Roots Picnic announces lineup, new venue for its 12th year

After more than a decade at Penn’s Landing, the annual Roots Picnic will move to greener pastures at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Fairmount Park on June 1, Roots bandleader Questlove announced on social media Tuesday.

“Yes! Literally GREENER PASTURES,” he wrote in an Instagram post. “Finally we have GRASS to have a real picnic!”

The Roots will headline with a performance of their 1999 album, Things Fall Apart, in honor of their 20th anniversary, and the festival will feature performances by artists including 21 Savage, Davido, Raphael Saddiq, and Ari Lennox. Hip-hop legend Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) will perform as part of a live mixtape featuring Roots emcee Black Thought.

In addition to musical performances, the festival will feature gaming, art, and podcasts, including “The Read,” “The Joe Budden,” and “Questlove Supreme.”

Tickets go on sale at noon Friday via the Roots Picnic website, and start at $69.50 with early-bird pricing. Prices will rise to as much as $89.50 as the festival date approaches.

With any luck, fans will have better weather than they had at last year’s picnic at Penn’s Landing, which ended early due to bad weather. At the time, Questlove apologized on Twitter, noting that “I’d like to think [of] myself as a renegade rebel but lightning says nope.”

“All we ever wanted to do was to give our hometown the dopest festival ever,” he wrote Tuesday on Instagram. “Now it’s time to rise up.”