The Roots apologized to fans for the delayed opening of Saturday’s (May 31) first day of their 2025 Roots Picnic festival. According to Philadelphia magazine, fans complained that they waited hours in very long lines to enter the fest on its first day.
Roots drummer Questlove responded to the complaints in an Instagram post featuring footage of front loaders pushing around wood chips to cover of giant muddy patches on the site at the Mann Center in Philly’s Fairmount Park. “I know today wasn’t ‘ideal’ for The Roots Picnic in this 18th year of 2025. (This year has been particularly challenging to say the least),” he wrote. “Transforming the Mann Center into our event takes about two weeks, but as many of you experienced, heavy rain from May 30th into the morning of the 31st caused significant damage (midnight to 7am). We nearly canceled The Picnic because conditions were unsafe for everyone involved.”
CBS reported that “throughout the afternoon and evening, the festival’s social media pages were flooded with comments from people saying they waited in line for hours to get inside on Day 1.” The Philadelphia Inquirer said that hours after gates were slated to open fans started chanting “Let us in!,” with the line not moving until after 3:30 p.m. as frustrated attendees vented their anger in comments on the event’s official Insta.
“Definitely need a refund! After waiting in 3 hours in the line, I have very little trust in today’s process. Yesterday was UNACCEPTABLE,” wrote one, with another adding, “If the event is rain or shine, y’all should be prepared for rain or shine. We knew about the weather all week and we prepared for that. What happened in those entry lines yesterday was not safe.”
Quest explained that instead of cancelling the festival — whose roster this year included Meek Mill, Lenny Kravitz, GloRilla, Miguel, Tems, Latto, Kaytranada and Jeezy — the group decided to take extra time to repair the site to make it safe for attendees, which he said caused a three-hour delay in opening doors. “We prioritized caution above all else,” he wrote. “After working hard to improve the site—factoring in the challenge of finding mulch to absorb excess water — we managed to revise the schedule so that all artists, including headliners Maxwell (whom we ALL owe an incredible amount of gratitude for doing us a solid with seconds on the clock) and Latto, could perform without violating city noise curfews.”
In the note Quest said he was writing at 3 a.m. Sunday morning, said he personally worked with promoter Live Nation to work out the kinks caused by the rain. “I wanna thank you for your understanding and patience through this adversity,” he added. “This year has shown our ability to adapt and overcome challenges, much like we did in past years. Tomorrow is a new day, and I’m excited to revisit the Do You Want More LP on the Mann stage.”
The official Roots Picnic Instagram also featured an update and apology for the delays in a message that read: “We would like to say sorry. As we shared yesterday, the rain over the last 48 hours made the grounds unsafe. In an abundance of caution, we had to delay doors opening, resulting in the lines to get into the festival. Please understand safety will always be our number 1 priority.”
Organizers said they worked hard to make sure every artist still got their stage time, extending the hours of the festival do that everyone could perform without violating city curfews. They also promised to “do better” on Sunday (June 1), noting that there was no rain in the forecast and that they had made changes to improve the entry process and communication with fans.
Day two appeared to go off with less hitches, with the official Roots Picnic posting footage of sets by Crystal Waters, the Clipse, CeeLo Green, The Roots, Kravitz, Kaytranada and Meek Mill.
See the message from the Picnic below.
