Change Is Good! A Broccoli City Festival Experience

Most notably, Broccoli City switched up their venue and event date after previous years at the now defunct RFK Stadium and unlucky bouts of inclement weather during their scheduled festival weekend. In 2022, my friends and I made a pit stop at Target for jackets and raincoats just to survive the weekend.

In 2023, Broccoli City went viral for a video of Coco Jones performing her song “Double Back”, a flip of SWV’s song “Rain” while it showered. A magical feeling in the moment, but short-lived as the rain continued to pour, soaking the crowd.

But this year, moving to the Audi Field Stadium was a great choice for the festival. It took a few flights of stairs and a reminder that we all can’t have Megan’s knees to access an elevated VIP experience, including reserved seating, a lounge with built-in restrooms (no port-a-potty, yay!), a food bar, a patio overlooking the secondary City Stage with a backdrop of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge and the Anacostia river and an exclusive Converse activation with a free pair of Chucks to customize. And a big plus - there were areas to take cover under for everyone just in case the DMV sky changed its tune.

However, whether you were looking to be up close and traditional with the Field Access General Admission or sitting pretty in the newly reserved seating options - every ticket granted you a gorgeous view of the open-air field and the main stage. It was a bummer that it was harder for different ticket holders to interact with each other within the stadium due to access restrictions, whereas at most music festivals, paths cross, and new friends are found no matter how you buy in.

As expected with settling into a new space and setup, Broccoli City did experience some growing pains with setbacks and technical difficulties with an upset Kaytranada exploding into back-to-back hit songs after being informed midway through his groovy set that his time had been cut short due to a large delay earlier in the day and a looming Sunday sound ordinance to abide by.

After the Grammy award-winning producer & DJ delivered what the people came for, he exited the stage with a few more biting comments to the BC staff. There were also additional complaints from attendees scattered across social media comment sections of subpar sound and mic issues, especially during the headliner sets.

In previous years, Broccoli City stretched the time between sets with great activations and space to spread out before reconvening at the stage. With this new format, in-between activities were significantly reduced, which left attendees sometimes twiddling their thumbs between performance sets.

Even so, with 10 years of operation, Broccoli City is developing into a standout experience in the Live Nation Urban-powered rotation of city festivals that include Atlanta’s One Music Fest and its sister festival, the freshly minted Twogetherland in Dallas.

Overall, don’t sleep - attending Broccoli City is definitely a summer trip worth getting out the group chat.

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