Broccoli City’s Festival Mission Goes Further Than Music

The Broccoli City music festival makes its return to Washington D.C. on May 7-8 with a stacked lineup that includes Gunna, Summer Walker, Wale, and plenty more stars from the world of hip-hop and R&B. The black-owned promotion had not one, but two events canceled in the past two years. During the forced downtime, festival co-founders Marcus Allen and Brandon McEachern made a conscious decision to not just return for 2022, but come back better than ever.

Specifically, the two wanted to leverage the Broccoli City platform to create black change. Since starting in 2013, the festival has always catered to black people first and foremost. But in 2022, it’s aiming to give its fans better resources well beyond the music grounds. The duo is accomplishing that in the form of an expo that’ll feature job/internship opportunities, health/wellness tools, financial support for small businesses, and forums on criminal justice issues, amongst other things. The expo is one component of what the festival organizers are calling BLK Change Weekend.

The world and the music festival industry have transformed plenty since Broccoli City’s last show in 2019. However, Brandon and Marcus are not just changing with the times — they’re creating it with new initiatives too. Here’s what we covered in this episode of the Trapital podcast:

0:00 Broccoli City Returns For 2022
2:30 The Optics Of Bringing Back Broccoli City After Two Years Of Cancellation
7:40 Artists Charging More For One-Off Festival Than Tour Event
10:57 Managing Egos When Creating Festival Flyers
13:41 Changing Nature Of Agents With Talents
18:05 Broccoli City’s Biggest Advantage Over Other Festivals
23:17 Measuring Success For The Festival
25:31 Anticipating Whether An Event Will Succeed Or Won’t
27:38 How Loyal Are Customers To Certain Festivals?
29:37 Ongoing Challenges Of Being Black Execs In Music Festival Scene
32:23 Influence Of The Live Nation Partnership
36:25 Lining Up The Festival With BLK Change Weekend
40:50 What’s In Store For The 2022 Event?

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