If this doesn’t scream “WE NEED MORE HOTELS ASAP” then I don’t know what will. Sure, it’s only 1 weekend. But an annual event like this puts the spotlight on our city year-round, and is all but guaranteed to bring more and more events just like it.
11 Likes
IMO this says that the Lake Wheeler road area needs hotels, not DTR proper…
Most of the downtown Fayetteville St area restaurants are all very busy today. Lots of the Dreamville crowd still hanging around.
9 Likes
Why can’t we have both? I definitely agree w/ Lake Wheeler though, especially considering that both the Park City South and Hammill Drive developments are springing up across this street. The Lake Wheeler area around Dix is quickly becoming a destination in it’s own right…and hotels are gonna be in the area as a result.
4 Likes
Between this and the outdoor hockey game, Raleigh has had 2 great national showcases just in the past 2 months.
22 Likes
No all of Downtown from Soccer Stadium to Fayetteville to PNC need hotels.
1 Like
This is the moment Raleigh needed to tell them they need a modern large scale venue. They could host more major events on a consistent basis, and would probably be the next stop on a major tour (like Taylor Swift) or something like the NCAA final four (if indoors).
2 Likes
They could hold this at Carter-Finley stadium 
Plenty of parking and access to the freeway 
They could hold what at Carter Finley?
could this type of shuttling be extrapolated to sporting events…should such come to DTS, oops DTR? has such been pulled of successfully elsewhere?
Dreamville Festival!
Big difference in the two events is that Dreamville loaded up over a time period varying from early afternoon to nightfall and discharged at a shortened but variable pace.
Sporting events, on the other hand load within a compressed time period and discharge as a flush event.
UNC has a strong park and ride program for basketball games by pressing idle CH Transit busses into acting as shuttles from their perimeter parking lots. That’s the only local shuttle program of which I am aware.
2 Likes
Music Festivals aren’t stadium experiences. It’s not about packing people into a building for a show. They’re in open free movement spaces with multiple music acts happening concurrently, art exhibits, pop up shops, areas to hang out, etc.
Even festivals that are held on stadium grounds don’t use the stadiums normally - e.g. EDC Orlando is in the fields all around Camping World Stadium but doesn’t have anything in the stadium except for bathrooms next to one of the stages. Same with Glow in DC in the fields around RFK Stadium. Also, you don’t want to do these events on big concrete areas (see Woodstock 99). Parks are almost always a safer bet. Or race track infields.
Freeway access isn’t normally a big factor for locations because most attendees are staying at hotels/Airbnb’s, camping, or taking shuttles from population dense areas.
Carter Finley can be renovated to continue to host single concert events and sporting events, of course. But there is no better place for major music festivals in Raleigh than Dorothea Dix. And it’s only scratching the surface on that potential right now.
20 Likes
They use this area for multiple festivals a year. At least they used to. The local rock station has an annual “Earthday Birthday” that had 2 stages in the area east of the stadium where EDC has been. Great venue but as you say, doesn’t even leverage the bulk of the stadium.
1 Like
Since people have been talking about bringing more festivals to Raleigh. Throwback to last year when Cooper tried to entice Music Midtown to come to Raleigh, after they canceled the festival due to Georgia’s gun laws. Music Midtown or a festival similar would be a dream to host here in Raleigh.
Also just chiming in, Dreamville was such an incredible experience. Was so cool to attend a festival in our backyard.
10 Likes
https://www.newsobserver.com/entertainment/article273952885.html
“After a successful sold-out weekend in Raleigh, Dreamville Festival announced the event will return to Dorothea Dix Park in Spring 2024. This year, the music festival hosted its largest crowd to date with 100,000 attendees from all 50 states and 23 countries between April 1 and 2, the festival reported. The event’s lineup was curated by Fayetteville rapper J. Cole. Organizers have not announced when the festival will return, but the past three have been at the beginning of April. For the past two years, Dreamville has spanned both Saturday and Sunday.”
28 Likes
Here’s an article from TBJ’s editor regarding the potential of Dreamville to expand beyond its already impressive scope. He compares the opportunity to SXSW in Austin in 1987.
“I envision, just like SXSW, having business conferences, movie screenings and art exhibitions – with the creative class makeup coming from people of color.”
He also says that he thinks the economic impact of Dreamville is underestimated compared to the Stadium Series b/c so many Dreamville attendees were from out of state.
25 Likes
I believe music festivals and other cultural events can really be a catalyst to growth for a city. I truthfully feel that the area around the old DBAP in Durham would not be as booming if it weren’t for events like MoogFest in that part of town.
5 Likes
Plus it probably got a lot more people into downtown than the Stadium Series. I’d imagine out-of-town attendees for the Stadium Series were much more scattered in terms of where they stayed, so they were probably more likely to visit North Hills or downtown Cary instead of DTR.
4 Likes
To be fair, Dreamville tourists were also scattered because there just isn’t enough hotel capacity downtown.
3 Likes