Roots Picnic 2026 set times are out. Here’s when every artist performs.
Jay-Z with the Roots and Erykah Badu are the headliners in the fest's first year at Belmont Plateau.
The set time for this weekend’s Roots Picnic have been released.
This year, the two-day music festival presented by the Philadelphia hip-hop band, led by rapper Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter and drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, is being staged at Belmont Plateau in Fairmount Park for the first time after spending recent years at the nearby campus of the Mann Center.
The Picnic will be bigger than ever this year, with the gated festival site big enough to hold 40,000 attendees each day — 10,000 more than peak capacity at the Mann. The city has announced various road closures in the area around the festival, including the Montgomery Ave. exit nearby the festival grounds.
Crowds will undoubtedly be larger on Saturday, when Jaÿ-Z — the rapper and entertainment mogul who now takes an umlaut over his ÿ — headlines, with the Roots as his backing band.
» READ MORE: Erykah Badu will join Jaÿ-Z as a headliner at the Roots Picnic
It’s his first festival appearance of any kind since 2019, and he only has two tour stops on his calendar for 2026: the Picnic on Saturday and three nights at Yankee Stadium in July.
Brandy, De La Soul, Jermaine Dupri & Friends, Bilal, Joy Oladokun, Jaydon, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and Beano French also perform on Saturday. There will also be a 50 Years of Go-Go celebration, spotlighting the Washington, D.C. style of percussive funk.
Music will be heard on three stages each day, with the biggest names on the AT&T Stage, the secondary Plateau Stage, and smaller Music Den.
On Sunday night, Erykah Badu is the big stage headliner. Other attractions include DJ Jazzy Jeff, T.I., Kehlani, Corinne Bailey Rae, DJ Jazzy Jeff again, Adam Blackstone’s celebration of the Waiting To Exhale soundtrack, Mariah the Scientist, DJ Cash Money and the J. Period Mixtape. The latter, which is always a highlight of the festival, will features Black Thought sharing the stage with D.C. emcee Wale.
Doors open at 1 p.m. both days. More info is available at rootspicnic.com.
