Dreamville Is Coming Back — J. Cole’s Festival Eyes a 2027 Return to Raleigh

The dream is not over after all. J. Cole’s Dreamville Festival could be making its return next year, with organizers filing paperwork to bring the festival back to Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh, North Carolina, in the spring of 2027.

According to a report from Axios Raleigh published on Tuesday, November 10, organizers filed a special event permit to hold a festival at Dix Park in 2027. The permit, filed by members of Live Nation and the Dreamville Foundation, lists the event as “Dreamville Presents,” a multi-stage music festival planned for April 3-4. The filing was submitted in October and remains under review, so the festival is not officially confirmed just yet — but the wheels are clearly in motion.

The proposed plans are big. The permit details room for up to 55,000 attendees, with on-site food service featuring booths, food trucks, and push carts, plus provisions for more than 500 usable toilets. That is the scale of a major festival — and exactly what Dreamville became in its prime.

Cole performed his last Dreamville Festival in April of 2025. At a press conference around that time, organizers insisted the festival would return, just in a different form. There was no Dreamville Fest in 2026, which left fans wondering whether the event was gone for good. This permit filing is the strongest sign yet that it is coming back.

It would be a homecoming in every sense. Cole launched Dreamville Festival in September of 2018, and the inaugural lineup featured Young Thug, Big Sean, SZA, Nelly, Rich The Kid, Ari Lennox, and Rapsody, along with Dreamville artists Bas, J.I.D, Cozz, and EarthGang. By 2022, the festival had become a major economic driver for the city — data from the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau showed Cole’s second Dreamville Festival generated $6.7 million for Raleigh’s local economy.

“My team and I continue to be awed by the overwhelming support we’ve received since closing out the second Dreamville Festival [in April 2022]. But to now fully realize the festival’s positive impact on the local economy and tourism, it truly is unbelievable,” Dreamville Partner and Festival President Adam Roy said at the time.

XXL has reached out to J. Cole’s Dreamville team, as well as representatives for Live Nation and Dix Park, for comment.

Nothing is locked in until that permit clears, but if it does, Raleigh gets its festival back — and J. Cole gets his stage back. Stay tuned for the lineup, and start making those travel plans.

Would you make the trip to Raleigh for Dreamville 2027? Let us know in the comments, send in your requests, and keep it locked to Kiss 101.7. Got a song you want to hear? Call the request line at +1 302-357-9831.

Source: XXL