"There's definitely an opportunity for us to evaluate if this will be an annual event for the city," said Joseph Voska, Program Supervisor for Dorothea Dix Park. "We will sit down as the City of Raleigh and with the partners that were also involved and just debrief everything that occurred, talk about what we think went really well and any changes we would want to do. We know that Dreamville Festival organizers are interested in it being an annual event but we want to evaluate everything and just kind of make sure we have a good plan moving forward."
CHECK OUT SIGHTS AND SOUNDS FROM DREAMVILLE BELOW:
Sights from J Cole's Dreamville festival
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Voska said there were no major incidents and that Dreamville was a success. Some 40,000 hip hop and R & B fans packed the park to watch Fayetteville's own J. Cole, Nelly and other performers, including 21 Savage. Voska said the festival was a major test for the park and for Raleigh.
"How would this all come together? To see as future opportunities become available for the city, how did this area handle it?," Voska said. "Overall what we've seen so far, is that we handled it pretty well."
He said the park's new master plan does leave the option open for Dreamville to stay at Dix Park.
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"The master plan suggested that (the festival location) will just be a meadow," Voska said. "It'll be a big field, so there will be opportunities to continue to do things like that there in the master plan in that area. Also, the master plan does suggest that an amphitheater could be built at the park so maybe there's an opportunity to do things there as well."
Visit Raleigh doesn't have exact numbers of the economic impact yet but said 70 percent of people attending the festival were from out of state. Many staying in hotels and enjoying area. That means a boost for the local economy.
"We had folks from as far as the West Coast," Voska said. "We had folks from Europe and Africa and Australia and all sorts of different countries fly into Raleigh and have this great experience."