Dreamland Festival
Greenwood & Archer
November 8-10, 2024
With this year’s Dreamland Festival, Tulsa was again spoiled with the biggest hip-hop festival in the Southwest, with artists and attendees traveling from around the country to attend. Now in its ninth year, the festival delivered on the expectation that this edition would be bigger than the last, adding big-name performers, food and merchandise to its consistently stacked music lineup. On the historic intersection of Greenwood and Archer, vendors lined the streets, showcasing Black Wall Street’s signature entrepreneurship.
But in year nine, Dreamland didn’t just have to be bigger—it had to be more. Organizer Steph Simon gave one word to define that “more”: “partnerships.” That focus on giving space to local platforms upped the game at this Dreamland, making the festival feel like a Summer Jam or a SXSW, with panel discussions and multi-venue community activations that celebrated hip-hop through art, music and film. Simon proved to be the busiest in attendance; his phone rang while he was on stage in one of the panel discussions.
In the first of those partnerships, Tulsa FMAC and the Dreamland film program (named for the historic Williams Dreamland Theatre of Black Wall Street) hosted a Friday night kickoff party complete with a screening of the Luther Vandross documentary Never Too Much. On Saturday afternoon, musical incubator programs Raps 101 and TMC Records took the festival stage, showcasing their best acts to share what these youth-focused curriculums are all about.
Around the corner, Silhouette Sneakers & Art served as a stage for artists who participated in the Groundwaves open mic and mentorship program earlier this year, as well as several from Tempo & Tea, a platform that has created its own community at the Mi Tea Lounge through R&B and soul open mic events. The project “dj noname. & friends” closed out the Silhouette program with a unique set that amplified the immense catalog of work this rapper and producer has created with some of the best artists in Tulsa. Standing in the background like Nick Fury assembling his team of superheroes, he manned the turntables as the group took turns on stage like the Avengers fighting Thanos.
Saturday night brought more acts to the main stage, including Arlington, Texas’s Southside Vic, who first rose to fame as an early Vine influencer. He’s now transitioned to rap, where he’s most recently gone viral for his “On The Radar” freestyle performance. His physical, dynamic performance style was as much an act as the music itself; as he performed, his hands writhed and contorted, as if he was sculpting the words from his mouth to reality.
The final act of the night was Simon himself. While many years he’s taken the backseat and let others shine, this festival saw him stepping into his greatness, not dimming his light. True to form, Simon brought artists Branjae, Parris Chariz, Keeng Cut and Dialtone on stage to perform with him. It was only right that Simon ended the festival with his single “Dreamland.” In the crowd during his performance, fan Kieran Ja’Ron’s animated movements were like a praise dance to every lyric.
Year nine of the Dreamland Festival was more, and it was the partnerships that helped. There was music; there was art; there was the big festival feeling. For Simon, it was the culmination of months of planning and rehearsals (and let's not forget the phone calls). Not only did he dream big, but he continues to dream bigger. Even though he may be able to rest a little easier now that this year’s festival is over, the countdown to year ten has just started.
