Delivering a musical and cultural experience without comparison, today, GRAMMY® Award-winning multi-platinum hip-hop luminaries The Roots and Live Nation Urban announce JAŸ-Z and The Roots will headline the Saturday, May 30th date, of the 2026 installment of Roots Picnic.
The two-day festival returns on Saturday, May 30 & Sunday, May 31, 2026 at Belmont Plateau. Presale tickets are available now. General on-sale begins tomorrow, March 18 at 10AM ET, and will be available HERE.
This will also mark the first year the festival will be held at the historic Belmont Plateau in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. Belmont Plateau, is known for having one of the best views of the city and is a place where hip hop and black culture flourished in the 1980s and early 90s.
“Moving the Roots Picnic to Belmont Plateau and bringing JAŸ-Z and The Roots together to perform are both bucket-list moments for us,” Manager of The Roots and President of Live Nation Urban Shawn Gee exclaimed. “After meeting with Mayor Cherelle Parker and hearing her vision for Philadelphia 250, she truly inspired us to dream even bigger, and we’re grateful to her, Commissioner Susan Slawson, Jazelle Jones and everyone who helped make it happen. We can’t wait to see everyone in May at the Plat.”
Roots Picnic has continued to be one of the summer’s most highly anticipated festivals and a celebration of Philadelphia’s robust music scene. Billboard included the Roots Picnic in their Top 50 Music Festivals round-up, and perhaps BET put it best: “the two-day event proves why hip hop is such a regenerative force of nature.”
Since launching in 2007, The Roots Picnic has stood at the crossroads of music and culture, entertaining, engaging, and enlightening millions of fans along the way. Its dynamic lineups have included everyone from Lil Wayne, The Weeknd, Pharrell, Snoop Dogg, Phantogram, Usher, Nas, A$AP Rocky, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and Future to Vampire Weekend, The War on Drugs, Gary Clark, Jr., Solange, Diplo, Gnarls Barkley, and more. Roots Picnic isn’t just a cornerstone of the group’s career, but a cornerstone of the culture.\