Roots Picnic will ‘shine a light’ on nearly 50 ‘superstar’ food vendors for 2025

Since its launch in 2008, Philadelphia’s homegrown Roots Picnic has showcased music and culture. This year’s two-day outing at the Mann Center in Fairmount Park on May 31 and June 1 — headlined by neoclassical soul man D’Angelo performing with The Roots, Lenny Kravitz, and rapper Meek Mill — will give star billing to nearly 40 Philadelphia-area food businesses. Many of them are newcomers and Black-owned.

The Roots and Live Nation Urban, the organizers, have not only expanded the food lineup for the estimated 30,000 people who will attend each day — they will use their vast social-media channels, including YouTube and TikTok, to promote the vendors to boost their profiles.

“It’s almost like a secret society when it comes to the vendors that are able to work at large events,” said Shawn Gee, Live Urban Nation’s president and a native Philadelphian. “You see the same vendors. Our goal has been to identify small businesses that have an interest and the ability to come and work at the Picnic. Just as the music is intentional, what we’ve also been intentional about is our food vendors.”

Among the vendors will be Amina, Darryl Harmon and Felicia Wilson’s restaurant (which moves from Old City to Northern Liberties this week), Saudia Shuler’s soul food staple Country Cookin, and V’Esther Goode’s Boomer’s Kitchen & Catering.

Pretty Girls Cook, the North Philadelphia restaurant owned by Dominique Shields, got the nod as well. “Last year, I was backstage as a caterer, and this year I’m front and center as a vendor,” Shields told The Inquirer. She still has to select her menu.

“To be recognized by such a culturally iconic event right here in our city means everything to us,” said Kevin Dolce of Taste Cheesesteak Bar, who called the Picnic “a celebration of Philly, of Black excellence, and of the food that brings us all together.” Taste will serve cheesesteaks and fries.

Also on the roster will be Black Dragon Takeout in West Philadelphia. Chef-owner Kurt Evans said he planned to offer his Roscoe’s chicken, sweet potato shrimp, and collard green egg rolls.

Gee said the idea to showcase the chefs came during planning sessions. “Questlove has said to me that chefs and culinary entrepreneurs are creatives,” Gee said. “He calls them the new rock stars. We have some great names on the artists’ lineup, but we wanted to shine a light on some of these vendors — some that have been with us and grown with us over the years and some that are relatively new but we want to treat them like the creative superstars that they are.”

Live Nation Urban’s Taalib Din and Brandon Pankey, whom Gee called “foodies truly active in the Philadelphia food scene,” assembled the list of vendors, along with The Roots’ Black Thought and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson.

“It’s curated like an artist lineup is curated,” Gee said. Also on the list are Down North Pizza, Doro Bet, Shugar Shack, and Cluck & Gills.

The Picnic has brought in local vendors since its start in 2008. In a phone chat Wednesday, Gee mentioned Trent Middleton, who owns Lil Trent’s Grille near Temple University.

Years ago, their kids played basketball together. “I didn’t know he had a food truck, and he didn’t know I was in music,” Gee said. “We just were two dads in the gym and one day he came to me and said, ‘I have a food truck. Is it possible for me to vend it at Roots Picnic?’ We did and put them backstage. Everyone doesn’t know how to operate in a festival scenario. Just because you have a restaurant does not mean you know how to serve a constant line of 40 people for seven hours. We have a process of placement based off of experience.”

Ultimately, Middleton moved out to the busy general admissions area, and eventually grew to work at other festivals that Live Nation hosts.

“The vision is for this to really become a multiplatform, multipronged festival where the food becomes just as important as the music,” Gee said.