Beginning Friday (July 23), Rolling Loud 2021 will be underway after temporarily closing its doors last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The three-day festival returns to Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium with mega performances by Post Malone, A$AP Rocky, Travis Scott, Roddy Ricch, Lil Baby, Megan Thee Stallion, DaBaby, and Lil Uzi Vert. After previewing his 10th studio album, DONDA, in Atlanta Thursday (July 22), Kanye West will also be on the bill.
For music lovers, this will serve as the first festival post-pandemic, and may help determine the outlook for upcoming events based on this weekend’s showing. Things already went awry Thursday when a giant stage screen collapsed at the stadium; there were no injuries. The festival organizers said they were fixing the screen and that the process wouldn’t affect or delay Friday’s performances.
To kick off Rolling Loud’s return, co-founders Matt Zingler and Tariq Cherif have provided five things — in their own words — that fans can look forward to this weekend.
1. First to Hear New Music Performed Live
We’re the first major festival to host a show in 16 months, so fans can be the first to hear everyone who hasn’t been able to perform in so long. To get the chance to listen to your favorite songs that came out in 2020-2021 in a live setting for the first time is going to be insane.
2. First WWE Smackdown at a Music Festival
Fans get to see the first ever WWE Smackdown event to take place onstage at a music festival. It’s gonna be nuts. Yes, they’re going to construct a wrestling ring and host two wrestling matches in between sets Friday night. There’s also an exclusive merch capsule we’re dropping to celebrate this moment.
3. High-End Food
For VIP guests, we partnered with Nobu to provide an exclusive menu.
4. Access to Great Merch
We’re known as being the gold standard for merch, and this year is no different. This year, we have collaborations with Revenge, WWE, and more. Our fans love our cut-and-sew collection, which we also expanded. Also, Bunny’s merch collection is debuting at our Bae Bar. She’s throwing a meet-and-greet with Lil Yachty.
5. Upgraded Amenities and Opportunities
The overall site experience has been super upgraded with amenities such as the biggest traveling Ferris wheel, the biggest main stage, awesome activations, skatepark, basketball court, cereal bar, mega drop, and many more cool experiential opportunities that bring hip-hop’s Disney World to life.
