs and provided some super chill vibes during the mid-afternoon. I also heard Jessie reyez while in line for merch. It was my first time hearing her, she sounded pretty good. A little while later we got into the crowd for EARTHGANG. Unfortunately, the sounds were kind of off and the whole set sounded muffled and un-mixed. They played some great tracks but the speakers did not do it justice. Hopefully they will be back because they deserve some redemption. We were also in the mix for Sean Paul and yall, he went off!!! Wow he was great live. He played all the bangers (temperature, shake that thing (I think), etc). his live voice is the exact same as his recordings. I learned he was Jamaican that day too. While we were resting our feet near the entrance we watched ari lennox on one of the screens. Damn she can sing. She is gorgeous and also has a gorgeous voice. It was my first time really hearing her, so I am def now a fan.

fae forest vibes

The last act of the day was Usher. He was amazing. It was just him, a drum player and a guitar player, no background dancers or singers or nothing. He killed it basically all by himself. He looked like he hadn’t aged at all since I knew him when I was fucking 8 lol. At one point, he stops the music to call BEYONCE out onto the stage. People were about to lose their fucking minds. Then he runs backstage as if to go get her, then he comes back and is like “ApRiL fOoLs”!1! we were lowkey pissed lol, but he had a great performance despite this. I forgot how many bangers he has (burn, confessions, superstar, caught up, hey daddy). The crowd was going up af for him. His performance was a great way to end day 1.

vibing to SiR

So now with day two, we were tired af from before because we didn’t go to bed until like 2am cause we’re zooming around town trying to find food after the show! Damn the south and their early bedtimes!!! With like 4 food places open after 11pm, EVERYONE from the show were stacked up in all of them! The lines were long af. Thank goodness we decided to rent a car so we could drive away from downtown and get some pizza at a random place (I forget the same, but it was good). So we got up for breakfast at like 9:30am, go back to sleep/lay down and finally get up at 2ish to get ready. I’m thinking it’ll be like day 1 where we could easily walk down, breeze through the gate and be at the rise stage by 3:40p to watch waka flocka.

dark sparkles for the weekendd

WRONG. I WAS WRONG. There were hella more people out for day 2, which makes sense since this would be the grand finale to see the mains J. Cole and Drake. I’m so irritated. As I type this, I’m listening to “No Hands” and am so irritated that I missed flocka’s set!!!! The lines to get inside were crazy long. It took about an hour just to get inside so we basically heard his whole set from outside the gate in line xD. I heard it went fucking up. Besides the main acts, everyone said flocka had the best set of the weekend. Even the dreamville insatgram posted flicks of his set TWICE because it was that good. I hope he comes back next year because I WILL NOT MISSSSSS. I also missed Mario who went on at 3. I heard his set was good too. I was sleepin on ‘em (literally). So moral of the story: fucking GET UP and get over there early so you don’t miss like I did. You can sleep after the show!

the view from the hotel's rooftop bar were beautiful

So we finally get inside around 4pm and head to the food/bathrooms so we can be empty and full for the rest of the night. Unfortunately I was on my (least) favorite time of the month so I had to go to the bathroom every 2 fucking seconds. Thank goodness for those flushable toilets + naproxen. We heard a lil bit of Bas’s set from a distance, he sounded lit. We were in the mix for JIDs set, it was super lit! People love that dude. I love when they played STICK. It was my first time hearing the track and it was super cool seeing everyone so juiced for it. JID gained a fan from me that day.

peep the reflection lol

We took a much-needed rest at the Bacardi tent before the main act. Thank goodness that tent had some actual seats! We met a dude in there who also came from cali (LA). there were lots of folks from Cali there. I mean, people came from all over, but it felt like a small world to meet so many people who were from our state.

one of the many cool photo-ops

Later before the main act was BURNA BOY. He was so fire. I think afrocarribean dancehall might be one of my top 5 favorite music genres. It’s so chill but also dancey - makes me wanna shake my ass in the blue waters in the Bahamas. It was especially good because he is a fellow Nigerian, so it was great to have that representation. Once again, he gained a fan from me that day.

some words of wisdom around town

After one last bathroom break, we found a spot near the SIDE of the main state (so that weren’t standing directly behind the large tower thing like we were during Usher’s set), and get litty as we wait for the main act. Of course it was PERFECTION. J.Cole looked like a messiah as usual and played a great selection of songs (Love Yourz, Wet Dreamz, Tale of Two Cities, stick AGAIN with the whole dreamville crew), it was dumb lit. It was sweet how they had us sing I Will Always love You by whitney Houston before Cole’s set. And then drake, woooweeee it was so fire. He played some bangers too (Rich Flex, God’s Plan). But yall, this man brought out lil UZI who did XO Tour life (love this song) and Just wanna Rock, 21 who did rich flex with him and also fucking LIL WAYNE who did A Milli. Yo, people went wild during this shit especially lil wayne, people LOVE that man. it was so fucking lit. The whole show ended with a cool fireworks show. So many great surprises and so much love in just 2 days.

OVO

Overall, the festival was absolutely amazing. It reminded me of when we were young in the sense that it felt like a labor or love – they could’ve charged us way more for what we got but it felt like they really put that show together for us/the community and not just strictly for profits (even though I know they made shit tons of money because GODTDAMN there were hella ppl there). We are already planning on going next year because I just wanna see how they’re gonna top this year’s lineup. Another tip: get your tickets as soon as humanly possible. They usually don’t release the lineup until about a month out from the show, but tickets are available like 8 months before. Get em early because this year they sold out and so many people MISSED TF OUTT because they waited ‘till the last minute to buy.

Lfg

Long story short, Dreamville fest was everything I was expecting and much more! If you have any questions about this review or just want to say hi, leave me a comment on the home page or hit me up on instagram @bunnygoestoshows <3

scroll on to see some more pics/vids from the weekend!