As the sun sets in Southeast D.C., it’s almost impossible to ignore the electricity in the air as attendees pour into the Gateway Pavilion for the Dear Summer Festival. Still in the midst of a rise unlike any other, the festival is quietly becoming one of the fastest-growing music events in the nation. Similar to how Coachella has grown into the mecca for music lovers and the Essence Fest has become a celebration of Black excellence, this festival is developing itself as a pillar for the young Black experience, drawing thousands of annual attendees for a unique “summer homecoming.”
On paper, the festival was founded and run by the Silent Majority collective; in actuality, Dear Summer originates as the “Love Day” BBQ started by a group of seven HBCU students passionate about camaraderie and community. “It’s from the bonds that we built in college,” co-founder Shareef Moore says. “We all went to HBCUs and we’ve been able to tap into our market of encircling friends and friends of friends.”
Before the desire to expand came to take Dear Summer to the stage, the event was created in a backyard, an effort for the circle of Virginia State and Delaware State alumni to stay connected. The event’s conception derives from the collective moving the BBQ to Harlem’s Morningside Park, where they began noticing the crowds were reaching capacity. Fast forward to today, the group of friends turned entrepreneurs are growing the festival and attracting one city at a time.
This year’s D.C. edition was a clear sign of that growth, with thousands filling the Gateway Pavilion to see an impressive lineup headlined by Southern rap legend Boosie. Where most festivals traditionally keep their event tied to one town, Dear Summer is carving out its lane by taking the festival on tour, bringing the party directly to supporters in multiple cities throughout the year. Whenever they bring the festival to a town, they use it as a chance to cement their presence within the community even more through charitable donations and events.
If you’re attending the festival, you’re likely to catch one of them mingling around in the crowd and repping custom jerseys paying homage to that stop, as they are as tuned in to their attendees as they are to the production. One of the main things they credit their success and growth to is their commitment to collecting fan feedback, whether in person or through post-festival surveys. As co-founder Philip Taylor explains, “[The team] is very hands-on… We walk the crowds to talk to the people. We also respond to everyone on social media. So then we see the person from social media come to the festival and engage them. They really appreciate it because it’s like, ‘You guys aren’t just a business… you guys really care about my experience.’ And that’s what keeps people coming back.”
It’s this type of accountability that has gotten them this far—not just with handling the crowd, but even amongst themselves as they build a business as friends. As they are no strangers to the difficulties that come with combining business and friendship, it’s the mutual honesty they maintain within their circle that makes it look easy.
After seeing this year’s success, the team looks to the future enthusiastically, maintaining their focus on expansion. That means creating more partnerships, adding more cities like Miami next year, and even considering taking Dear Summer and the HBCU culture that inspired it to another country. For now, the team is keeping themselves ahead of the game as their next “festival tour” stop is in a city they just added this year: Houston.
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