For hip-hop heads, Christmas is coming early this year in the form of Rolling Loud, Miami’s annual hip-hop centric music festival that has taken a major leap into the big leagues for 2017. From May 5-7, some of rap’s biggest names will grace the stage at Bayfront Park, performing for a crowd of more than 40,000 concert-goers.
Let’s start with the line-up, in what’s perhaps one of the most impressive assortment of hip-hop artists in one place at one time. For the big names, we’ve got Kendrick Lamar, Future, Lil Wayne, A$AP Rocky, Travis Scott, Young Thug, Mac Miller, Post Malone, Lil Uzi Vert, Migos, 21 Savage, Lil Yachty and others.
In addition to these superstars, however, there’s also a fair amount of local South Florida talent being represented, with artists like Denzel Curry, Wifisfuneral and XXXTentacion all set to make appearances. Lastly, there are an unfortunate handful of artists who were set to perform, but are unable to due to legal problems, such as Kodak Black and Kevin Gates. At this point, all three-day-passes (the only ticket option for the event) are sold out, but if you grabbed your tickets ahead of time and are heading out to Rolling Loud, there are a few things you should know.
The festival is outdoors of course, and it will feature two stages to host the artists. There will be plenty of different food and drink options on-site, so make sure not to bring any outside bottles or other containers with you, as they’re prohibited. While the exact schedule for the different sets has not yet been released, the times that the gates will open and close will be 4 p.m. to midnight on Friday, noon to midnight on Saturday and noon to 11 p.m. on Sunday.
While 2016’s Rolling Loud at Mana Wynwood was one for the books with headliners such as Lil B, Curren$y and Robb Bank$, 2017 is an all-around upgrade. Now sharing a location with Ultra and boasting some of the true kings of hip-hop today, Rolling Loud is undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with – both among the hip-hop community and the U.S. festival circuit as a whole.