Guests share their impressions of the fifth edition of J. Cole’s homegrown music festival 
by WALTER Staff | Video by Two Dots Studio

What does Dreamville mean to its guests? Diversity, community, happiness, positivity — and great music, of course! On April 5 and 6, 2025, J. Cole hosted his “fifth and final” Dreamville Festival, which featured more than two dozen hip-hop and R&B acts across two stages, including Lil Wayne with Hot Boys (Juvenile, Turk, and B.G.) and Big Tymers (Mannie Fresh and Birdman), 21 Savage, Erykah Badu, Tems, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Ludacris and GloRilla.

In collaboration with Raleigh’s own Two Dots Studio, we set out to capture the soul of Dreamville Fest — not from the stage, but from the crowd. (This unique music festival drew more than 100,000 guests from all 50 states and more than 20 countries!) They captured quotes from dozens of guests and footage from around the festival to tell the story of Dreamville #5.

Special thanks to American Apparel, who sponsored our tickets. The created a line of limited-edition t-shirts for Dreamville as part of their AA X Live Nation collaboration. While the merch is now sold out, you can see what it looked like here!

And good news: just before the festival, the City of Raleigh announced a partnership with festival promoters to bring a similar festival back next year. We can’t wait!

This article was originally published on waltermagazine.com on April 15, 2025